lab

22306

so im starting to study for the ccna and now i want to put together a home lab. im very very new to cisco or RS. i came across someone who is selling the following for $180. my questions are.. is 180 a good deal for these equipments and also are they good for ccna lab? for someone who is a beginner?


"Cisco PIX 515E Firewall
Cisco 3600 Router w ISDN, Fast Ethernet, Token Ring, 4x Serial Ports
Cisco 3600 Router w/ 2x Ethermet, ISDN, 1x Serial Ports
Cisco 3550 Catalyst Switch (3x 16 ports)
Cisco 2950 Catalyst Switch (3x 8 ports)

(Not pictured or racked) Cisco 3500 Catalyst Switch (2 x 12 ports) and a box of power cables, CAT5, and some serial cables."

here is picture http://images.craigslist.org/00f0f_lyXwasDFgpN_600x450.jpg

no!all!

You don't need the PIX 515E for the R&S exam. It's really up to you if you want to spend the money though. I'm sure someone else can chime in on if this is a good purchase though since that's what you're asking..

22306

couple people advised me not to get switches running Catalyst and buy one that has cisco ios.

MTciscoguy

22306 wrote: »

couple people advised me not to get switches running Catalyst and buy one that has cisco ios.

Even the Catalyst switches run Cisco IOS:

"Catalyst is the brand name for a variety of network switches sold by Cisco Systems. While commonly associated with Ethernet switches, a number of different interfaces have been available throughout the history of the brand."


Cisco Catalyst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

nikalis

seems like a good buy. pix doesn't run ios so what you learn from it won't be on the test but its still good knowledge to have

theodoxa

MTciscoguy wrote: »

Even the Catalyst switches run Cisco IOS

I wonder if he meant CatOS, which means he received some REALLY BAD advice?

CatOS (Catalyst OS) is an outdated OS that Cisco used to use on switches, particularly on the 1st generation Layer 3 switches. You definitely won't see it on the CCNA or CCNP exams, which use IOS exclusively. I have heard CCIE candidates mention it, but even then that was before the last revision.

theodoxa

Cisco PIX 515E Firewall -- This won't be of any real use. The last revision to CCNA: Security switched from PIX Firewalls to ASA Firewalls (as well as switching from SDM to CCP).

Cisco 3600 Router w ISDN, Fast Ethernet, Token Ring, 4x Serial Ports -- The ISDN and Token Ring Ports aren't of any use anymore. Those topics were dropped from the CCNA 2, maybe 3 revisions ago. The Serial ports could make this a good Frame Relay switch.

Cisco 3600 Router w/ 2x Ethermet, ISDN, 1x Serial Ports -- This is an older router, but is still useable. Personally, I would go with 2-3 x Cisco 1841 Routers. If you can't afford those, the 1760 is very cheap and will run IOS 12.4T.

Cisco 3550 Catalyst Switch (3x 16 ports) -- This is a nice switch. It should cover 100% of CCNA and most CCNP topics. If you move on to CCNP, you will need 3560 or 3750 switches to practice Private VLANs, IPv6, and VTPv3.

Cisco 2950 Catalyst Switch (3x 8 ports) -- These switches are older, but should be fine for CCNA. They are super cheap ($25)

MTciscoguy

theodoxa wrote: »

I wonder if he meant CatOS, which means he received some REALLY BAD advice?

CatOS (Catalyst OS) is an outdated OS that Cisco used to use on switches, particularly on the 1st generation Layer 3 switches. You definitely won't see it on the CCNA or CCNP exams, which use IOS exclusively. I have heard CCIE candidates mention it, but even then that was before the last revision.

It has been quite a while since I have heard anything about CatOS even being mentioned.

nikalis

so for 180 you get 3 good switches and 2 useable routers that if you go onto ccnp will just make a larger topology. and its all nicely placed on a rack already. pretty good deal if you ask me.

OfWolfAndMan

CatOS is still out there. I usually run into it on the old 4000 series chassis switches, but you will never see it on a Cisco exam. It'd be good to get to know IOS-XR or NX-OS though.

22306

sorry, yes i meant to say CatOS. i want to spend about 500 bucks and my plan is to set up a mini home network to practice on. i want to buy good equipment that i can use for other Cisco exams (ex. ccnp). like i said before, i am very very new to Cisco and ccna and networking in general. i have 8 years of tier 1,2 and 3 exp. now i want to switch to networking. im very very fascinated with networking.

22306

i came across this ad and the person is asking for 375. please let me know if this is a good deal and if these switches and routers are good

Inventory:
3x 2950-24 Catalyst Switches
1 2801 Router
2x 3745 Routers
1 console cable
1 USB to console cable adapter
1 USB cable
6x power cables
9x patch cables
1 crossover cable
1 Serial cable
1 Desktop Mounting rack
All Mounting hardware
1 CCNA Todd Lammle Study Guide
1 Intro to Network Cabling -- Copper Based Systems study guide
1 Intro to Network Cabling -- Fiber-optic Based Systems study guide


he also added this in there

Below is the >Show Version command from each piece of hardware. I only provided one switch as they are identical.

Cisco WS-C2950-24 (RC32300) processor (revision Q0) with 19911K bytes of memory.
IOS Version 12.1(22)EA14
Processor board ID FOC0846Z04W
Last reset from system-reset
Running Standard Image
24 FastEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)

Cisco 2801 Router
IOS Version 15.1(2)T2
Installed image archive
Cisco 2801 (revision 6.0) with 208896K/53248K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID FTX1110Z0VC
2 FastEthernet interfaces
1 Serial interface
1 Virtual Private Network (VPN) Module
DRAM configuration is 64 bits wide with parity disabled.
191K bytes of NVRAM.
62720K bytes of ATA CompactFlash (Read/Write)

Cisco 3745 (R7000) processor (revision 2.0) with 243712K/18432K bytes of memory.
IOS Version 12.4(19)
Processor board ID FTX0931A3KY
R7000 CPU at 350MHz, Implementation 39, Rev 3.3, 256KB L2, 2048KB L3 Cache
2 FastEthernet interfaces
1 Serial (sync/async) interface
8 Low-speed serial(sync/async) interfaces
DRAM configuration is 64 bits wide with parity disabled.
151K bytes of NVRAM.
125184K bytes of ATA System CompactFlash (Read/Write)

Cisco 3745 (R7000) processor (revision 2.0) with 243712K/18432K bytes of memory.
IOS Version 12.4(19)
Processor board ID JMX0848L05R
R7000 CPU at 350MHz, Implementation 39, Rev 3.3, 256KB L2, 2048KB L3 Cache
2 FastEthernet interfaces
1 Serial interface
1 Serial (sync/async) interface
DRAM configuration is 64 bits wide with parity disabled.
151K bytes of NVRAM.
125440K bytes of ATA System CompactFlash (Read/Write)