Packet Tracer 3.2 Usage

Simulation Mode

Running the network:

In Simulation Mode, you can create and edit many network scenarios to test various situations using the same topology. You can create a new scenario by clicking the "New" button. The new scenario will be added to the pull down menu, and you may switch to any scenario by choosing it from the pull down menu. You may also delete a scenario by clicking the "Delete" button.

Unless information boxes are locked, you may record notes and descriptions about any scenario by pressing the information button next to the scenario name, then typing text into the pop-up text box.

In any scenario, you will have control of the scenario's Timeline. The timeline consists of individual "time frames" or time steps. Like individual frames in a movie, you can view the state of the network at any time frame. You can also edit the simulation at any time frame (time step). For example, you may create a packet from PC 0 to PC 1 at frame 1. Then at frame 3, while the packet is still in transmission, you may create another packet in the network, say from PC 0 to PC 2. The frame indicator (the red vertical line) in the Timeline indicates exactly which time frame you are currently at.

Adding Packets for Transmission

To add a new packet to the simulation, click on the Add Packet icon . A new packet will appear on the timeline, at the frame (time step) specified by the frame indicator. The new frame will appear below any previously existing frames in the simulation. At this point the packet is still waiting to be defined, as you must choose a source and destination device for the packet (only devices with IP address may be chosen). If Simple Mode is on, just click on a device to choose it as the source, then click on a second device to choose it as the destination. If Simple Mode is off, after you choose the source PC, a Create Packet/Frame dialog box will appear, in which you can manually specify the IP address of the destination device (and also the WAN address if you choose not to use ARP, which is the default). Also, you may specify the packet to be broadcast packet instead of choosing a destination device. Other options you may configure are the time-to-live (TTL), the IP protocol, and the corresponding segment configuration options. If the IP protocol is ICMP, you can specify the sequence number. If TCP or UDP are used, you may specify the source port and destination port numbers (or choose from the application drop down list). These options allow you test configurations such as NAT and access lists. After the packet is created, a colored packet icon will appear on the source device (white in this case).

Note that each device is only capable of sending 1 packet per time frame (time step). However, you can always add a packet to be sent from the same device at the next time frame (or any other time frame).

| You may create many packets in a scenario. A list of existing packets stacked vertically to the left of the Timeline. You may delete any packet by clicking on the Delete Packet icon. Each packet will be colored for easy recognition, and you may change the color of a packet by clicking on the colored square corresponding to a packet. This will bring up a color spectrum field, from which you may click on the desired color for the packet. Note that the Timeline toolbar is only large enough to display three packets at a time. However, you may scroll up and down the timeline with the and arrows to view other packets.

Viewing Device Information

| You may look at the status of any device simply by hovering the mouse cursor over the device. You will see all sorts of information, such as each port's link status, IP address, and MAC address.
| You can also view a device's routing, bridging, or switching table (if it has one) by clicking on the device.

Running the Simulation

When you are ready to run the simulation, press the Play button.

Press the same button to pause the simulation (it will switch between the Play/Pause icon as you click it). You can see the current simulation time frame (time step) by viewing the Current Frame display (or the timeline's Frame Indicator).

Use the Back Step button to go back to a previous frame, and the Forward Step button to skip ahead one frame (one time step).

You can also use the Fast Rewind button to go back to the beginning, and the Fast Forward button to advance to the last active frame.

You can drag the Speed Slider to control the simulation's speed (how fast the packets travel).

View Packet Info

At any point in the simulation, you may click a packet that have arrived at a device to view its current status. The Packet Info window will appear, showing the current device the packet is at, its source, its destination, and transmission time.

Note that if at any time an Ethernet collision occurs, you will see the packets in the collision being "on fire":

When a packet has arrived at a destination, it will either be successfully accepted or dropped:

Packets that are in queue in a router are marked with a "shuffling rectangles" animation:

| You can also look at what happens as the device processes the frame/packet at each OSI layer. Simply click the + icon to open the details window of the chosen layer. Click the - icon to close the details window.

Challenge Mode

If Challenge Mode is on, instead of seeing the detail windows automatically, you will be given the opportunity to guess exactly how the frame/packet is processed by the device at each OSI layer. The layers multiple choice windows open sequentially, depending on the actions you chose (note that these don't affect what simulation actions are taken; they are only your guesses). You may check your answers with the actual actions at anytime by clicking the "?" icon.

Note that in challenge mode, you will not receive the graphical hints about collisions, dropped packets, nor accepted packets.

| Show Packets If "Show Packets" (from Options) is on, the information for each packet will be automatically shown on the screen as they traverse the network.

Special Scenario: RIP Init

> Packet Tracer v3.2 includes a built-in scenario for any functional network that contains at least 1 router. In the Scenario Selector, choose the very first scenario called "RIP Init". This scenario demonstrates how RIP converges in the network. Broadcast packets have been generated in each router. You can click on a router to view its routing table, and as you run the scenario, you get to see how the routing table grows at each time frame (with each time step) as it gathers RIP information. Note that in this special scenario, collisions in the network don't occur. This simplifying assumption is made in order to focus on the concept of RIP convergence for teaching purposes.

> Warning: If the network is very complex with many routers connected to each other (in a meshed fashion, for example), the scenario may become very memory intensive and run sluggishly. This is due to the high number of broadcast packets that are generated in the network. Avoid running the Rip Init scenario in a network with more than 5 routers with many interconnections to each other.