Considering getting this for a lab

koan

Does anyone have any feedback on this? Anyone using it?
Cisco CCNA and CCNP Complete home lab kit 15.1 IOS CME 8.6 | eBay

Priston

Those routers would be good in a lab, those switches are a little old though. Also, your paying more to get everything from one place.

koan

Priston wrote: »

Those routers would be good in a lab, those switches are a little old though. Also, your paying more to get everything from one place.

I thought about buying it piece by piece but this seemed easier, and this is cheaper than a similar package on Cisco CCNA 200-125 Standard Kit - CertificationKits

Curious if the hardware is a better way to go than using GNS or something similar.

clarson

well like most lab kit sellers on ebay, they are over promising and under delivering.

Don't have much good to say about it. You probably can use it pass the ccna with better study materials.

They throw a lot of hardware and buzzwords at you. Letting you, an uneducate buyer to fill in the details. And, as most of us, we fill in the details with things we would like to get, and they fill in the details with things you don't want to get.

Here the biggest detail they left out is the feature set of the ios. While you do need to know a bit about hardware and terminology, the biggest thing you need to know is the ios. While the 15.1 version of the ios is good. They haven't said anything about which feature set you are going to get.

the ipbase feature set is fine for the ccna. But, if you want to do security, your going to need the the advsecurity feature set. and, to do ipv6, you will need to have the advipservices feature set. You want to do voice along with everything else, you need the adventerprise feature set. From all that is mentioned in the ad, it would seem your getting adventerpise feature set. But, no where does it mention that. The adventerpise feature is the most capable feature that is available from Cisco. You would thing they would mention it somewhere.

If you ask me, it looks like you'd be paying $400 for a pretty basic ccna lab with a bunch of bells and whistles that are of no use to you.

koan

clarson wrote: »

well like most lab kit sellers on ebay, they are over promising and under delivering.

Don't have much good to say about it. You probably can use it pass the ccna with better study materials.

They throw a lot of hardware and buzzwords at you. Letting you, an uneducate buyer to fill in the details. And, as most of us, we fill in the details with things we would like to get, and they fill in the details with things you don't want to get.

Here the biggest detail they left out is the feature set of the ios. While you do need to know a bit about hardware and terminology, the biggest thing you need to know is the ios. While the 15.1 version of the ios is good. They haven't said anything about which feature set you are going to get.

the ipbase feature set is fine for the ccna. But, if you want to do security, your going to need the the advsecurity feature set. and, to do ipv6, you will need to have the advipservices feature set. You want to do voice along with everything else, you need the adventerprise feature set. From all that is mentioned in the ad, it would seem your getting adventerpise feature set. But, no where does it mention that. The adventerpise feature is the most capable feature that is available from Cisco. You would thing they would mention it somewhere.

If you ask me, it looks like you'd be paying $400 for a pretty basic ccna lab with a bunch of bells and whistles that are of no use to you.

You're right i had no idea there were difference, that is very useful information so thank you for that.
So if I built a lab I would want the latest version of adventerpise running on it, and that likely means different hardware and memory demands as well.
What would be a good source of info for what to purchase, that a complete noob would understand?

clarson

I thought about buying it piece by piece but this seemed easier

Well, buying it off of ebay one piece at a time can get expensive.

But, a lot of those ebay listings have a company with a warehouse of cisco equipment behind them. And, they would all rather sell you 5 or 6 pieces of equipment instead of one. But, your going to need a listing of what you want to purchase. I want this many of this switch and this many of that router, etc. They will quote you a price.

they don't sell racks, but they will include rack mounts if you want them.
they don't sell ethernet cables, but they will put serial wics into your routers.
they might not have the ios you want, but they will put in the amount of memory that you specify.

but, you have to put together a list of equipment you want to present to them. They will know the cisco equipment, but they don't know a thing about home lab kits. So, you need to know what you want.

koan

clarson wrote: »

I thought about buying it piece by piece but this seemed easier

Well, buying it off of ebay one piece at a time can get expensive.

But, a lot of those ebay listings have a company with a warehouse of cisco equipment behind them. And, they would all rather sell you 5 or 6 pieces of equipment instead of one. But, your going to need a listing of what you want to purchase. I want this many of this switch and this many of that router, etc. They will quote you a price.

they don't sell racks, but they will include rack mounts if you want them.
they don't sell ethernet cables, but they will put serial wics into your routers.
they might not have the ios you want, but they will put in the amount of memory that you specify.

but, you have to put together a list of equipment you want to present to them. They will know the cisco equipment, but they don't know a thing about home lab kits. So, you need to know what you want.

Where would I get the latest ios?

clarson

So if I built a lab I would want the latest version of adventerpise running on it

That would be prefered. or the advipservices so you have ipv6.

But, those are the feature sets for routers. Switches are different (wouldn't want to make it too easy).

There is this on youtube by ine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmZ7Hv9xhiU&feature=youtu.be&list=PL3UpcvaDU_Fm_KgOMRTCbuxKorA4hiCqV

and Certification kits and other sellers do put out some good information along with some marketing thrown in.

https://www.certificationkits.com/lab-suggestions/cisco-lab-suggestions/

Then you can look at what they are all selling out there. Get an idea of what seems to be a good value. make a list, Bounce it off of the forum.

clarson

well the main way if from Cisco. or from someone you know that has one. or from a cisco reseller that tests thousands of pieces of cisco equipment a year and might save an ios or two for medicially purposes.

But, if your good with google you can find some out in the wild.