Wanna get a toy for CCNA practice

Hi:
My dream is to accomplish the CCNA after MCSE. I understand this is a long road but its is valuable. Now, I m working on my Bachelor PLUS MCSE (lots of work but enjoying).
I do not like to take the exam in a near future but a year later after finishing my MCSE. Before taking the exam, I wanna get a toy for my CCNA practice. This gives me lots of hands on for about a year before going for an actual exam.
I do not wanna get an old toy, like 2600 router. Instead, I wanna get something decent, like ASA series or anything (please correct me if i am wrong, I am a newbie at cisco).
I wanna spend some $$$ on new toys for the FUTURE ROAD rather than the old toy. for example, if the ASA firewall is good for the CCNA exam, i will get it and work on it.
Thank you for taking time for my post. I appreciate your suggestions.

Tak

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Comments

dtlokee

The ASA is not required for the CCNA, you would be better served looking into the 2811 and 2950/2960 switches. Seriously though, you can use the 2611xm and the 2950's with no problems for CCNA even though they aren't the newest things on the block.

geezer

Agree with dtlokee but a 2600 is fine for CCNA and costs less. Why pay more than you have to as today's 'new' toy is yesterdays 'old' toy but cheaper and you won't get much for the 'new' one now when coming to sell it on.

Even cheaper would be Dynamips simulation software, although you would still need a couple of 2600s and 2950s for hands-on practice if new to the Cisco game.

djadragon

geezer wrote:

Even cheaper would be Dynamips simulation software, although you would still need a couple of 2600s and 2950s for hands-on practice if new to the Cisco game.

What about Packet Tracer 4.1 ? Any helpful?

taktsoi

Thank you djadragon and geezer for your suggestions.

Agree with dtlokee but a 2600 is fine for CCNA and costs less. Why pay more than you have to as today's 'new' toy is yesterdays 'old' toy but cheaper and you won't get much for the 'new' one now when coming to sell it on.

I understand and agree that those 2600 is dirty cheap and new toy is the yesterday' s old. What I would like to accomplish is that I would like to get a router not only for me to practice but also live 24/7 in my home environment. I believe those 26xx or anything could not sustain any heavy streaming bandwidth right?

My home lab consists of a m0n0wall connecting to WAN and ISA as a back-to-back firewall. If any cisco router is suitable for both my home lab+ CCNA practice, I m gonna retire the m0n0wall. I am thinking about 8xx series.

For simulation software, i got a routersim.

Thanks

empc4000xl

djadragon wrote:

geezer wrote:

Even cheaper would be Dynamips simulation software, although you would still need a couple of 2600s and 2950s for hands-on practice if new to the Cisco game.

What about Packet Tracer 4.1 ? Any helpful?

packet tracer is pretty good. We actually do all of our netacad projects on packet tracer so we can e-mail them to the instructor when we finish them. It does has its flaws though. Some of the telnet commands don't work and at times it has issues with IP subnet zero. I think once you got your hands on 2 switches and cheap routers and use those for a while you can packet trace or sim the rest you will do fine. I do a lot of the labs with real gear(my own or the lab access time I get in class) but projects where we use several routers/switches and PC's I use packetracer it just makes management of things easier.

tmlerdal

I'd expect any 2600 would be more than sufficient for what you are wanting. But if you are really wanting to get the most out of a home lab, you will need more than just one router. At that point though you could even back down to a 2500 series router. Cost is even less, and still does everything you need for a CCNA.

Personally, I like getting the 2507 series router since it has a 16 port hub built into it. Only reason I like that is to have a PC setup on either side of the wan links to communicate back and forth.

No matter what you get for routers, make certain they have plenty of flash and dram to support the features you are wanting.

networker050184

I understand and agree that those 2600 is dirty cheap and new toy is the yesterday' s old. What I would like to accomplish is that I would like to get a router not only for me to practice but also live 24/7 in my home environment. I believe those 26xx or anything could not sustain any heavy streaming bandwidth right?

A 2600 router would be a lot more than enough for a home enviroment. We use them in a production enviroment with no problems. We have just started upgrading some of our 2600 and 3700 routers to 2800 and 3800.

taktsoi

A 2600 router would be a lot more than enough for a home enviroment. We use them in a production enviroment with no problems. We have just started upgrading some of our 2600 and 3700 routers to 2800 and 3800.

are you sure it can handle heavy bt traffic?

oh well. getting back to my topic, how much is the 2600 now? any lower price that i can find?

I need a CHEAP CHEAP router.

bighornsheep

taktsoi wrote:

I need a CHEAP CHEAP router.

umm...I guess pages such as these scared you off....

With cisco equipment, be very very careful and plan what you buy CAREFULLY! Don't just assume the more you pay, the more you will get.

For starters, you may want to read the following:

Info on switches

info on IOS

General lab info

seuss_ssues

taktsoi wrote:

A 2600 router would be a lot more than enough for a home enviroment. We use them in a production enviroment with no problems. We have just started upgrading some of our 2600 and 3700 routers to 2800 and 3800.

are you sure it can handle heavy bt traffic?

oh well. getting back to my topic, how much is the 2600 now? any lower price that i can find?

I need a CHEAP CHEAP router.

A linksys (cisco) cheapo $40 wireless router will handle your "home" traffic. A 2600 is more than overkill.

2500 series routers are even adequate enough for most ccna studies and they are cheap++

taktsoi

A linksys (cisco) cheapo $40 wireless router will handle your "home" traffic. A 2600 is more than overkill.
2500 series routers are even adequate enough for most ccna studies and they are cheap++

I got a linksys WRT54G (Cisco version) running dd-wrt. Is it good for CCNA?

Just kidding, but.. a m0n0wall providing with 10000 concurrent connection even dies on me.

The hardware spec is p3 with 512mb ram. I guess i m a heavy bt/video streaming user.

Ok, so where can i get 2500 cheap? any good site?

empc4000xl

2500 can be had pretty cheap on ebay, but make sure you check which version of the IOS they come with. You want the latest that a 25xx can have and I think its 12.3. I know 12.4 was not made for the 25xx. You can always go to ciscokits if you want to have a non DOA router and latest OS, but they do overchange, but it works when you plug it in.

Delirious

i just purchased a cisco 871 for home use, it provides me with good day to day practice and familiarity with IOS but i also have a rack or 2600 and 2950 routers and switches, like most here, for the more advanced concepts.

taktsoi

Delirious wrote:

i just purchased a cisco 871 for home use, it provides me with good day to day practice and familiarity with IOS but i also have a rack or 2600 and 2950 routers and switches, like most here, for the more advanced concepts.

871 is cheap now. the lowest price i can find is about 250. but can you use it to practice your CCNA?

jabb000

For CCNA do you need Router and Switch or will just a Router be fine?

Actually I am thinking about buying a Dual 2501/2503 Router kit from Ciscikits. Will that be good enough or do I need to get one router an done switch?