Troubleshoot and resolve routing issues

Exam: Cisco 200-120 - Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices: Accelerated (CCNAX)

As a network administrator you will often face issues regarding routing. In this chapter under the section troubleshooting we will discuss about the routing issues that you may need to solve. Troubleshoot is basically some steps that the network administrators often follow to solve issues in a network. In this article we will discuss particularly about the routing issues.

Let us first understand what routing is well in networking terms routing is the process by which the best paths in a network are selected. Routing can be done on different types of networks that include telephone, internet and even transportation networks. Routing is a very common form of addressing in an internet. Cisco makes the best routers in the market and they are used by many across the world. Most of the time you will come across Cisco routers for sure as you work as a network administrator. No matter what router you are using the problems will be more or less the same. Some of the common problems that you will see in routing are:

1. The router is not configured correctly by the user or the router is not a user friendly one- If you come across a difficult router that you have not much idea about. Read the instructions well and go through the CD provided so that you can follow all the steps required to configure the router correctly. Each network is different and each will have different requirements so that setting must be changed accordingly. You must try to get the right combination that works best in your network. The Cisco routers come with a summary screen that gives all the information that is needed to set up the devices.
2. File sharing from the router is not working properly –most of the problems that arise regarding file sharing can be solved as you start using the USB drive attached to the router. These USB devices can help in creating backup that are simple and user friendly. These backups can be used in file sharing too. The share drive must be password protected. Try to ensure that you look at the simple problems and once satisfied move on to more complicated problems. When the files are being shared using the router the risks of information being stolen increases. This is exactly why an effective password protection must be in place.
3. Performing the firmware updates - the firmware is the first line of defence in a router. As a network administrator you must ensure that it is kept up to date and also maintained from time to time. The update of the firmware must be automatic. This will ensure that every time the downloading and the uploading of the files are not required. If you have the latest firmware in the system you can be rest assured that the systems are working effectively and you can be more relaxed.
4. Enabling the wireless access on a temporary basis- sometime the client may need a temporary wireless access that needs to be given to the other users in the network or the neighbours. This system requirement of the client can be a big problem for the network administrator to handle. It is not a good idea to give the visitor the password as you will have to immediately change it once the visitor leaves. The best solution in this case will be to give a temporary guest access to the visitor who is visiting the network. This will just give them an internet connection. This will ensure that the visitor cannot use the printers or the drives in the network. The Cisco routers have this special facility that can be given to the users.
5. Understanding who all are there in the wireless network–as a network administrator you must regularly check who all are using the router on a regular basis. If the default password of the router has not been changed in a long time this must be done more frequently. The web UIs of the router will always tell you who all are connected to the network at that time. There is a lot of wireless monitoring equipments that are available that can help you know who all have been using the router off late. Some of these monitoring equipments are called the Airmagnet. These are a little expensive and are often used by the corporate. A home router is not at a very high risk so they can as well not keep a track of the visitors but routers in hospitals, education institutes and other such large areas of operations must keep a track of the visitors. If you find any visitor who is regularly visiting and is not recognised you must take action to find out more about the visitor before it is too late. Network magic is again another too that can be used for finding out the visitors
6. Changing the DNS provider– If the DNS provider is not good the speed of the router will reduce and you will not get the performance that you want. However, if you are a network administrator in a large enterprise the DNS provider is a must. Always ensure that you have a good DNS provider as that will give you a better protection and a faster speed. If the provider is good it will automatically improve the performance of the router. You must ensure as you set the router that it will allow alternate DNS setting. This will ensure that in the future you can change the DNS if required. After you have changed the DNS you can use a Java tool to see how the new DNS is affecting the performance of the router. This will help you to make a better decision on which DNS to use.

We hope that this article was informative enough and it will allow you to prepare for the CCNA exam more effectively. The points that we have mentioned here are all that you need to know and prepare for from the CCNA exam point of view.

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