CCNA/CCNP Lab

mjlynden

Hey all,

I've been doing a lot of reading over the past few days on setting up a home lab to suit CCNA and CCNP.
Looking at a setup of 4x routers, 2x L3 switch, 2x L2 switch.

What do you guys think of what I've put together so far?

Things to buy...
4x 1841 (256/64)
5x WIC-2A/S
all associated cables

Things I got already...
1x WS-C3560G-24TS-S
1x WS-C3560G-24TS-E
2x WS-C3550-24-EMI (also have 2x C3550-24-SMI)
1x 2950T
1x 2950

Questions:

1. The 1841 router seems to be the best price/choice if I don't plan on doing CCNA Voice/Security?
2. Can I install Advanced IP Services image from C3560G-24TS-E on the C3560G-24TS-S?
3. Should I bother having the 2x 2950* L2 switches or just scrap them and use the 3550s?

Looking forward to any comments/suggestions.

Thanks guys!

- Matt

clarson

1) the 1841 only has 2 wic slots. So, as long as your not going to need more than 2 slots for your ccnp labs, your good.
2) you should know how to look that information up and be able to do it all by your self.
https://software.cisco.com/download/navigator.html?mdfid=278542537&flowid=2534 bookmark it!!
3) while the 3550's are L3 switches, there are some things they don't do, such as ipv6. and do somethings that your not going to see on the ccna such as ISL. And, it is always nice to have another switch laying around to configure a more complicated lab, so keep the 2950's

mjlynden

Thanks clarson!

bharvey92

With the 2950 just check the IOS version and that they can do things like dot1q trunks, Etherchannel's, VLANs etc. Oh and that looks like you'll have a good lab there, L3 switches not so much for CCNA but will definitely help in the CCNP.

JerryL

I've put together a lab recently that actually Jeremy Cioara from CBT Nuggets liked. It consists of the following:

3 x 3550 24 port wwitches
1 x 3560 PoE 8 port switch
3 x 2811 routers

The great thing is that everything including the mini-rack and all cables cost around $800. Using this along with Packet Tracer and GNS3 should cover all the bases.