trying to decide what to do...

MrD

I'm just starting on the studying for the CCNA and I'm trying to decide whether to dish out cash for actual equipment or on some virtual lab like http://www.redmondexams.com/details_ccna_virtual_lab801.htm What do you guys think? I do have all of the CBT Nuggets and the actual CISCO books that are used when teaching official CISCO material. Thanks guys

MrD

Ok, I lucked out and a buddy of mine got his boss to give him 2 cisco 1751 w/ T1 CSU/DSU & a 17port 3com hub...what else am I gonna need?

mikej412

A Cisco Switch -- preferably 29xx series -- 2950 would be perfect. And if the 2950 had 2 friends, you'd be as happy as a puppy in a closet full of shoes.

One more router -- a 252x would let you do frame relay (get your friend to also borrow some WIC-1Ts... or those smart serial things) and give you a 3rd ethernet for those pesky OSPF DR/BDR elections.

A 4th router to attach to the frame relay cloud would let you do a point-to-point to one router and point-to-multipoint to the other 2 routers at the same time (and give you a leg-up on the BCRAN exam for the CCNP).

I think there is a cable configuration for a back-to-back connection for those T1 CSU/DSUs - RJ45 connections, right?

MrD

Awesome, thanks for the reply. I'm in the process of getting a 2950 switch right now. It doesn't have the gigabit ethernet ports, but I think thats fine. For right now, the 2 routers and 1 switch is as good as its going to get, I think.