Which CCNP Lab should I invest in?

JasonHolmes

Cisco CCNP Ccie LAB 2621XM 2X 2620XM 2621 2X 2950 3550 746320181790 | eBay or Cisco Ccna CCNP Certified Professional LAB KIT Free Rack 3x2620 16 64 1 Seller | eBay the guy selling the second one said he would include 1x 3350 switch for $425 or 3x 3550 switches for $499 in place of the 2950 switches. There is also this lab but I hear the 2811 routers are loud so I am tempted not to buy it Complete Ccna CCNP 3X 2811 2950 3550 24PWR SMI Home LAB KIT Free Rack IOS 15 1 | eBay

fredrikjj

Routers are essentially useless at this point considering the number of others options you have like GNS3, IOU, Cisco Modeling Labs / Virl (soon). Instead, buy like 2x 2950 and 2x 3550. Alternatively you could learn some switch topics on IOU and rent rack time for the rest. That's what I did and I spent like $100 in total.

Danielh22185

I only used GNS3 for my lab studies for Route. I made a small investment of about $200 for 2x 3550s and 2x2950 + the cabling etc for my switch studies.

ande0255

I honestly love my physical lab, even though it cost me near $1k over a year or so, being able to draw out a topology then physically cable it makes studying extremely interesting for me (even though the same couple topologies seem to be used over and over in lab manuals).

The first one you listed is very close to mine, though I've added a 2509 access server, 1841 ISR router, 2921 CME router for VoIP, and probably a couple other things I cannot remember off the top of my head. If you have the money I'd personally say it's worth it, as you don't need physical equipment for the lab with GNS3 and the free online switch lab, cabling and powering on physical equipment seems to drive my labbing to a whole new level that logical topologies do not.

Jon_Cisco

If your looking to start with CCNA then maybe pick up an 1841 router for a little hands on experience but I agree that GNS3 is a viable way to go.

What I would say is that having real equipment gives you a different learning experience. It's helpful for someone who has never touched a router. However the theory is easier to learn and practice in a virtual environment. It's just faster to build and tear down practice examples.

Legacy User

@Jon_Cisco I 2nd that!

Yea at the tail end of my ccna labbing I got lazy and didn't bother turning on my physical rack. For testing a quick concept I wasn't sure about I found it much more convenient to get a quick topology together using gn3 and packet tracer. After geting my hands dirty with working with physical equipment for a few months using virtual stuff seemed like the same experience so I never looked back.

JasonHolmes

Thanks for the advice guys. I downloaded GNS3 but what I am finding is that most of the images I have don't work with GNS3. The routers come online but the consoles just sit there saying launching ios image at 0x80008000... then it does nothing. I found out of 20 images I tried one finally worked it was the cisco 3640 router. Is this a good router to use: I have another working image it's a 2621 12.3.

silalaval

3560s are cheap... I would get those. I can do routing and switiching labs with 3560s

Jon_Cisco

I have had good luck with this image. c3725-adventerprisek9-mz.124-15.T14.bin

Experiment a little and after a couple days you won't be disappointed. Google is your friend for setting up GNS3. It's a little research project that's a good intro into IT. Don't skip the tutorial on the GNS3 site. It actually tells you everything except where to get your cisco IOS. Because obviously you would buy that from cisco not them.

Good Luck!