Introduction

Introduction
Packet Tracer is a cross-platform visual simulation tool designed by Cisco Systems that allows
users to create network topologies and imitate modern computer networks. The software allows
users to simulate the configuration of Cisco routers and switches using a simulated command
line interface. Packet Tracer is a free, extensible, and graphic network simulation platform
developed by Cisco. By simulating routers and switches, it demonstrates device deployment
scenarios and most importantly, it provides an opportunity to practice device configuration and
troubleshooting.
Fig 1: Cisco Packet tracer

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The components of the Packet Tracer interface are as follows:
Area 1: Menu bar – This is a common menu found in all software applications; it is used to open,
save, print, change preferences, and so on.
Area 2: Main toolbar – This bar provides shortcut icons to menu options that are commonly
accessed, such as open, save, zoom, undo, and redo, and on the right-hand side is an icon for
entering network information for the current network.
Area 3: Logical/Physical workspace tabs – These tabs allow you to toggle between
the Logical and Physical work areas.
Area 4: Workspace – This is the area where topologies are created and simulations are displayed.
Area 5: Common tools bar – This toolbar provides controls for manipulating topologies, such as
select, move layout, place note, delete, inspect, resize shape, and add simple/complex PDU.
Area 6: Realtime /Simulation tabs – These tabs are used to toggle between the real and
simulation modes. Buttons are also provided to control the time, and to capture the packets.
Area 7: Network component box – This component contains all of the network and end devices
available with Packet Tracer, and is further divided into two areas:
Area 7a: Device-type selection box – This area contains device categories
Area 7b: Device-specific selection box – When a device category is selected, this selection box
displays the different device models within that category
Area 8: User-created packet box – Users can create highly-customized packets to test their
topology from this area, and the results are displayed as a list.
Creating a P2P topology

Now that you're familiar with the GUI of Packet Tracer, you can create your first network topology by
carrying out the following steps:
 From the network component box, click on End Devices and drag-and-drop two Generic PC
icons into the Workspace.
 Click on Connections, then click on Copper Cross-Over, then on PC0, and select FastEthernet.
After this, click on PC1 and select FastEthernet. The link status LED should show up in green,
indicating that the link is up.
Fig : p2p connection

 Click on the PC, go to the Desktop tab, click on IP Configuration, and enter an IP address and
subnet mask. In this topology, the default gateway and DNS server information is not needed as
there are only two end devices in the network.
 Close the window, open the laptop, and assign an IP address to it in the same way. Make sure that
both of the IP addresses are in the same subnet.
 Close the IP Configuration box, open the command prompt, and ping the IP address of the device
at the end to check connectivity.
Pinging PC1 from PC0

Pinging PC1 from PC0
Add an Ethernet switch to this topology so that more than two end devices can be connected, by
performing the following steps:
 Click on Switches from the device-type selection box and insert any switch (except Switch-PT-
Empty) into the workspace.
 Remove the link between the PC and the PC using the delete tool from the common tools bar.
 Choose the Copper Straight-Through cable and connect the PC and laptop with the switch. At this
point, the link indicators on the switch are orange in color because the switch ports are
undergoing the listening and learning states of the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
 Once the link turns green, as shown in the previous screenshot, ping again to check the
connectivity.
To save this topology, navigate to File | Save As and choose a location. The topology will be saved with
a .pkt extension, with the devices in the same state.

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Fig 1: Cisco Packet tracer

Creating a P2P topology

Fig : p2p connection

Pinging PC1 from PC0

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