newbie needing help and advice

cairns84

Hi I'm looking at going through the 200-105 exam eventually using the accompanying books and i'm looking at getting a home lab instead of software

so far i'm looking at 3 1841's and 3 3560's

i know i'll need crossover cables to connect routers to switch's and vise versa but i was wondering what other cables i might need.

I've got a desktop, a laptop and was going to make a cluster out of 4 raspberry pis just for something else to do and was looking for advice on this, am i going down the right road or completely wrong way?

packetx

you may also need some serial cable for simulating serial links

clarson

routers to switches use straight though cables. it is for connections from switches to switches that would use cross over cables. and those would only be needed on really old switches such as the 2950's or 3550's (anything older than that you don't want in your lab). Pretty much anything made in the last 10-15 years uses auto mdix (such as your 3560's). auto mdix auto magically makes either a cross over or a straight through cable work for you. and being either will work, striaght through cables are now cheaper than a cross over cable (all anyone buys anymore is straight through cables).

And as mentioned you will need serial wics for doing things like pap and chap. So, you will need the apropriate cables to connect the interfaces. there are mainly 3 types of connectors used on the serial wics. And, you will need cables that match the connectors.

joshuamurphy75

Watch out for mdix. It didn't work the last time I connected two 1841 Ethernet interfaces together with a straight through cable, but came right up with a crossover.