2912 for home lab?

Bokeh

Building my home lab for my ccna study. While watching the 2950s on Ebay, I was given a 2912. Will this be ok to use, or should I grab a 2950 instead?

bighornsheep

Try to get a 2950, SI or EI should be fine for CCNA. They shouldn't be anymore than $120, I've picked them up before for $75.

The 2912 is one of the few "alright" 2900XL switches, and they should not cost more than $50, otherwise it's a rip off. Don't even both with any model from Table-1 in the link below:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst2900xl_3500xl/releasesa6/rn/OL033202.html

The link above talks about 4MB 2900XL models which basically is a Cisco repeater with a loud fan. The rest of the 2900XL have 8MB of ram and can run 12.0 Catalyst IOS, which give you a pretty good experience with DTP, VLANs, VTP, Ethernet Channel, etc...not much on the QoS side though.

tiersten

Get a 2950. The commands in the 2900XL series aren't quite the same. You can use the 2912XL as a secondary switch still.