icnd question

ilcram19

wup up guys i been studieng for the icnd test for 1 week, my questions is do u think i should spent money on a lab or just use simulator and wut ever material i have with the book, the book im reading is icnd from cisco press, i have the packet tracer and i the sim simulator that came with that book...

and if u think i should buy a lab can u help me to pick out the equiptment, i mean i know i cant affort a 2950 switch lol but wut are my alternatives and in router wut could be my good option

if ya can help me with dat ill really apreciated it

thanks

ignign0kt

Well if you've never had any experience using real equipment, then I would say you should buy some instead of just using a sim. The 2500 series routers should do you fine, and you can find they relatively cheap on ebay. As for the switch... what sucks about buying an old switch like a 1900, is that the IOS is a lot different from newer switches like a 2950. If you decide to get a 1900 switch, make sure it comes with the enterprise firmware, so it allows you to use the command line (its main mode is menu driven) and supports VLANs. It's better working with the real thing, since you will likely encounter problems that might occur in real-world situations.
But if you've used the equipment before, and think you got it down pretty well. Just use a sim.