Ccna Home Lab Advice

vp69

Hi all,
this is my first post in this forum. I'm an undergraduate student doing bachelor in IT in australia. I've started preparing for CCNA and looked up ebay for used equipments to set up home lab. I found one pack as detailed below.

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2 x Cisco 2500 Series Routers.

1 x Cisco Catalyst 1900 Swtich.

1 x Cisco DTE to DCE Cable (1m + Long).

2 x Trancievers (Serial to Ethernet).

1 x Cisco Rollover Cable.

1 x Rollover cable extender

2 x Power Leads.

2 x Cisco CCNA Training Books.

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ROUTERS

Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS ™ 2500 Software (C2500-D-L), Version 12.0(17), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright © 1986-2001 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Mon 16-Apr-01 17:52 by nmasa
Image text-base: 0x03038A64, data-base: 0x00001000

ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 11.0(10c), SOFTWARE
BOOTFLASH: 3000 Bootstrap Software (IGS-BOOT-R), Version 11.0(10c), RELEASE SOFT
WARE (fc1)

Router uptime is 2 minutes
System restarted by power-on
System image file is "flash:/c2500-d-l.120-17.bin"

cisco 2500 (68030) processor (revision D) with 16384K/2048K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID 01718293, with hardware revision 00000000
Bridging software.
X.25 software, Version 3.0.0.
Basic Rate ISDN software, Version 1.1.
1 Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)
2 Serial network interface(s)
1 ISDN Basic Rate interface(s)
32K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory.
8192K bytes of processor board System flash (Read ONLY)

Configuration register is 0x2102

SWITCH

Cisco Catalyst 1900/2820 Enterprise Edition Software
Version V8.01.02
Copyright © Cisco Systems, Inc. 1993-1998
Switch uptime is 0day(s) 00hour(s) 00minute(s) 30second(s)
cisco Catalyst 1900 (486sxl) processor with 2048K/1024K bytes of memory
Hardware board revision is 5
Upgrade Status: No upgrade currently in progress.
Config File Status: No configuration upload/download is in progress
27 Fixed Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)
Base Ethernet Address: 00-30-94-6F-32-80
===============================

I also want to go for CCNP in future. So can anybody please advise me if this is a good buy or not i.e. equipments are proper to set up a home lab for ccna and ccnp in future(may be with some additions)?
The listing is ending in 2 days so it will be great if somebody could reply me by then.
I'm really thankful for the info in this forum.
thanx all.

rotoruaguy

Hi there,
Im in the same boat!! I have started doing CCNA and then uni next year in Australia. It all depends if the price is right. The 1900 switch is not needed or really wanted as some of the spanning tree and other commands are different to the 2900 switch commands-you are tested on these. The 2500 and 2600 routers are great. The 2500 routers should go for 35 to 100 dollers depending of the model. I picked up a 2520 router (needed for frame reley) for $80 plus $15 shipping costs. The DTE/DCE cables are a pain to get at a good price. The 2600 routers have been going for arount $120 to $150 depending on model. The 2900 switches tend to go for $100. There is alot of people buying on ebay at the moment for CCNA/CCNP. You need around three-four routers and one 2520 router. about three switches (I am focusing on routers at the moment so I dont know).
I hope this helps.

pixxel

hello,

what do you think about this kit for CCNA:

1 Cisco 2501
1 Cisco 2503
1 Cisco 2610 + 1 WIC-1T
1 Cisco 3620 + 1 WIC-1T + 1 WIC-1B-S/T ISDN BRI

4 Cables Power AC 220V
4 Cables Consola RS232

Everything for 300 Euros ($40.

Is this price good? Is this enough for CCNA?

Netstudent

Don't buy 1900 series switches. They have a different command set than the CCNA exam. It's pretty obvious that the people trying to pawn off 1900 series switches are just trying to make a buck and have no clue about the actual details on the CCNA certification.

NO need for BRI ports for the CCNA, however there are still a substantial amount of cisco shops out there that use ISDN as a backup link, so having that command set in your head will not hurt.

janmike

I do not know your experiences. But, in the last 3 weeks, I have found that you need to be sure of your devices.

If you want to start, and get used to looking at a console view of the IOS, just get a cheapy from eBay or something and start looking. The prompt on the old cheapy is the same as the prompt on the new ones. In the last 2 days I have gotten a router for 95-cents and a switch for 99-cents. The shipping is the expensive thing.

Be sure and understand about NMs, SMs, WICs, and NPs. These are modules that slide in and out of the routers. You have got to have serial ports and back-to-back(DTE/DCE) cables.
Cruise ebay and Google and get everything in its place. A 30-dollar router can have 4 NM slots, but may not have anything in the slots. When you want to fill the slots, it will cost you hundreds.

Get educated first. I'm lucky. I'm a quick learner when it comes to hardware.

Hope this helps someone. You all may already be aware of these things, and I don't want to sound condescending.

If you don't even have CCNA, don't try to equip yourself for CCNP now. Understand, you will have to add some equipment for the CCNP if you are going to learn configuration on your own built lab.

Good luck!