Should these be good for a home lab

protocol167

I might be able to get my hands on some switches at work and wanted to see if it will be suitable or do I have to drop down to 2500 series switches also. I may be able to get 1x2600 series, 1x 2900 series, 2x3600 series.

Should these be suitable for a basic home lab to get hands on for the CCNA and CCNP?

Thanks and sorry for the newbie question. I just see to many home lab on ebay and other sites and is just confused a little about what will work and what will not.

Thanks

dtlokee

It would depend on what model the switch is, some of the "2900" series switches are worthless and are little more than an unmanaged switch. For the routing part it would be good to have 3 and a frame switch you can work with (one of them can also be the frame switch if you have a nm-4as or somthing like that)

freetech

To reinforce the above, it all depends...
Just find a router that can run 12.x (make sure that it has enough flash and RAM). If/when you buy it, try to buy the router with 12.x on it. Buy one router with enough serial ports to serve as a frame relay switch. You may miss somethings, but you'll hit almost all of the objectives with this setup.
You'll want at least one router that will trunk with a switch that will trunk.
2950 switches are your best bet for the CCENT/CCNA, IMHO. It's what they test on. 1900's are cheap but fairly worthless for the objectives. Other 2900's are a crap shoot. Be careful that they properly cover your objectives: IOS, STP, VLANS, VTP, trunking, etc. You'll need at least two switches, three is better.
Hope this helps.

Darthn3ss

Don't get a 2924C... all they do is make it look like you've got more equipment in your rack. found this out the hard way.

mikej412

Darthn3ss wrote:

Don't get a 2924C...

Yeah -- pretty much you should just go for the 2924-XL-EN.

I've seen some deals for 2950s (24 port) go for as low as $125, yet there are still some people out there bidding up the 2924-XL-EN to over $100

You can go back through some of the old 2900XL threads -- somewhere there was a thread with the link to all the 2900 models, their memory, and any upgrade path.

A couple 2900XL/Switch threads to start with:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25434
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22455
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22426

If you want a comparison of the 2900XL to 2950 -- this is THE THREAD:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27399

2600 and 3600 routers are still fine for a lab. You'd want to grab some NMs and WICs to add some ports. The 2600s would have 1 or 2 Ethernet or FastEthernet depending on the models, but there were also some Token Ring versions back from the networking stone age.

protocol167

Thanks!! guys, for all the input but the 3600's will do? I will just grab a 2950 from Ebay or something then.

Thanks and hope to get my CCNA hopefully before 08 ends.

freetech

A 3600 will do great, just make sure they're running IOS 12.x.
Don't buy it unless you can see the "show version" output. In most ways the 3600's are better because they more modular. Also, with a 3600, make sure they have the interfaces you'll need.

protocol167

Ok, finally almost got all my hardware and is ready to really hit hard on the books and start playing with the actual hardware while studying.

Here is what I have so far and will be getting soon. Let me know if I am over doing it and what is really not necessary. I will be continuing onto my CCNP once I get the CCNA and so that is why I am preparing all my equipment to be able to do what I need to do in the CCNP course also.

I have these and gotten them for free from my company.

1 x 2610
1x 3640
1x 2927 XL EN
1x 2511

I am going to buy soon when I get my tax refund

2x 3550
2 x 2950
1x Cisco access point

Thanks and sorry for the noob questions. I just got done working on subnetting and finally thoroughly understanding subnetting and its classes. Although not 100% but atleast understanding it fairly well.

phantasm

protocol167 wrote:

I am going to buy soon when I get my tax refund

2x 3550
2 x 2950
1x Cisco access point

That must be one hell of a tax return!!

Netwurk

phantasm wrote:

protocol167 wrote:

I am going to buy soon when I get my tax refund

2x 3550
2 x 2950
1x Cisco access point

That must be one hell of a tax return!!

I'll say - just the two 3550's will cost at least $500 each

Darthn3ss

i wish my tax return was that high

i'm getting enough back for that, but i have a few other things i need to buy first before i go crazy.

although, that is a good idea. i may set a side a few hundred so i can buy a 3550 or so this summer.