If you have passed your CCIE Lab exam and used any of IPexpert’s training products including Self-study Material, Video on Demand, Audio on Demand, Rack Rental, or even one of our free vLecture’s and you don’t see your name on the list we want to hear from you! It doesn’t matter if you purchased the material from us or borrowed it from a friend just let us know what you thought about the material be visiting http://www.ipexpert.com/products/review or email CCIE@ipexpert.com with your Name and CCIE# and we will send you a free shirt seen below that will have your name and CCIE# in the list of Top Guns!

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Join IPexpert’s Live Online CCIE R&S 4.0 Written Exam and Lab Fundamental Bootcamp delivered by renowned Cisco Instructor and Cisco Press author, Anthony Sequeira. This one-of-a-kind bootcamp takes you beyond passing your CCIE Written Exam and into the Lab Fundamentals needed to be successful in passing the CCIE R&S Lab. Enjoy 2 months of interactive, live, online sessions with highly respected CCIE Instructors. All courses will be recorded and can be viewed on iPad/iPhone at later dates, as many times as needed.

With Special Guest Instructors:

• Marko Milivojevic  CCIE #18427 (R&S, SP)
• Vikram Malhi CCIE #13890 (Voice)
• Scott Morris CCIE #4713 (R&S, ISP-Dial, Security,SP)
• Narbik Kocharians CCSI, CCIE #12410 (R&S, Security, SP)
• And More…

Introducing the CCIE R&S Lab Fundamentals and Written Exam Bootcamp!

Materials Provided:

• Slide PDF workbook for note taking and review
• Full practice exam delivered during Final Exam Week
• 24 x 7 access to all recorded class sessions

Mentoring:

• 30 minute one-on-one call with instructor; scheduled during the two month event; additional one-on-one’s available as needed
• 24 x 7 one-on-one email access Private Facebook group
• Facebook and/or Skype chat access with class instructor

Schedule

NOTE: All sessions include Troubleshooting for the respective technology covered in that class.

• Tuesday, November 1, 2011: Topic: Implement Layer 2 Technologies
• Thursday, November 3, 2011: Topic: Implement Layer 2 Technologies
• Tuesday, November 8, 2011: Topic: Implement IPv4
• Thursday, November 10, 2011: Topic: Implement IPv4
• Tuesday, November 29, 2011: Topic: Implement IPv6
• Thursday, December 1, 2011: Topic: Implement MPLS Layer 3 VPNs
• Tuesday, December 6, 2011: Topic: Implement IP Multicast
• Thursday, December 8, 2011: Topic: Implement Network Security
• Tuesday, December 13, 2011: Topic: Implement Network Services
• Thursday, December 15, 2011: Topic: Implement Quality of Service
• Tuesday, December 20, 2011: Topic: Optimize the Network
• Tuesday, December 20, 2011: Topic: Final Exam Week

*All classes are scheduled for 8:00 – 10:00 PM EST.

Class Begins November 1st, 2011

Register Today at a Price You Can Afford $349

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• Initial set up of a Cisco Unified Communications Manager cluster
• CUCM redundancy designs
• Requirements for CUCM use of SHCP, TFTP, DNS, and NTP
• Determine necessary services to support CUCM deployment
• Describe and configure CUCM to support on-cluster calling
• Configure a CUCM group
• Configure CUCM profiles and device pools
• Configure CUCM templates
• Auto-Registered Phones Support functionality
• Describe and configure route plan for CUCM to support off-net calling
• Configure route patterns
• Configure Route lists and route groups
• Implement toll-fraud prevention
• Describe and configure CUCM media resources
• Configure music on hold
• Configure Cisco Unified Mobility

Matt Just – IPexpert, Inc.

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Maximize your study time by renting Proctor Labs’ online vRacks. IPexpert and Proctor Labs have teamed up to provide CCIE candidates from around the world the best training products, courses and state-of-the-art online CCIE vRack access. Proctor Labs provides world-class support and an unmatched interface to make your hours of CCIE Lab Preparation efforts more efficient and effective. This partnership has made IPexpert and Proctor Labs second to none in the CCIE training field.

This weekend only Save 50% on your vRack Rental Purchase. Use Promo Code VRACKBOGO

Buy CCIE Rack Sessions Now!

• CCIE R&S Rack Rental
• CCIE Voice Rack Rental
• CCIE Security Racks Rental
• CCIE Wireless Rack Rental

Note

• This Promotion ends on October 24th at 8.00 AM EST
• Coupon Code is Valid for ONLY 10 or more CCIE Rack Session purchases.
• Purchase must be done online.
• Promotion not to be combined with other offers. Valid for new purchases only.
• vRacks will be issued to your Account on Monday Morning.

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IPexpert’s Video On Demand training products will change the way clients study. These products are offered in a variety of convenient study methods and are complete with the most current and relevant information. IPexpert updates all material continually to ensure clients get the most up-to-date information possible.

CCNP Wireless Video on Demand Course (CUWSS, IUWVN, IUWMS, IAUWS) material contains detailed lecture topics on advanced networking technologies. These expert level Video on Demand courses assist network professionals in developing skills to plan, operate and troubleshoot complex network infrastructures. We currently offer the CCIE Lab Video on Demand in the CCIE R&S, Security, Wireless and Routing and Switching Track. With over 1,800 successful CCIE’s we are confident that you will be satisfied with our comprehensive video training solution.

Below, you will find the topics, technologies and protocols that are currently included in IPexpert’s CCNP Wireless Video on Demand series. We’re quite confident that you won’t find a more thorough, up-to-date product on the market!

CCNP CUWSS Video on Demand (642-731) is an information-rich, concise video training containing detailed questions and solutions on topics seen on the Conducting Cisco Unified Wireless Site Survey exam. With hours of detailed lecture by IPexpert’s industry recognized Instructors, CCNP Wireless candidates will be confident in a CUWSS exam attempt. Enjoy this comprehensive video training solution from the comfort of your own home.

CCNP IUWVN Video on Demand (642-741) consists of detailed lecture on topics such as call setup and data flow, SCCP and SIP, cell separations and more. IPexpert’s CCNP IUWVN Video on Demand course offers CCNP Wireless candidates the “how to” in integrating VoWLAN services into the WLAN and is frequently reviewed to ensure that it is up to date and meets the latest topics tested on the CCNP exam.

CCNP IUWMS Video on Demand (642-746) allows CCNP Wireless candidates to study complex technologies found on the CCNP Wireless exam from the comfort of their home. This VOD contains detailed lecture on integrating mobility services into the WLAN. All CCNP Wireless Video on Demand courses are kept up to date to the current exam blueprints. CCNP Wireless candidates will develop the knowledge and skills to allow them to confidently take and pass the CCNP IUWMS exam.

CCNP IAUWS Video on Demand (642-736) contains detailed lecture on topics on securing wireless networks from security threats. VOD topics include configuring the CSSC, understanding the architectures, as well as configuring the WLC for NAC. We are confident that you won’t find a more thorough Video on Demand Course on the market. CCNP Wireless candidates will develop the knowledge and skills to allow them to confidently take and pass the CCNP IAUWS exam.

Matt Just – IPexpert, Inc.

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For almost 11 years I’ve been running IPexpert (and the other affiliated companies) – and have been heavily involved in the CCIE arena globally the entire time (mostly behind the scenes). I’ve decided to begin a blog series (probably a blog every other week) where I will discuss industry news, trends, statistics, history and where I think the market for CCIEs is going. I view this market differently than most of you – because I’m a CCIE (#5244 – with my re-cert coming up soon!), I’m a former Cisco SE, I’m published but now I’m an entrepreneur who is also looking at various trends which are more focused on the business aspect of the CCIE community – and not just the technical aspect (That’s why I have geniuses like Vik, Tyson, Marko, Jason, Matt and Anthony – and many more helping me out from the technical perspective! ;-). I have a list of topics, and I’m actively getting requests from various friends on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (although I don’t use Twitter that often), but I’d love to get some more ideas from the great group of CCIEs or CCIE-soon-to-be engineers out there following our blog! Please reply back to this blog – or to me directly through FB or LI and I’ll work on trying to fit in your requested topic. Thanks, and have a great weekend!

Regards, – Wayne

Wayne A. Lawson II – CCIE #5244
Founder / CEO / President of IPexpert, Proctor Labs, & Platinum
wlawson@ipexpert.com
+1.810.326.1444 ext. 101
www.IPexpert.com
www.PlatinumPlacementServices.com
www.ProctorLabs.com

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PhoneView is the hottest IP telephone remote control and estate management tool on the market today. Currently managing CISCO sites of up to 30,000 phones and proven in global enterprise environments, it is a vital tool for IP telephony management functions, professionals and students.

This special lab edition of the PhoneView application is specifically designed for (but not restricted to) students preparing for the CCIE Voice lab exam.

Candidates studying for the CCIE Voice that do not own their own hardware have historically used Proctor Labs rack rental sessions to gain the hands-on experience necessary to adequately prepare for the grueling CCIE Voice lab exam.

More than 500 engineers who have cleared the CCIE Voice exam have prepared in this way with Proctor Labs.

Typically candidates use physical phones that connect to the remote racks via EzVPN through a supported router. The PhoneView application will enhance the end user experience since the Cisco 7962 and 7960 phones that are located in the Proctor Labs racks can be remotely controlled via the PhoneView application. This can either reduce (or potentially eliminate) the need for customers to invest in the out of date 79XX phones that are required to study for the lab.

A single instance of PhoneView software can be used to manage multiple phones connected to multiple clusters. Multiple instances of software and/or multiple windows/tabs are not necessary each time one wishes to remotely manage a new device. This makes the PhoneView software much more scalable and usable to solve real world problems. Proctor Labs customers will be able to see all of their CUCM and CUCME devices (both SIP and SCCP also applicable for SRST) in a single window. Currently users are not able to hear the audio when calling into applications such as Voicemail or Contact Center but this capability is just around the corner!

The ability to create macro’s to perform certain keystrokes is a great time saving tool and will make your testing of certain services / features much more efficient. For example the user can create a macro to enter the Received Calls Log of one of the 7962 phones housed in Proctor Labs, for example, to check for the globalized / + number). Therefore this can be done with one command as opposed to having to press directories, wait for refresh, scroll down to received calls, wait for refresh, select received calls and wait for another refresh.

The application can be used to control phones connected to all versions of CUCM including the most recent version (CUCM 8.5) as well as all versions of CUCME. PhoneView also supports all of the latest IP Phone models such as the 69xx, 89xx & 99xx range and is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

For a brief demo video on how you can use Phoneview in the Proctor Labs environment please click here: https://proctorlabs.com/swf/demo/PLDemo.html

To get your free full function lab copy of PhoneView go to:

http://www.unifiedfx.com/IPExpert

Vik Malhi – CCIE #13890
Managing Partner / Instructor – IPexpert, Inc.

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The biggest challenge for Mac and Linux users is selecting good terminal program to use. There are many choices, but they all share almost the same difficulty – lack of consistency in supporting “bookmarks”, or in some cases, even the basic lack of support for tabs.

With this in mind, we looked into what these platforms had in common and we found one thing. By default, they all support CLI access to terminal, regardless of which application is in use. Many power users are quite happy to use command line to access our rack rental anyway. Capitalizing on that and making that single task is the approach we took. Before I examine that in more detail, here is something very nice for our Mac users.

SecureCrt for Mac

SecureCRT beta is now available for download from the manufacturer, VanDyke. We tested our bookmark set with Mac version and it works flawlessly! Good job, VanDyke.

You can download SecureCRT bookmarks from here: ProctorLabs-SecureCRT.zip

IPexpert’s PodConnect

IPexpert’s approach to remote Pod access from Mac and Linux is quite simple. When you are in your CLI, simply type the command “PodConnect.pl r1″ and you will be connected to the R1 on the ProctorLabs pod you choose as default. If you specified your username and password, PodConnect will log you in. You are now ready to work. Take a look at the example session I use:

Mac ~> PodConnect.pl r2
Trying 74.126.20.111...
Won't send login name and/or authentication information.
Connected to pod111ts1.proctorlabs.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username: myusername
Password: 

            You are on line number: 2

R2#

That’s all I have to do. Regardless of the terminal emulator program I use, it will work. Here’s how you install it.

• Make sure you have Perl installed.
• Make sure you have Expect and Perl Expect module installed.
• Download the PodConnect.zip file.
• Unzip the file into the folder in your path. Personally, I use $HOME/bin for this
• Make the file executable: chmod 700 PodConnect.pl
• Try it out!

If you run PodConnect.pl, you will probably notice error message telling you that you need to specify the Pod. You can do that after the device name. For example, running “PodConnect.pl r1 111″, will connect you to the R1 on Pod #111. You can set the default pod by setting “PL_POD” environment variable.

Once you run the Pod, if environment variable PL_USERNAME and PL_PASSWORD are set, PodConnect.pl will attempt to automatically log you in using those credentials. If those variables are not set, you will need to log-in manually.

To make things even quicker, here are couple of tricks you can do. Add the following lines to your $HOME/.profile:

alias c="$HOME/bin/PodConnect.pl"
export PL_POD="111"
export PL_USERNAME="myusername"
export PL_PASSWORD="mypassword"

Next time you open the terminal, you should be able to connect to ProctorLabs devices in your pod by simply typing “c device”, like this:

Mac ~> c r2
Trying 74.126.20.111...
Won't send login name and/or authentication information.
Connected to pod111ts1.proctorlabs.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

Username: myusername
Password: 

            You are on line number: 2

R2#

NOTE: If you store your password in .profile, make sure the file is readable only by your user account. The best way to ensure this is to set permissions to 600 on it (chmod 600 ~/.profile).

Enjoy your studies!

–
Marko Milivojevic – CCIE #18427
Senior Technical Instructor – IPexpert
Join our Online Study List

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Please Note: In these example, we are using ProctorLabs Pod #111. Please, use Pod assigned to your session to try things out.

Using The Terminal Server

Picture 1 below shows the portion of your ProctorLabs user interface from which you can initiate connections to various devices.

On the top of the selection is the link called “Terminal Server”. Clicking on this link should open the the link using your operating systems’ Telnet URL handler and connect to ProctorLabs terminal server, allocated for your session. Take note here that Windows 7 doesn’t have Telnet installed by default. Quick search online should help you enable both Telnet client and Telnet URL handlers in Internet Explorer. The remainder of this text assumes that both work.

When you click on the Terminal Server link, you should see the connection open to the Terminal Server. Log in with your ProctorLabs username and password.

Connected to pod111ts1.proctorlabs.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username: username
Password: password

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#

You are now connected to Terminal Server. You can see devices connected to it by typing “show hosts”

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#show hosts
Default domain is not set
Name/address lookup uses static mappings

Host                      Port  Flags      Age Type   Address(es)
BB3                       2013  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
BB2                       2012  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R9                        2009  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R8                        2008  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R7                        2007  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R6                        2006  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R5                        2005  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R2                        2002  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
Cat4                      2016  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
Cat3                      2015  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
Cat2                      2014  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
Cat1                      2010  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
BB1                       2011  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R4                        2004  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1
R1                        2001  (perm, OK) **   IP    10.1.1.1

If we take the example of R1 above, we can see that you can connect to it by telnetting to port 2001. You can do so from the server, by just typing “R1″.

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#r1
Translating "r1"
Trying R1 (10.1.1.1, 2001)... Open

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username: username
Password: password

            You are on line number: 1

Router>

We are now connected to R1. We can configure it or do whatever we like. We can go back to the Terminal Server, by typing escape sequence <ctrl><shift> 6 followed by x. We are now back to terminal server, BUT – we are not yet disconnected from R1. Let’s connect to R2.

Router><ctrl><shift>6 x
PL-POD-111-TS-RS#r2
Translating "r2"
Trying R2 (10.1.1.1, 2002)... Open

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username: username
Password: password

            You are on line number: 2

Router#

Let’s go back to R1. Press the escape sequence to go back to terminal server. There, type “show sessions”.

Router#<ctrl><shift>6 x
PL-POD-111-TS-RS#show sessions
Conn Host                Address             Byte  Idle Conn Name
   1 r1                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r1
*  2 r2                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r2

We can see two active sessions. One is connected to R1 and the other one to R2. We can also see small “*” next to R2. If we just press <enter>, we will return to the active session – marked by a star! Note the session numbers just before host name. We can use that to resume some other session. If we want to resume our session to R1, we can type “resume 1″, or simply “1″. Give it a try.

If you wish to destroy the session, type “disconnect <num>” on the terminal server, to disconnect the session <num>. Let’s disconnect our session 1.

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#disconnect 1
Closing connection to r1 [confirm]
PL-POD-111-TS-RS#show sessions
Conn Host                Address             Byte  Idle Conn Name
*  2 r2                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r2

Session 1 is gone. It will come back when we connect to, say, R4:

PL-POD-111-TS-RS#r4
Translating "r4"
Trying R4 (10.1.1.1, 2004)... Open

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username:<ctrl><shift>6 x
PL-POD-111-TS-RS#show sessions
Conn Host                Address             Byte  Idle Conn Name
*  1 r4                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r4
   2 r2                  10.1.1.1               0     0 r2

Beware of this session number reuse, especially when time-pressed. You may want to open your devices in logical order and use them that way. If you decide to do so, it may be a wise idea to configure “exec-timeout” appropriately on destination hosts, otherwise your sessions may time out.

Once you get the hang of the idea, using Terminal Server is really quick and powerful way to access all your Proctor Labs devices.

However, some of use think there are more efficient ways. Read on for few suggestions.

Direct Sessions to Devices

Remember when we looked at Terminal Server and we connected to port 2001 for R1? You don’t have to connect to terminal server to open that session. You can telnet directly to port 2001 from your own computer, using any telnet client, or by clicking on the appropriate device from your ProctorLabs Web GUI! Let’s connect to R1 by clicking on it.

Connected to pod111ts1.proctorlabs.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

         ****PROCTOR LABS, INC. SECURE ONLINE RACK SYSTEM****
      WELCOME to Proctor Labs, Inc. CCIE preparation vRack.

    WARNING:  This system is for the use of authorized clients only.
          Unauthorized access is a violation of federal, state,
                        civil and criminal laws.

http://www.ProctorLabs.com

User Access Verification

Username: username
Password: password

            You are on line number: 1

Router>

We are now directly connected to R1! If you click on some other router or other device, you will be connected directly to it!

You should note that you cannot have more than one connection to the same device. In a case you are getting “Connection Refused” message, you need to telnet to Terminal Server and clear the existing session to the device you wish to connect to.

Using direct sessions to devices is an efficient method. Using built-in telnet client in Windows (and some other operating systems) on the other hand is not. Many of them lack features like increased scroll buffer, resizable windows, etc. For that reason, there are other clients that can be used instead. Here are some of the more popular ones.

SecureCRT (Windows)

SecureCRT is the terminal application available you in the CCIE lab. Newer versions of it support some options not available during the exam (for example, tabs), but those advanced features may prove to be useful during studies, when you are not trying to replicate the exact environment in the lab.

The most efficient way to use SecureCRT is to utilize its built-in bookmarks, called Connections. This system can be accessed by choosing File->Connect menu, or <alt>-c keyboard shortcut. Screenshot below is an example of bookmarks created for ProctorLabs Routing and Switching Pod 111.

Double-clicking on any of the bookmarked devices will open a new tab (or window) with the connection to the appropriate device. What’s nice with this approach is that the title bar of the window will be automatically set to the name of the device.

Of course, the most difficult and time consuming bit is actually building bookmarks. Well, I have special treat for you here. We’ve already done it for you – for all our pods in all our tracks, you can get them here: ProctorLabs-SecureCRT.

Installing IPexpert’s Bookmarks to SecureCRT

Now that you have the bookmarks, it’s time to install them. Please, follow this step-by-step procedure for an easy install.

1. Download the ProctorLabs-SecureCRT.zip above and save it to temporary folder
2. Open SecureCRT and find Options -> Global Options menu
3. Open the above menu and select General from the tree on the left. Copy “Configuration folder” path to clipboard. See picture below:



4. Close SecureCRT, find and open that folder in Windows Explorer. Go to subfolder called Sessions. If one does not exists, please create it.
5. Extract the contents of the ProctorLabs-SecureCRT.zip file into this folder. You should now have subfolder called ProctorLabs.
6. Start SecureCRT and select File->Connect.

You should have all of our bookmarks in your SecureCRT now!

Putty and Putty Connection Manager (Windows)

Putty is a free terminal application for Windows, which is proving to be very popular. By itself, it provides cumbersome bookmarks management, however, there is 3rd party add-on, called Putty Connection Manager. If you happen to be Putty user, look for this one online – you will be pleasantly surprised. To see it in action, just watch our Routing and Switching Video on Demand or a screenshot below.

Just as with SecureCRT, most of the work is to create bookmarks for your Pod. If you take a look at the screenshot above, you will notice that it shows many pods. Yes, you guessed it right! You can get database file here: ProctorLabs-PuttyCM.

Installing IPexpert’s Bookmarks to Putty Connection Manager

This operation is a little bit different than the one with SecureCRT. Especially so because there are two ways in which it can be done (CCIEs love alternative solutions, don’t we?). After you have downloaded the ProctorLabs-PuttyCM.zip file above, extract the contents to a temporary folder.

If you don’t already have any bookmarks in your Putty Connection Manager, you can copy the file to more permanent location and change extension from XML to DAT. Next, from File menu, select Open and navigate to your ProctorLabs-PuttyCM.dat file. When you open the database, make sure that Connection Manager option in View menu is enabled. You should now have nice ProctorLabs bookmarks tree on the right.

If you already use Putty Connection Manager, using another database may or may not be the thing you want. Another approach is to import the entries from XML. You can use the same file, but in order to import bookmarks, you need to have an open database. To initiate import process, go to Database menu, select Import and Export menu. Chose option to import and in the next step navigate to ProctorLabs-PuttyCM.xml file. When you have finished, your existing bookmarks should be updated with new ProctorLabs ones!

Whatever step you used, you can make the database as the default one to open every time you open Putty Connection Manager and you are all set.

But… what if you are using some other operating system, say, Mac or Linux? Stay tuned, that’s coming soon!

–
Marko Milivojevic – CCIE #18427
Senior Technical Instructor – IPexpert

Mailto: markom@ipexpert.com
Telephone: +1.810.326.1444
Fax: +1.810.454.0130

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UPDATE FOR ALL VPNs – PLEASE READ IF YOU USE Proctor Labs vRacks

Four things have been changed to give everyone a much better experience when renting Voice vRacks from Proctor Labs. I’ll list each of them briefly here, and then go into more detail on each one of them regarding what each enhancement means for you as well as what you need to do to take advantage of the new changes.

1. There is only ONE vpn group that is still functional.
2. You can now connect your VPN (Hardware or Software) over TCP port 80 or 443.
3. Network Extension Mode (NEM) is now supported for every Voice vRack.
4. ASA5505 Users VPN’s *should* now work.

Details:

1) There is only ONE vpn group that is still functional

Everyone that connects to Proctor Labs Voice vRacks and thus our VPNs, should by now, have downloaded the latest VPN configuration file (either hardware or software) from your Voice vRack VPN webpage. This is the page you come to after you login to ProctorLabs.com, and before you get to your actual vRack webpage (the page where you Load Lab Configs, Telnet to routers, Link to CUCM servers, etc).

This configuration file hasn’t changed for a long number of months now – but just to be sure – you might want to check it.

This does two things for our clients:

• Gives you a much simpler configuration. There is only 1 VPN configuration file that you will ever need to connect to our Voice vRacks – regardless of which Pod you are assigned from session to session.
• This gives every client of ours peace of mine that when they rent a vRack session from us, that they not only will they be guaranteed to connect to the correct Pod#, but there is no chance that someone else could possibly also connect to your pod and accidentally overwrite your configuration. We do this by checking each login UserID against the timeslot and pod# rented, and then place you dynamically in the proper VRF where traffic from another vRack Pod can never route to yours.

Most of you (99%) will still be able to connect to VPN just fine – as you always have. However, if for some reason you cannot connect to your VPN session, take 2 minutes to simply check the “VPN Group Authentication Name” in your Software client to make sure the name and password are exactly as follows (respectively):

vpodgroup

proctorvoice

For you hardware VPN users – I have provided the configuration below:

crypto ipsec client ezvpn IPx-Voice-vRack

group vpodgroup key proctorvoice

2) You can now connect your VPN (Hardware or Software) over TCP port 80 or 443.

Many people have reported not being able to connect their software or hardware client VPN to Proctor Labs. This most normally occurs due to a over-restrictive corporate or hotel firewall that stands in their way, not allowing UDP 500 or UDP 4500 to pass through.

We have fixed this issue from our side and have now allowed users with Software (or Hardware) VPN clients to “Tunnel” all traffic (both the IKE Phase 1 and the ESP Phase 2) over You can now connect to your Voice vRack VPN using TCP port 80 or TCP port 443 – either of these ports should allow you to connect with us.

For software VPN users, see somewhere about 3/4 of the way down on this page for a screenshot of “Tunneling” your VPN connection over TCP Port 80 or 443.

(This link shows TCP port 10001. Just change that to 80 or 443. Almost all firewalls allow web traffic – so unless they are doing DPI – you should connect).

http://tinyurl.com/VPN-Port-80-443

For hardware IOS VPN users, make the following change:

crypto ipsec client ezvpn IPx-Voice-vRack

ctcp port 80

3) Network Extension Mode (NEM) is now supported for every Voice vRack.

I have now enabled (and tested thoroughly today) NEM for those of you using hardware-based VPN to connect your hardware IP phones to our Proctor Labs Voice vRacks. This will not work with software based VPNs.

This means that none of your traffic will have to NAT or PAT any longer to reach us – and all of these issues with phones not registering correctly, or registering and then when a call is made – potentially unregistering the phone from the cluster.

For hardware VPN users, make the following change:

crypto ipsec client ezvpn IPx-Voice-vRack

mode network-extension

In order to use the Network Extension Mode, and also not to override any of the internal subnets for the Voice vRack Pod you are on, I have enabled a small set of subnets that you may use for your *inside* interface on your IOS Router or ASA.

They are:

192.168.X.0/24   Where X can equal any number 0 – 16.

so 192.168.0.0 , 192.168.1.0 , you get the picture.

Any other network on your inside – and we don’t redistribute it through the vRack (i.e. – No route back to you :)

If anyone “needs” any other networks – email support and let us know about them.

4) ASA5505 Users VPN’s *should* now work.

After having troubleshot people’s ASA 5505 connection problems multiple times – we always came back to the issue being a bug – since it was the ASA that was failing to PAT the traffic – since the ASA packet tracer would always tell us it was at that step that the ASA would drop the traffic. However with the previous announcement that NEM is supported, this means no more NATing/PATing! Thus it *should* work fine with NEM enabled. (Read the “NOTE ABOUT SUBNETS FOR INSIDE INTERFACES” above!)

We say *should* because we don’t have an ASA5505 to test out the client side with. (anyone care to donate one?)

Also – every hardware VPN user – PLEASE CHECK your config to make sure that this line is in there:

crypto ipsec client ezvpn IPx-Voice-vRack

connect manual

If you don’t have “connect manual” in there, then your router constantly tries to connect its VPN with us – but will always fail because its not always your time to rent a rack, and in effect, performs a sort of mild DoS on our router.

As soon as we notice that type of repetitive traffic over a long period of time (not one or two or three failures when you are testing) – we have no choice but to block your source IP.

So all together – hardware IOS VPN users should have this config:

crypto ipsec client ezvpn IPx-Voice-vRack

connect manual

ctcp port 80

group vpodgroup key proctorvoice

mode network-extension

peer 74.126.20.247

xauth userid mode interactive

So all together – hardware ASA5505 VPN users should have this config:

vpnclient enable

vpnclient ipsec-over-tcp port 80

vpnclient mode network-extension-mode

vpnclient server 74.126.20.247

vpnclient vpodgroup password proctorvoice

In the (slightly modified) words of Napolean Dynamite:

I hope your wildest [CCIE studying] dreams come true,

Mark Snow

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