Creating Packet Tracer Exercises to Prepare for Cisco Certification

As you know, the CISCO company is known not only for its noble hardware, but also for its software emulator Packet Tracer. The emulator is really very good and allows you to get up to work with cool equipment, without departing, as they say, from the cash register.

On top of everything, Packet Tracer can serve as an excellent platform for instructors to conduct various tests, exams, etc. I would like to talk about the method of building the exam.

Continued under the cut - a lot of pictures.

So, creating an exercise, exam or other test work in Packet Tracer. First you need to create a finite network in the main window of the program - in the state in which the examiner should lead it. Of course, it is extremely important to double-check everything and make sure that the nodes of the network actually function as intended so as not to confuse the students. As an example, I created just such a network to train the ability to divide the network into subnets (subnetting) and determine the basic routing rules:
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Suppose that in this topology, students will be asked to split the network 172.30.0.0/16 into 4 subnets and answer a lot of related questions. On the topology itself, I added several text blocks explaining exactly which IP addresses from the subnets should be assigned to the end stations and interfaces of the routers.
The routers themselves are configured to the full program, including the main set of security measures, in the form of passwords to the console and network interfaces, etc. - this habit is worth developing in students from the very beginning.

When the topology is ready and tested in all directions, go to the Extensions menu and click the Activity Wizard. A window will immediately pop up, offering to use the topology we have constructed as the one to which the examinee will have to arrive at the end of the test.



We answer in the affirmative and get into the Activity Wizard window. The Welcome tab briefly describes the whole process of creating an exercise:



We go to the Initial network tab, in which we will create the initial topology, which will be seen by the examinee when he opens the file with the task. The initial topology may be empty, but in this case, I will leave everything as it is, just remove all the settings of addresses and routing rules. To do this, click on the button Copy from Answer Network:



Then you can block some ways to access the hardware configuration. This is what it is: in reality, routers can be initialized only with the help of a terminal program and a computer connected to the router via the console port (this can later be used to upload SDM, configure network connections and configure them through a browser or telnet.). Packet Tracer allows you to configure the router “for simple”, i.e. for example, just type in your hands the IP addresses in the settings window and everything. Like this:



In addition, in the same configuration window, you can access the router console as if it were the screen of a terminal program on a computer connected via the console port. This is done for obvious reasons - if students have already tried to connect to the equipment via the console, you do not need to force them to bathe with it every time - you can simply give them access to the console through the router configuration window in the Packet Tracer. Of course, at the initial stages this possibility should be blocked.

This is what we are going to do now. We block the settings of the network interfaces of the router through the graphic settings window. To do this, put down the necessary daws in the Locking Options tab:



In the Initial Network Setup tab in a similar way, you can write down which hardware configuration settings will already be present in the initial topology, and which ones will not. I leave everything empty, i.e. Examinees will have to make all the settings themselves:



Now you need to write instructions for the exercise. It would be superfluous to say that they should be written as briefly and as clearly as possible so that the examinees quickly understand what is required of them and do not waste time reading and trying to penetrate the meaning of what is written. In my case, the task looks like this:

Subnetting and default routing
In this exercise, you will practice:

• Split network into subnets
• Perform basic router configuration
• Configure default route

Stage 1 - Subnetting the network
Answer the following questions:

1. How many networks exist on topology?
2. What kind of subnet mask will fit this topology?

Use the 172.30.0.0/16 network for subnetting using the selected subnet mask.

1. LAN 1 must use the first subnet.
2. LAN 2 must use the second subnet.
3. LAN 3 must use the third subnet.
4. WAN 1 must use the fourth subnet.
5. Assign the first usable IP address in the corresponding subnet to all LAN interfaces of both routers.
6. Assign the first usable IP address of the WAN subnet to S1 / 0 of Router 2.
7. Assign the last usable IP address of the WAN subnet to S1 / 1 of Router 3.
8. Assign the third station usable IP address on the corresponding subnet to the PC1 end station.
9. Assign the last usable IP address of the corresponding subnet to the PC2 end station.
10. Assign the PC3 end station the third usable IP address in the corresponding subnet.
11. Assign the last usable IP address of the corresponding subnet to the PC4 end station.
12. Assign the last usable IP address of the corresponding subnet to the PC5 end station.

Stage 2 - Basic Router Configuration

1. Name the routers R2 and R3 according to the topology.
2. Set the class password on the console connection.
3. Set the cisco encrypted password to privileged access to the router.
4. Set a telnet password to the telnet connection.
5. All passwords must be encrypted.
6. Configure the F0 / 0, F1 / 0, and S1 / 0 interfaces for Router 2 according to the addresses you chose.
7. Configure the F1 / 0 and S1 / 1 interfaces for Router 3 according to the addresses you chose.
8. Configure a sync frequency of 4,000,000 bps on Router 2 and set the ppp protocol for serial interfaces on both routers.
9. Assign IP addresses to all endpoints according to the selected scheme.

Stage 3 - Verification

1. Ping from PC1 to PC2? Was the ping successful?
2. Ping from PC1 to PC3? Was the ping successful?
3. Ping from PC1 to PC5? Was the ping successful? What message did you receive? Explain why it was received?

Stage 4 - Routing

1. Configure static routing on Router 2. Try pinging PC1 to PC5 again? What message is received this time? What is the difference between this and past posts?
2. Configure static routing on Router 3. Try pinging PC1 to PC5 again? Was the ping successful?
3. Check that all endpoints of all networks are accessible from all other stations.

Good luck.

The text of the task should be formatted using HTML tags and entered into the Edit tab:



Preview tab in Preview as HTML:



Now it's time to determine how the system will evaluate the work of the examinee. We go to the tab Answer network and in the Assessment Tree tab we put down the daws in all the required configurations that should be made:



In the Settings tab you can set the time for which the exercise should be performed, for example, 1 hour 10 minutes:



Next, in the Password tab, you need to set a password to prevent unauthorized access to the exercise settings and click the Enable Password button.



At this stage, you can go to the tab Test Asctivity and check whether everything is normal. After checking, you can save the exercise file by clicking the Save button:



The resulting file can be distributed to students. At the end of the work, they can save it and forward it back to you for verification.

The exercise can be edited by opening it and going to the Activity Wizard from the Extensions menu, but this will require a password that you defined when creating the exercise.

I am enclosing an exercise file that I have now created with you. Password - cisco.

I wish you success.