Routers Needed for CCNA

I'm planning on starting with CCNA sometime around September, and should finish it up within a month assuming I don't have a job at that point. I hear a lot of talk about needing two routers in order to get adequate experience for the test. Could give me an idea of the router model/price that I should be looking at? I'm probably not going to pay much more than $500 for the two routers, so I'm hoping they'll be in that ballpark. Give me some feedback.

Cheeblie

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Webmaster

A typical CCNA lab (miminal) often consists of two Cisco 2501 routers, but other 25xx models, or even some 16xx will do, the most important thing is that it has an Ethernet interface and an Serial Interace (the routers would go back-to-back on the serial interfaces)
more ideal is if the lab also includes a switch (2 would be better, allows to use the router to route between VLAN create on the switches) a Catalyst 19xx for a example.

A Cisco PIX firewall is also great for in a home lab, not useful for the CCNA exam, but still... great to have

Two routers (2501) should be doable for less than $500 on ebay.

cheeblie

Why are the routers connected back to back on a serial interface and not connected via ethernet? (As you can tell, I'm very unfamiliar with Cisco)

Cheeblie

cheeblie

Also, since you mention that I should have switches, what switch model would you recommend? I am very interested in setting up a nice home network lab. Also, I probably wouldn't have too much trouble getting my hands on a copy of PIX. Would Checkpoint firewall software also be good? I'm just curious.

Cheeblie

Webmaster

That's ok, I remember when I started out with Cisco routers, all it was to me was a black box, just take it one step at a time, and everything will fall in place some day.

[LAN1]----e0[router]s0

WAN

s0[router]e0----[LAN2]

The LAN1 and LAN2 is often a hub or switch, with clients/servers or more hubs and switched connected to it. The back to back connection will allow you to create a WAN link, which you know is a WAN, and configure HDLC, PPP, Frame Relay and other types of serial WAN connections.

In your lab, instead of a hub or switch you can attach a client directly to the router, that will be the entire LAN/network1.

Webmaster

PIX isn't software running on a router. It is a hardware device with it's own software.

A Catalyst 1912 switch should do (12 is the amount of ports) 12 10baseT ports, 2 100baseTX, 1 AUI.

cheeblie

Well, that all seems a pit confusing to me at the moment, but I'm guess that once I start studying it, I'll start to understand. But I do at least understand the serial connection and why you would do it. Thanks for clearing that up.

Cheeblie

Webmaster

Just remember that it is easier than it looks. Let me know if you have more questions

cheeblie

Well, since I won't start on CCNA until September, you probably won't see anymore Cisco related questions from me for quite some time. But I'll look forward to your answers when the time comes.

Cheeblie