Just passed CCENT! Looking for advice!

thefear78

Hi, I just passed the CCENT today, didn't do quite as well as I had hoped.

I am looking for advice in tackling the ICND2 now. My problem is that I cannot afford the latest routers and switches. I purchased the SemSim software and while it may be good enough for a CCENT it has no sims for SSH, VTP, RSTP or any of the other main objectives for the ICND2!!

Asides from robbing a bank to buy new gear or join a college lab what would you CCNA's reccomend?

Mrock4

I would give dynamips a shot. It's free, and uses real Cisco IOS, so the command output is the same as a real router. You would need a copy of the IOS, however.

Almost forgot..congrats on the CCENT pass man

gonzoflick

2501's are $10 on ebay... Just sayin

freetech

Just bought a 3620 for 13.50 + 15.00 S&H on eBay, just sayin', too.
I've bought a 2600 for less than $40.
Swtches are more of a challenge.
Really, save up those nickels and dimes becasue it doesn't take that much to get together a few routers and switches. If you're not sure what to buy, just ask. This is a very active forum and someone's always willing to help.
I don't know what your resources are, but maybe just buy a piece of equipment when you find a good deal on eBay. In a month or two, you'll have a good lab. It gets addictive.
Two routers and a couple of switches...

hypnotoad

I have been using GNS3 lately. It is awesome. It's a free front-end to Dynamips and comes with a nice Dynamips installer (just basically click Next a few times on Windows). I have been simulating 2610, 3745, and 7200 routers.

The only caveat is that you have to get the IOS images from Cisco, which requires a smartnet contract.

If you buy switches on Ebay, make sure they:
- have enough memory to run a good IOS
- come with a good IOS OR
- you have access to IOS versions through a support contract

As a side note, Cisco nickle-and-dimes you for everything. It's not very conducive to me buying Cisco gear when I have to pay an extra $13,000 just to get a license for another 20 access points on my wireless controllers, or an extra $10,000 just to get a license for X more Anti-X users on my ASA. Not only is their pricing and product sturcture confusing, it's a real turn-off to have to buy all these friggin add-ons to an already overpriced piece of equipment.

"Of course you can do X on a 2500, but you can't do Y, for that you need advanced enterprise IOS version 12.4T (90) blah blah with 32 megs blah blah blah and an unrestricted license, which costs another $20,000!"

Thanks Cisco!

thefear78

I already have a Cisco 2611 and just got a Catalyst 1900 switch and I'm buying more old stuff.

The kicker seems to be the old/cheap stuff doesn't support 12.4 IOS and the sims I tried don't deal with ssh.

On the topic of ssh I should be able to run v1 on 12.2 IOS right? Where can I find it? It isn't showing up on the router "import".

Any good ftp sites to try newer different IOS that may already include ssh?


Thanks!

Netwurk

I have ssh running on my old 2501

It runs IOS 12.2, image is c2500-jk8os-l.122-1b.bin

You'll need 16MB of flash

As for finding IOS images on ftp sites, it's possible but it's not easy. There's a program called IOS Hunter that will find all the images you could ever want but it's pricey these days at $60

freetech

Although the 802 supposedly requires 12.4, you can get the vast majority of your study done on 12.2 or any 12.x IOS. The 1900may not be much help, it doesn't use IOS. It is better than nothing. As far as switches go, 2950 is best, but I've heard that the 2924xl-en will work.
Just build it up little by little.
Two routers and a switch (any switch ) will go a long way to gain hands-on experience.