Who got stuff from Cisco Kits?

Jammywanks

Well I like the stuff that Cisco Kits has to offer, unforunatly a lot of the dual router kits are sold out. There are some other kits but at a much higher cost, I won't mind going the extra mile to spend more cash if its worth it. I do intend on heading towards a CCNP after I get my CCNA.

I see this kit right here http://www.ciscokits.com/cube/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=19, it has two 2620's that look pretty nice and "a ISDN module so you can run your ISDN commands and a back to back cable to simulate your WAN connection." Is this something you guys would recommend? It looks like good practice for frame relay perhaps. Unfortunatly there is no switch included with this bundle (can someone hook me up with a good deal??? )

There are other dual 2503 router kits for a lower price, but would you people recommend 2620's or 2503's for going beyond a CCNA?

bighornsheep

wow....you certain have got the dough.....

have you read the hardware FAQ? I recall that 2507, 2514, 2610 are popular routers to get for CCNA home lab....for switch, I recall, 19xx and 29xx series

Danman32

The test doesn't cover much on the 1900 series. Actually, I don't think it covers anything on it.

xlg123

While I can't say anything about the kit your getting, (I bought the cheepo 199 one) I can say I ve had good luck with the company. They ship turtle exprees, it took about nine days for mine to arrive (FL) but everythinhg worked and the quality was good. Good Luck!!

Webmaster

Indeed, the 1900 is pretty much worthless for the current Cisco exams. You could practice the concept of vlans, but the experience of configuring the 1900 will hardly be any useful, and may actually cause confusion with the current (i.e. 2950) commands.

We recently took on ciscokits.com as an advertiser/sponsor, which simply means that they are a decent trustworthy company. You may be able to get a cheaper deal at eBay, but when you get something from ciscokits.com it will be complete. I'm not saying there aren't good, complete, deals on eBay because there frequently are. But when you bought a cheap router from ebay and afterwards discover you need to buy a back-to-back cable, transceivers, maybe even a console cable and adapter, or a recent IOS, then it "ain't" so cheap anymore.

As for the original question: considering you want to go for the CCNP too, the 2600 will be more useful. However, for the CCNA alone you could go with the 2500's and save the rest of the money to get a 2950 switch for example. The thing is that a couple of extra 2500's are always useful, i.e. to practice routing protocols for the BSCI exam (which become a lot more interesting with 3 or more routers instead of 4). If you've seen or search for racks in these forums, you will notice that even people preparing for the CCIE always have a bunch of 2500s as it is a relatively cheap method to expand your homelab into a more realistic representation of a corporate network.

Good luck with your decision.

Danman32

CCBootcamp seems to have decent kits. Although the CCNA kit doesn't have a switch.

I suppose the 1900 would be good to be the 'other' switch to demonstrate STP. I wouldn't rely on it for VLAN though. Different command set and way of doing it that isn't covered in the courseware therefore not covered in the test.

TheShadow

Ciscokits has been around a long time and have been heavy on ebay for a while. I would say that you are safe. The 2503's are fine on a limited budget, I think that you would only lack router on a stick ability.

The VLAN commands in the 1924 are considerably different from the 29xx commands in the exam. While some do, I don't think it is a show stopper because eventually you will probably want three switches at CCNP time. The appendix of most current books have the differences between the two. A switch is better than no switch.

For a home lab there is no real reason to choose the 262x series over the 261x series as the difference is 100mb versus 10mb speed and a slightly slower CPU. Picking their dual 2610 will save you $200 especially if you eventually have a mixture of 2500 and 2600 routers.

To really test ISDN you are going to need a simulator down the road. I have an old Merge 2000, just wish I had a manual for it. Took forever, trial and error to get it working.

Notice that while there is an IOS listed the memory on the system may need upgrading for $79 for the pair to use more extensive versions. The changes coming out today for CCNP indicate that it will be based on 12.4 so you may eventually wish to obtain that version.

Buy the 2950 switch if you can afford it, otherwise get the 2912. The 2950 that they offer is a basic version anyway which will not load the enhanced image needed for advanced security options. I would not buy a 1900 switch unless it is just included like in the 2503 kit. Finally you can do better on price on ebay for all of this but Ciscokits is a safer choice at a higher price.

Good luck

darwinism

What about 2924's? Are they still fairlt usable?

TheShadow

sure same as the 2912's just more ports. Ciscokits doesn't seem to carry them often, the 2950's are also just 12 ports.

Jammywanks

How about the reliability of used Cisco equipment? I don't think I plan on purchasing a warranty for them as anything I get will strictly be lab based and not in a real network environment. I understand Cisco is very reliable as it is, but has anyone had personal stories or experience with used 2500's or 2600's failing to work over time?

keenon

all of mine came with and have no warranty.. as i bought them all from ebay.. i'm not much of a warranty guy.. unless its a high dollar item

Webmaster

Cisco's 2950 switches for example, have a MTBF (mean time between failure) up to 480,000 hours (roughly 50 years). I'm sure the routers have some similar, very long, mtbf. "Predicted" by Cisco. And they don't assume physical abuse. In reality yours may not run for 50 years, but someone else's could theoretically run for 150 years, and two others fail in the first year. In general, they are a LOT more reliable than the average PC.

Jammywanks

Ok good stuff about the reliability thanks for the replies!

Hmm well I'm looking at what I should get from Cisco kits and since most dual lab setups are sold out, I decided to maybe go for the 2514 "cable/dsl" router with two ethernets and a 2620 "100MB" router. If possible I would probably just get a 2912 xl switch later on as you all say the 1900 is pretty much obsolete. I figured I would get these two routers as its more practical, my cable modem could possibly be 10baseT and it would connect to the 2514 , and we're capped at a certain speed anyways. In the home LAN I could then use a nice and faster router with the 2620. Or should I replace the 2514 with a 1720 w/ a WAN slot?

Also what cables would I need to connect the two routers? I have a cross over ethernet cable, I am sure this would work. But I'm still in need of another cable for the 2620 for ethernet... now that I think of it I would use a serial instead of a crossover e...

Also this will probably cost me a pretty penny on my budget right now, but I'd rather hopefully buy something more practical than study material only.

Webmaster

For information on how to connect the routers and switches check out our CCNA FAQ:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7268

and the Hardware TechLab:
www.techexams.net/technotes/ccna/lab_hardware.shtml

Jammywanks

I read the FAQ, but it appears that these two routers don't even have a serial port on them. Thats when the WIC 1T cards came into thought. But it also raised the cost on the overall setup.

But the FAQ was still useful because I wasn't even thinking about the lack of Serial ports on both the routers. And I'm in the middle of juggling around what kind of setup to buy, that and the fact that the CCNP exam will be revised, possibly making current CCNP labs needing more equipment added on to them.

OH well, I don't even have my CCNA yet, but if I get anything, I mind as well spend money on good stuff for the future.

bighornsheep

I purchased the 2514 Router Kit from CiscoKits on August 23rd.
It was scheduled to be delivered to my place on August 31st via UPS Standard Ground.

The kit just arrived today, about 2 hours ago.

The kit was 109.99 + 10.99 1 year Extended Warranty + 29 shipping.
I had to pay 50+ for brokerage and taxes, but was reduced by $20 because it was late, and the driver didnt re-schedule re-attempt.

The rep, I'm assumming the owner of ciscoKits is pretty nice, and professional in general. He has REALLY prompt e-mail responses. I asked him many questions prior to purchasing, and he was able to respond in most cases within an hour.

I was rather upset because I didnt know I had to pay brokerage clearing customs, but he was rather professional about it...but anyway, I would recommend this site for CCNA seekers.

The router I got seemed OBVIOUSLY used, minor scratches and marks, the decor of Cisco Systems on the front is wore out. But he did mention this was the last one, maybe that's one.

The CD that was included with the kit is MOST INVALUABLE, it's got everything I needed. Lots of questions, lots of labs, lots of articles, LOTS of ebooks and help, commands, tutourials.

I have some pictures here:




The full online directory can be viewed:
http://www.dg-network.com/misc/cisco2514/

Jammywanks

Nice lab bighorn... I just recently got mine through UPS shipping. Everything is good to go now. Two 1720's w/ 1wicT cards, back to back serial to one 2520 router cause it has two Serials, and then two 2924xl switches connected to each 1720 ethernet. I'm gonna see if I can get a small frame relay setup before I head off to bed. Getting the real thing makes learning this much faster. And interesting too. And everyone is getting the CCNA now. Makes the pressure much higher now that I'd have to rush to get CCNP. This stuff isn't easy to learn overnight. But I am definatly getting somewhere now.


Sorry bad image quality. Primary camera is missing batteries and I used my cell phone for now.

antonio banderas

You guys just saved me alot of pain an agony! I was gonna experiement with the 1900 series switch. Thank goodness I didnt waste my time. I use BOSON, Net Sim, and and Router Sim for my setup. I have 2 routers and 1 switch, but I forgot how to connect everything

Anyways, I plan to take the CCNA in November possibly. I have alot of the theory down, but I want to ensure that I can configure everything on the router and switches.

Jammywanks

Yeah my study book said that the 1900 syntax is out of the norm and is obsolete. I won't bother with syntax that will only confuse me in test taking mode. I looked around on eBay and some people are selling "CCNP" labs that include 1900 switches. I think someone is just trying to get rid of old equipment and suckering a poor CCNA student into old stuff