ciscokits.com, are they dependable?

binarysoul

I'm planning to build a home lab and have been thinking to buy from ciscokits.com. Before I go ahead and pay them, I'm curious to see whether those who have bought from him are happy with what they got.

Should I buy from him, or do you recommend another vendor?

Cessation

binarysoul wrote:

I'm planning to build a home lab and have been thinking to buy from www.ciscokits.com. Before I go ahead and pay them, I'm curious to see whether those who have bought from him are happy with what they got.

Should I buy from him, or do you recommend another vendor?

Hey Binary,
I believe CiscoKits is Very reliable.. At least if Webmaster is going to offer advertisements for them...

You may want to read this... http://www.thebryantadvantage.com/CCNACCNPHomeLabBuyingOnEbay.htm
Chris Bryant (CCIE #12933) says that he has purchased from them and like their equipment.

The only reason why I didn't purchase from them is because I cant afford it right now.
Good luck!

boyles23

Hello,

I purchased my cisco routers and switches from them and they work great. Also got a bunch of labs to work on from CCNA up to some CCNP stuff.

I would recommend them!

binarysoul

Cessation wrote:

believe CiscoKits is Very reliable.. At least if Webmaster is going to offer advertisements for them...

Yes, I thoght about this. Although the webmaster isn't responsible for external links, at least he/she won't allow bad vendors ads on the site. That's why we dont' see any ads by Bill Gates

Webmaster

We indeed only accept reliable advertisers (see Ciscokits banner in main menu on the left), so yes Ciscokits.com is reliable, as in they will deliver proper material. Although we try to filter 'bad' sites from the Google ads, those are more like search results in a search engine so unlike the banners and other text links I don't have full control over what appears in those. But if it's in a banner it's simply good. Regardless, it's good practice to double-check.

binarysoul

Indeed, thanks Johan for the insight.

szkizzer

Ill give my two cents here:

I believe that CiscoKits is like buying from dell as opposed to assembling your own. I managed to get 5 router, full memory upgrades, a Frame Relay switch, a 4 port asynch/sync and a enterprise switch for less than $330 bucks including shipping.

Not only dont they all work, but after installing the memory upgrades and downloading the latest IOS onto those things 12.3 and 12.4. Im set using a perfectly full lab. Not to mention that the price I mentioned also includes, 5 DTE/DCE Cables. A Console Kit. All power cables neccessary.

See, the kits are nice if you dont wanna save money because you value time. Its just like a manufacturer because they give you crappy material like "ccna study guides" that are like a re-worded copy of what you could easily find on the internet. Im totally happy with what Ive assembled and it'll get me upto snuff on CCNA - easy, hands down. And with the addition of a PIX firewall, along with 3 3600 series routers. Ill instantly upgrade my "lab" to a CCNP level. Maybe even buy those new 2800 series router. They sell for cheap -- around 800 bucks.

Darthn3ss

ciscokits is good but they have high shipping prices, thats my only grudge. i had to pay like $12 in shipping on a few sets of rackmounts (that didn't come with enough screws).

357

Hi!
Good day!

To be fair to everyone. I hope Mr. Johan would not banned me on this one.

I bought a dual 3640, 12U standing rack and 2950 switch from ciscokits last June. I thought units are all tested as they advertised before it shipped. The first time when I opened the box, I was very disappointed on the physical condition of the unit. There's a lot of scratches (with pentell pen to hide the scraches), no NM and WIC covers at all (one router) and faceplate's damage. It looks like come from a junkyard but the package it looks intact (it seems no damage during transit).

At that time I received the package, Bob was on vacation but Phil was answering my email and requested any info regarding my purchase 'coz he has no idea at all regarding this one (is this a rela company?). Then, I sent him all info (emails from Bob and I) and I told him that I was very disappointed because I never expect to happen b'coz I had very high expectation from them (reliable). According to Phil, the faceplate may seems damage during transit that I don't think so. What's the reason on why this faceplate packed (intact) separately with the unit but the other router's faceplate mounted on other unit and no damage on it? According to PHil, other problems need to wait when Bob arrived from vacation because I directly deal with Bob not him.

According to Phil, NM and WIC slot missing covers are normal 'coz they bought it as no covres at all.

Units come with NM1E2W and WIC-2T with DB60/DB60 (DCE/DTE) crossover cable.
No power cable at all (even one) - this no problem to me.

Bob came from vacation, I told him my disappointment on why you send all units without tested and double checked before it shipped. According to him was tested and checked everything was there.

But! How did he connect using this DB60 cable with WIC-2T if he tested it ? According to him, by mistake he sent a wrong cable and WIC-2T card more expensive than WIC-1T that I don't care (I need this unit worked as they advertised). Then, he decided to send a faceplate and a cable.

The faceplate and a S/S cable arrived. In my excitement, immediately after my office worked, I went straight to my home and connected the routers and configured. But unfortunately (after couple of days on finding the solution to configure), I found out from cisco site that this WIC-2T is not compatible with NM1E2W.

"The NM-1E2W, NM-1E1R2W, and NM-2E2W Network Modules do not have enough performance power to support the WIC-2T due to hardware limitations."
Link:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps274/products_tech_note09186a00800b0858.shtml


I was informed him about this one and He apologize this issue. According to him, that he forgot the WIC-2T modules did not work in those units (really? how he tested it before it shipped?). He requested to sent back the WIC-2T and a S/S cable.

Now! It's already August the units still hanging in my room waiting for WIC-1T modules.

I requested him to sent me a NM and WIC slot covers along with the WIC-1T card. He granted all my request but still waiting to arrive.



My question is:

Is this a real company? If you deal with an employee the other employee doesn't know at all about the purchase.

How would you advertised an enterprise IOS 12.4 (k9) with a unit 16MB flash?

Pros: They resolved the issues.

Cons: Late replies to email.
Is not easy if you are leaving outside United State just like me.

I sent this to the best of my knowledge and experience to enlighten and protect others.

That's all.

Once again, sorry Mr. Johan.

Deadmaster200

357 wrote:

How would you advertised an enterprise IOS 12.4 (k9) with a unit 16MB flash?

Exactly. And they are STILL advertising these CCNA Kits with 1900-series switches. And the CCNP starter kit has one 2924 and 2 1900s????

Webmaster,

What exactly is your criteria in selecting a 'reliable' advertiser? Why is this Ciscokits considered to be so? How many times does the CCNA have to be updated before Ciscokits actually updates their product and sells a "CCNA KIT" that actually is applicable to the CCNA???

dtlokee

It's no secret what Ciscokits is doing, they buy and resell products on Ebay (after a markup). They are packaging up a few routers and switches, then selling them on Ebay. The difference is they are giving people confidence in the purchase. You can sit there for days or weeks trying to win auctions, scoping out all the different varients of gear (what makes a 2611 different from a 2514). That being said, I don't think anyone should be selling something with obsolete equipment (1900's for example) and calling it a CCNA kit. Really? a CCNA kit? how do you propose somone do 802.1q trunking on that 1900? Or ISL when you haven't included a router with a FastEthernet interface?

I think half the fun is learning all the different equipment, upgrading them and so on. You can learn lots about Cisco routers and switches by doing this.

For the convenience of it CiscoKits is good, saves your time, but costs more. Then again what is your time worth? is it worth saving $100 when it takes 10 hours of auction watching to get it?

The only serious issue I have with CiscoKits it they distribute a CD with many different IOS versions on it with the kits they sell. This material is copyrighted, and doing this is a clear violation of the copyright.

bighornsheep

I think we have to be to fair to Johan and also ciscokits, I've purchased from them before and you can read this other thread about ciscokits:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=101686#101686

To be fair for ciscokits, and techexams, I think that you can't judge them like a "regular business", because they're not. Ciscokits buys USED/OLD/NO LONGER NEEDED/DISCARDED/REPLACED/OUTFITTED and whatever other term you want to call it, these inventory of their's isn't a standard item that they can order from a supplier. If you get a router that has the NM covers, you can not be guarranted the same item in the same condition again. Also, like any other business, Caveat emptor will always apply, if you are not comfortable with buying used equipment, don't do it. Scatches and pen marks is normal considering some of these were released 4-6 years ago, look at it as if you were buying a used P4 1.8, dont expect it to be mint condition.

In terms of kit content, you guys are expect users, so you know all about what you need and what you want, but ciscokits is a business, and they ought to run it like so, their purposes isn't necessarily to provide the best hardware equipment for the CCNA/CCNP, they simply sell routers that people buy for their CCNA/CCNP, for a very long time, Dell was selling Pentium 4's with 64MB of RAM that would supposedly run Windows XP....same idea....

Now Johan and Techexams, I've been with this forum for about a year, and something I've realized and learnt is that most people here try not to be selfish, however, some users tend to become bitter and treat this as some premium expert knowledge base where by they have VIP access to. Somebody simply found ciscokits to be good, they bought something there, the item arrived, it worked, and no scam took place, thus they are reliable, it's the same premise that ebay runs on.

If you're looking for the perfect lab,
A) you do your own research and do not rely on any advertised promotion for a "complete kit"
you buy the 1500+ kits that CCNPs themselves are selling on ebay, I've seen some pretty nice ones with literally everything you need
C) contact a Cisco reseller, I'm sure they're willing to sell you a brand spanking new 1000 router with no pen marks or scratches.

Otherwise, stick around, ask your questions, I'm sure people are still willing help you with your certification process.

Webmaster

Deadmaster200 wrote:

Webmaster,

What exactly is your criteria in selecting a 'reliable' advertiser? Why is this Ciscokits considered to be so? How many times does the CCNA have to be updated before Ciscokits actually updates their product and sells a "CCNA KIT" that actually is applicable to the CCNA???

I think I already answered the OP's question, and this topic/forum is not to discuss my criteria for advertisers.

And while I agree the 1900s aren't appropriate anymore, too few useful task you could use them for to justify the space alone, it doesn't make Ciscokits a less reliable seller. 357's situation could have happened at any online or offline store.

bighornsheep wrote:

If you're looking for the perfect lab,
A) you do your own research and do not rely on any advertised promotion for a "complete kit"
you buy the 1500+ kits that CCNPs themselves are selling on ebay, I've seen some pretty nice ones with literally everything you need
C) contact a Cisco reseller, I'm sure they're willing to sell you a brand spanking new 1000 router with no pen marks or scratches.

Otherwise, stick around, ask your questions, I'm sure people are still willing help you with your certification process.

Last but not least: Although I am not responsible for external sites/products I do feel responsible and act responsible when allowing advertisers, so if there's a banner here at TechExams.net, you can trust it's not a scam. If anyone wants to share experiences, per request of the OP, go ahead, bad or good, just make sure when it's a bad experience you contact CiscoKits and give them a chance to resolve it first. But nobody is forcing anyone to visit or purchase through our advertisers. If you guys want to waste forum space discussing the reliability of one of our advertiserd go find another cert site that does advertise trash - there are plenty of them.

megahard

What amazes one most is the fact that this supposed to be a business outfit doesn't have a phone number to its name; a lot of people I've spoken to about the site just called me back asking for their phone number. I mean this outfit expects somebody spending close to $6000-$10000 to just mail back and forth; I mean that's a JOKE, right? Imagine the guy who had to wait for some rep on vacation to address an issue; these equipments are meant for exams, the added mailing back and forth could be very frustrating. If other company out there will attend to you like a customer whom they truly need his/her business you better patronize such than experiencing frustration after coughing out some hard earned money in preparation for some no-joke exams. The way they package their materials and the promises prompt interest in these preparation kits but reading about such untested shipped equipments and even wrong cables or no cable at all added to no phone number to address issues makes this site reputation very questionable and any association with them could be equally damagiing. While they need not wait for competition to be honest in shipment for what one paid for, I do believe competition would force an improvement on their mode of operation.

captobvious

reviving a 2 year old thread.....

There has been many posts since and I have to agree with them. While it may be nice to get the whole package at one time, they are selling kits that include equipment which has no use in today's labs. Also the prices are a bit steep. If you have the time, you can do much better buying piecemeal.

Just my two cents!

shadown7

I agree that their prices are a little high but I've bought from them a few times and have had no issues with them. The equipment I got from them works well with my CCNA and CCNP studies.

Mark Knutson

I would think it would go without saying that these resellers are selling gear that has been scrapped by various companies when they upgrade. How else would we get it so inexpensive? There is nothing wrong with that. Also, scratches on the paint are to be expected.

I bought a bunch of stuff in an inexpensive kit from someone on ebay, and while I received what they said they would send me, it included 2 1900 switches and the 2500 series needed memory upgrades and I had to buy transceivers to connect them to rj45.

I don't think there is any substitute for doing one's research before buying--and I should have done mine. The money I spend was small, but a bit more thinking on my part would have gotten me a better deal.

Mark Knutson

shadown7 wrote: »

I agree that their prices are a little high but I've bought from them a few times and have had no issues with them. The equipment I got from them works well with my CCNA and CCNP studies.

In some respect you are paying for peace of mind, and don't they send lab stuff or study guides as well?

shadown7

Mark Knutson wrote: »

In some respect you are paying for peace of mind,

You are correct, every time I've had an issue the owners responded quickly and was eager to fix the issue. That is why I give them repeat business.

Mark Knutson wrote: »

and don't they send lab stuff or study guides as well?

Yes, you get a lab book and a CD that has a practice test. You also get the IOS on that CD as well. I'm pretty sure you get the lab book with everything you buy. Someone else on this post stated we should ask how much of a discount we could get if we didn't want the extra stuff. I will have try that when I buy my next switch from them.

Bl8ckr0uter

I am going to pick up a cisco 3550 from them and from what I can tell, the kits they sell are pretty expensive but the stand alone pieces of equipment dont seem to be too bad

kalebksp

knwminus wrote: »

I am going to pick up a cisco 3550 from them and from what I can tell, the kits they sell are pretty expensive but the stand alone pieces of equipment dont seem to be too bad

cablesandkits.com has the PoE version of that switch for the same price: Cisco 3550 24 Port PoE Switch, WS-C3550-24PWR-SMI.

Bl8ckr0uter

kalebksp wrote: »

cablesandkits.com has the PoE version of that switch for the same price: Cisco 3550 24 Port PoE Switch, WS-C3550-24PWR-SMI.

Dude. Awesome. Must grab one next month. I would give you points but I cant

Mark Knutson

kalebksp wrote: »

cablesandkits.com has the PoE version of that switch for the same price: Cisco 3550 24 Port PoE Switch, WS-C3550-24PWR-SMI.

Another thing to keep in mind is the distinction between standard and enterprise images. The 3550 can be software upgraded, the 2950 cannot.

tiersten

Mark Knutson wrote: »

Another thing to keep in mind is the distinction between standard and enterprise images.

The E is Enhanced. Some things were renamed as well and EMI is now IP Services and SMI is now IP Base.

Darthn3ss

I bought my rack and a few other things from them, never had any issues.

that was like 2 years ago, though.