Advice for a total newbie in the land of Cisco

dstock7337

Now that my n00b disclaimer is out of the way

After a well-deserved break from certification studying and college classes in-between - I've decided to work on obtaining the CCNA cert - possibly to lead to a CCSP (depending on how things go. I want to get out of the strict working only on servers routine that I am stuck with at my current job.

I don't have experience with any routers and switches, as my current job only has me working with windows based servers (and anything else that nobody wants to work on - like copiers).
I'm on a tight budget and so far I've gotten the new Sybex and Cisco press books for the 640-802 exam.
Since I'm pretty strapped for cash, I wanted to see if there was any really cheap sim software or equipment that anyone would recommend for me to perform lab exercises on.
I would appreciate any help/advise.

Thanks!

networker050184

I would sway away from sims if possible. If you have no other choice though they are better than nothing. If you read through some of the lab threads here you will see that you can find some 2500 series routers on ebay pretty cheap. These routers are great for labs as well as the 2600 routers. As far as switches you could pick up a couple 2950s. The reaserch that goes along with finding good lab equipment is a great learning experience in its self. A decent CCNA lab can be bought prettry cheap if you search around for good prices and not buy one of those "comlete lab" deals that have old out dated switches that are no good for the CCNA. If you have any questions about specific equipment there are lots of people here willing to help.

Oh and welcome to the wonderful world of Cisco!

dstock7337

networker050184 wrote:

I would sway away from sims if possible. If you have no other choice though they are better than nothing. If you read through some of the lab threads here you will see that you can find some 2500 series routers on ebay pretty cheap. These routers are great for labs as well as the 2600 routers. As far as switches you could pick up a couple 2950s. The research that goes along with finding good lab equipment is a great learning experience in its self. A decent CCNA lab can be bought pretty cheap if you search around for good prices and not buy one of those "complete lab" deals that have old out dated switches that are no good for the CCNA. If you have any questions about specific equipment there are lots of people here willing to help.

Oh and welcome to the wonderful world of Cisco!

Thanks for the advise! I'll check out ebay and the IT crypt at work.

mwgood

On the other hand - you'll do yourself a favor by becoming familiar with Dynamips.

dynamik

You can pick up 2501s for next to nothing. I got two a couple weeks ago for $14.99 and $9.99 with full memory. Get 3-4 of those, a 2520 for frame-relay, and 2-3 2950s for switching. The switches are going to hurt you the most. You'll probably pay $100-125 for each one. Switching can't be run through dynamips/dynagen, so you will need to pickup the equipment or get some rack time for switching.

mwgood

dynamik wrote:

Switching can't be run through dynamips/dynagen, so you will need to pickup the equipment or get some rack time for switching.

Yes, it can. Though it is done better - "more realistically," by an actual switch.

networker050184

The switching in dynamips with the esw modules has some bugs (mainly with spanning-tree). I wouldn't trust if for exam preperation.

bmauro

While I 100% love and recommend Dynamips, I feel that its best to get comfortable with the hardware before jumping fully into the virtual world.

If you could pick up just a couple old 25xx routers and hopefully a 2950 switch, you can become familar with the hardware - how their connected, the difference btw the aux and console port. The stuff you would never see working with just dynamips.

I have a lot of cisco gear - more than I really need. And I used most of it during my CCNA studies and that helped me quite a lot. Now that I'm studying for my CCNP (BSCI) I rarely if ever power on my lab - I find it quicker (and cheaper) to just load up a network on dynamips.

So my advice would be first get your hands dirty working with the real deal, once you're comfortable with the hardware, start looking into dynamips where you can build some really interesting networks.

Good luck.