I've been a lurker here every day the past few months, and I'm into chapter 8 on Lammle's book currently. I have Odom's set on the shelf to read next. I plan on reading the CCENT portions of each and then going the two test route. Anyways, on to my question...
I have GNS 3, but I am willing to spend a few bucks to invest in my future (plus I'm a geek). I am thinking about buying two 2950s and a 3550 from eBay. I want to connect the physical switches to the virtual routers in GNS3. What else will I need to do this? Ethernet cables are already covered... I'm just sitting here on a 4-year old Dell that is my main PC for everthing, as well as an old Dell Optiplex 745 running Ubuntu. Neither machine is really beefy. Am I going to need some quad port NICs and a lot of virtual machines up at the same time to really benefit from all this? The thought of physical equipment with virtual stuff is enticing. If I can get away with spending < $250 (I plan on getting the switches for well under that), than I will be very pleased!
Thanks in advance.
