CCNA/CCNP physical lab

What type of switches and routers would you buy for your CCNA physical lab that you can also use for CCNP?

the budget is 600$

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clarson

For the ccna, I'd recommend having 3 routers and 2 switches. For the ccnp your going to need routers that run version 15 of the ios and level 3 switches. The cheapest switches for that are the 3560-24ts and 48ts models (about $100). I'd suggest for routers to use the 2811 (about $70). The 1841 and 2801 models can be had for a little less, but you'll need at least one router that will support 4 serial wics which these models don't. The 2821/2851 are good too. But, being they are bigger and heavier they cost more to ship.
And, of course, make sure you have lots of memory and a very capable version of the ios that supports lots of features.
So, your looking at around $400 for a ccna lab with that hardware. But, a ccnp lab requires 4 routers and 4 switches. So, when you get to your ccnp you will be needing to purchase more hardware.

MTciscoguy

The 1841 supports the high speed HWIC-2T serial cards and has two ports per card, so wouldn't that equal 4 serial ports?

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/interfaces-modules/high-speed-wan-interface-cards/datasheet_c78-491363.html

Daniel333

Million answers here. Lets narrow this down.

1) What source training materials are you using (CBTnuggets keeps the labs small while the official Cisco press books have no reservations with a 7 switch topology)?
2) Are you comfortable with virtualization technology? You can make virtual router and plug them into the physical world with muti-port NICs on a couple cheap servers. But it adds a layer of abstraction that can complicate troubleshooting.

Eventually you have to build this, from memory -
http://cdn.gns3vault.com/wp-content/uploads/tshoottopology.png

The consensus still seems to be this - if you want to do "do it right"
1) 5x 2621xm
2) 4x 3550
3) 1x 2950 switch
4) Bunch of cables
5) A cheap old Ethernet hub
6) A few shitty laptops/mac minis/intel NUCs you can use as servers and clients

clarson

Yes, that certainly does count as 4 ports. But, a 1841 with 2 hwic-2T's and associated cables is more expensive then a 2811 with 4 wic-dsu-t1 v2 serial wics and cables. By using wics that have rj-45 ports you can save a lot of money on cables by making them yourself for just a couple of bucks. Where the smart serial cables will cost at least $10 a piece and your going to need 4 of them.

MTciscoguy

I am sorry, I beg to differ, I have less than $40 each into my 3 1841's including the HWIC-2T cards and received all of my smart cables and they were shipped to me for free, so I have 3 1841's with full blown memory, 6 HWIC-2T cards and all smart cables for $120, the only thing I had to buy was 3 CF cards that were large enough to run IOS 15.XX

If you keep your patience, you can find some really good buys out there.

I also make all of my own cables, but find the smart cables much better and cleaner to use.

late_collision

Personally, I'd use GNS3 for routers. I have 3x 1841's in my lab, which I used for CCNA (I was new to networking and it was fun). When I studied for CCNP, it was SO much more efficient to use GNS3. I didn't use the 1841's at all for CCNP.

Having a robust lab is fun, but unnecessary. For CCNA, I'd pick up 3x 2950's (mine are the T model). These can be had for about $20 each, and I think 3 is a good number for labbing and understanding STP. For CCNP I picked up 2x 3750's. I found the cost to be marginal between the 3560's and 3750's. Never spent much time with the 3550's.

Also, for the CCNA and CCNP exams, you're not going to notice a difference between IOS 12.x and IOS 15.x.

clarson

That certainly is a good deal. If you can get a similar one, buy it.

loki2043

if we need IOS 15 what do we do about licensing after we purchase these cheap ebay routers? I have a slew of hardware all running 12.X so I'm kinda worried I'm going to have to purchase licenses for each damn device since 15 only enables features by entering in a valid license. IE you cant just install 15 and start labbing.

MTciscoguy

loki2043 wrote: »

if we need IOS 15 what do we do about licensing after we purchase these cheap ebay routers? I have a slew of hardware all running 12.X so I'm kinda worried I'm going to have to purchase licenses for each damn device since 15 only enables features by entering in a valid license. IE you cant just install 15 and start labbing.

I beg to differ, I have been using 15.XX for over a year now.

That said, you don't need IOS 15.XX for CCNA and CCNP

loki2043

MTciscoguy wrote: »

I beg to differ, I have been using 15.XX for over a year now.

That said, you don't need IOS 15.XX for CCNA and CCNP

Are you using it without a license or are you using the "trial" license? I haven't played around with 15.x yet, its just what I have heard with the licensing thing. If you have more information on this I'd be grateful.

thanks
Tony

clarson

All of Cisco's software is only legal if you have purchased a license from Cisco. So, if you haven't paid Cisco to use their software, every ios on every piece of equipment that it is running on is illegal. Now, supposely Cisco won't take legal action against those that are using their software for educational purposes. So, every piece of equipment that comes with Cisco software that a reseller sells will come with a stipulation that the included software is only for education purposes and it is the responsibility of the owner to get proper licenseing. You can bet that no one with a cisco lab at home is paying licensing fees to Cisco. And, you can bet Cisco has a team of lawyers working full time making sure they are getting paid by those that should be.

MTciscoguy

None of my equipment is set up in a commercial environment, I have talked to Cisco many times over the last few years and they are not worried about those using their equipment and IOS for educational purposes. I am not recommending anyone do something to break license agreements, but there is a lot of copies of the IOS systems out there that many thousand of people are using while they learn to get their certifications. I would never attempt to take any of the IOS copies I have into a commercial environment and I would hope no company would condone such a practice. That said, the copies of IOS 15.XX work just fine with full functions.

Deathmage

There are plenty of resources on the Web to find what you're looking for, of course for educational purposes.

Why do you think I have two Firewalls at home a Sonicwall and a ASA with a 100 by 50 pipe, let's just say 'educational purposes'

loki2043

MTciscoguy wrote: »

None of my equipment is set up in a commercial environment, I have talked to Cisco many times over the last few years and they are not worried about those using their equipment and IOS for educational purposes. I am not recommending anyone do something to break license agreements, but there is a lot of copies of the IOS systems out there that many thousand of people are using while they learn to get their certifications. I would never attempt to take any of the IOS copies I have into a commercial environment and I would hope no company would condone such a practice. That said, the copies of IOS 15.XX work just fine with full functions.

Thanks for the info!

critanime

New member. Just wanted to post a picture of my lab in this thread.

In my setup I have three 2950 switches. Two are the "T" version with Gigabit ports. I then have two 2800 series routers. The 2811 doesn't have anything facy inside except for a WIC 2T. However the 2821 (I was lucky to get this off eBay cheap with the bits already inside) has a WIC 2T, CUE and VWIC2. I then have two 1721 routers with one been used and the other been just a backup. I also have two Aironet access points. Not got round to using those yet.

A bit more can be seen here on my blog.