building a lab

caswell22

hi all, i was thinking bout building a lab, im currently doing MCSA when i complete that im going to go on and do MCSE or CCNA.

just wondering what sort of setup you guys have.

what routers do you recomend?

what do you do about software? do you buy the full blown software or do you just use eval coppies.

at the moment i use virtual pc but i was thinking bout building a new pc after xmas, so i was going to use current pc as a client, new build will make a server and i find another pc to make as another client.

sprkymrk

I like the real deal better than virtual stuff, but that's just me. I like your idea of a server and 2 clients, but for MCSA/E stuff 2 servers would be better. Definately use eval stuff for servers unless you can afford the $700 for a copy of 2003 server.

As for a CCNA lab you'll have to ask a Cisco pro. I passed the CCNA a little over 3 years ago and never used it in a working environment, so I am up for renewal but won't have time for it until middle next year.

caswell22

sprkymrk wrote:

I like the real deal better than virtual stuff, but that's just me. I like your idea of a server and 2 clients, but for MCSA/E stuff 2 servers would be better. definitely use eval stuff for servers unless you can afford the $700 for a copy of 2003 server.

As for a CCNA lab you'll have to ask a Cisco pro. I passed the CCNA a little over 3 years ago and never used it in a working environment, so I am up for renewal but won't have time for it until middle next year.

yeah cant afford to splash out for a genuine copy of server, how do you get around the 21 day limit for the evals though?

you are right bout setting up 2 servers, what do you do? a dc and a member server?

sprkymrk

The evals should be 180 day. You may be thinking of the activation grace period.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/trial/default.mspx

I think 2 DC's to practice replication, WINS push/pull, DNS, authoritative restores, dcpromo, etc.