Home Networking Lab

All of you guys have gotten me excited about learning more, and I am not a fan of sitting in a classroom when I can teach myself something. I have decided to set up a home networking lab so I can teach myself how to use something other than Linksys and Netgear routers.

I have found quite a few cheap Cisco routers on eBay, and I am planning on buying one soon.

What else would I need? I don't want to spend more than $50.

What are some models I should be looking at?

Thank you all.

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Comments

TheShadow

Your joking right? Even simulation software will cost you more.

Seriously check this link first
http://www.techexams.net/techlabs/ccna/lab_hardware.shtml

Then check the site simulator here
http://www.techexams.net/citechsims.shtml

In fact you should check everything here

http://www.techexams.net/cisco.shtml

Otherwise if you have access to the IOS library from work and you have a powerful enough PC you can check into Dynamips

mutters to self - No shadow it is not April yet.

Good luck on the first steps of your journey.

Stan27

The 2501 model that's used in the tutorial you linked to can be had for $30 shipped, less if I decide to bid.

I'm not looking for a whole lab, just something to mess around with to get the feel of things. I'm sure I will be spending more money later on, that's just a figure to get started.

Thanks for the links and wishes of good luck.

Paul Boz

2500 series routers are outdated and won't really teach you much more than how to navigate IOS. If you have a $50 budget and want to learn more about routing and switching go down to Barns and buy a copy of Todd Lammle's Sybex CCNA book, 5th edition, for $49.99. It will teach you so much more than messing around with a crappy little 2501 will. There's a reason why that router is only $30.

Stan27

What is a more realistic model to look at?

I will definitely check out the book, I have no problem buying books I know I'll use.

The problem is that I need to mess around with something hands-on to learn.

Thank you.

TheShadow

Stan27 wrote:

The 2501 model that's used in the tutorial you linked to can be had for $30 shipped, less if I decide to bid.

I'm not looking for a whole lab, just something to mess around with to get the feel of things. I'm sure I will be spending more money later on, that's just a figure to get started.

Thanks for the links and wishes of good luck.

Well I guess I assumed that you were not including books in your price. Tactile learner is always better than paper only learner. However it is unlikely that you will get a suitable 2501 for that price. Think of routers as being sold like bare bones PC's. To be useful the 2501 should have 16 meg of ram and 16 meg of flash and a boot ROM above 10.0. IOS should not be less than 12.2 really. People get scammed all the time on ebay for stripped 2500 series only to find out that the upgrades cost more than what they paid for the router. You will also need a transceiver for the Ethernet port and a console cable. Is all that included for $30, probably not.

I do not agree that they are outdated for study and many Cisco instructors will tell you so. Outdated for production sure but not for beginner studies. The intent is to learn the underlying technology. You really need a pair of routers to do anything useful and later on at least a 29xx series switch.

Ideally you should be looking at 2600 series routers but sticker shock will set in on you fast and some will tell you that you need even the extended memory versions of those (XM). I kind of look at that in the vain overkill for a beginner. On a very low budget lots can be learned with a pair of 2520's and a couple of back to back cables and a decent text book. Each has four serial ports allowing you to do frame clouds. Or if you want to hook them to your net connection make one of the routers a 2514. That will give you two Ethernet connections and two serial ports

While some of us have fairly elaborate labs they are not needed until you are sure that networking is for you. Even then, like many people have far to expensive a PC than they really need the same goes for Cisco hardware collectors. I am drooling over a 1800 series router right now to play with wireless and a 3560 switch. Do I need them, probably not; do I want them, sure I do. It is addicting really, my home lab now has 7 PC's no make that 8 since I added the vista one, 14 routers, 4 switches. Takes up a whole spare bedroom when you include B/W laser, Color laser, B size inkjet, scanner and copy machine; but my lab is small compared to some of my associates.

Stan27

I see what you mean after looking at the specifications.

I have tried to look around for basic information about Cisco routers, but haven't found much useful.
I would appreciate some useful links so I could read through them and get a better understanding of everything.

Also, can Cisco router administration be done without a serial port?
I see that HyperTerminal seems to be the tool of choice for windows, what about Linux users?

Thanks again.

sprkymrk

Stan27 wrote:

Also, can Cisco router administration be done without a serial port?
I see that HyperTerminal seems to be the tool of choice for windows, what about Linux users?

Sure, from the LAN you can use telnet or SSH to one of the ethernet ports.

A hyperterminal-like application for linux I think you can use minicom or kermit.

Stan27

Alright, thanks for the information.

TheShadow

If you have no DB9 connector on your system, there are USB to serial port connectors available. Just make sure that you buy one that supports the break key function.

Ciscokits has some comparison charts here.

http://www.ciscokits.com/pdf/SummaryofRouterInterfaces.doc

and here

http://www.ciscokits.com/pdf/SummaryofSwitchFeatures.doc

There is also a PDF here

http://www.ciscokits.com/pdf/CCNA_Lab_Suggestions.pdf

The CCNP one may be dated but it is here

http://www.ciscokits.com/pdf/CCNP_Lab_Suggestions.doc

Keep in mind that their goal is to sell you hardware that they have, but the info is still valid.

Stan27

That gives me a better view of the whole thing, thanks.

One of the schools I did some work for is just disassembling one of their old networks, I'm going to drop by in a week and see if there is something useful I can pick up.

Thanks for all the help, guys.