Cisco Router for my next MS exam

surfthegecko

Hi All,

Might be a bit of a strange one but here goes.....

I want to take my next Microsoft exam and in doing so I will have a couple of physical servers setup on a test network to simulate DC, DNS Servers etc.

Anyway I want to be able to connect these to my live machine as well and thought it would be a good idea to do this using a cisco router.

This would also be handy as it will be the start of my cisco lab for when I do my ICND2.

Bit of a mish mash I know but its part of a larger master plan.

If I want to be able to connect 2 networks by ethernet whats the best router to do this.

I have seen a 2620 Router but dont know if this has the correct ports to do this, and I cant seem to find a decent datasheet on it.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Nick

tim100

surfthegecko wrote: »

Hi All,

Might be a bit of a strange one but here goes.....

I want to take my next Microsoft exam and in doing so I will have a couple of physical servers setup on a test network to simulate DC, DNS Servers etc.

Anyway I want to be able to connect these to my live machine as well and thought it would be a good idea to do this using a cisco router.

This would also be handy as it will be the start of my cisco lab for when I do my ICND2.

Bit of a mish mash I know but its part of a larger master plan.

If I want to be able to connect 2 networks by ethernet whats the best router to do this.

I have seen a 2620 Router but dont know if this has the correct ports to do this, and I cant seem to find a decent datasheet on it.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Nick

A 2620 has one FastEthernet port. Go with a 2611XM - it has 2 FastEthernet ports and it can run IOS 12.4.

Slowhand

I'm with tim100 on this one, the 2600XM series routers are the way to go in this case.

surfthegecko

Thanks for the info.

I just found a nice table that confirms which 26xx models have 2 fa interfaces.
I will purchase one of these, hopefully xm range as this then allows me to branch out to voice.

I will go searching and let you know what i get.

tiersten

Whilst a 2600XM has Fast Ethernet interfaces, be aware that you won't get anywhere near line speed with them.

APA

tiersten wrote: »

Whilst a 2600XM has Fast Ethernet interfaces, be aware that you won't get anywhere near line speed with them.

being a home lab I doubt he would max out the actual throughput limits for a 2600XM series...

+1 for XM series....

tiersten

A.P.A wrote: »

being a home lab I doubt he would max out the actual throughput limits for a 2600XM series...

It is a Microsoft lab though and not a networking one. If Nick needs to transfer any large files from his real PC to his lab machines then it'll go via the router.

surfthegecko

Thanks for the advice tiersten.
Good point about file transfers, although im hoping I wont need to transfer anything too large its always worth knowing limitations.

I will let you know how my ebaying goes.

surfthegecko

What do you think to a Cisco 2651 with 32Mb/8Mb

Is this big enough to install an SDM version on as well?

Slowhand

surfthegecko wrote: »

What do you think to a Cisco 2651 with 32Mb/8Mb

Is this big enough to install an SDM version on as well?

It'll work for your current project, but not towards your later Cisco studies. The old 2600 series routers don't support version 12.4 of the Cisco IOS. The 2600XM series is the updated version of these routers, and they support the lastest version of the IOS.

surfthegecko

so you recon its better to get a Cisco 2621xm rather than a 2651?

luke_bibby

tiersten wrote: »

Whilst a 2600XM has Fast Ethernet interfaces, be aware that you won't get anywhere near line speed with them.

How come you don't get line speed? I wasn't questioning whether you were wrong/right I just wanted to know

mikej412

luke_bibby wrote: »

How come you don't get line speed?

Cisco Portable Product Sheets

Check out the Router Performance PDF

surfthegecko

I am trying to source a decent 2600xm series router thanks to your advice.

What do you all think about a CISCO 1721 SDM Inter-VLAN Router? Is it worth having getting this as a cheap way of exploring SDM features and additional Inter-Vlan Routing?

tim100

surfthegecko wrote: »

I am trying to source a decent 2600xm series router thanks to your advice.

What do you all think about a CISCO 1721 SDM Inter-VLAN Router? Is it worth having getting this as a cheap way of exploring SDM features and additional Inter-Vlan Routing?

I would still go with the 2600XM series. You can do Inter-VLAN routing on them by using the "Router on a stick" configuration. The 1721's IOS feature set supports IEEE 802.1Q VLAN routing as does the 2600XM series.

surfthegecko

sorry if my last post was misleading.

I meant what about getting a 1721 in additional to a 2620x?

tim100

surfthegecko wrote: »

sorry if my last post was misleading.

I meant what about getting a 1721 in additional to a 2620x?

If you are going to start building a lab and plan on going for your CCNP and CCIE I'd say start off with 2600XM series routers. A 1721 would be good for use as an edge router on an Internet connection but I wouldn't use it for a lab.

tiersten

Assuming it doesn't have a huge premium, try to get a 2600XM with two ethernet ports built in. They are the 26*1XM models. The extra port will be handy later on. It isn't essential but it is nice to have.

Whether it is a 2611XM, 2621XM or 2651XM isn't particularly important. The only difference between those is the speed of the CPU and you're not going to be taxing it in a lab.

A 2691 would work as well and supports the same versions of IOS that a 2600XM does but it is a 2U unit instead of 1U and it is usually more expensive to buy.

surfthegecko

So the 2600xm series are more suited for Voice because they are slightly higher spec, but how do you actually get Cisco Call Manager to work on them.

Do you just have to make sure you have IOS 12.4 installed, or are there other things that need to be installed as well. Do you also have to install CME on a normal windows server?

hypnotoad

surfthegecko wrote: »

So the 2600xm series are more suited for Voice because they are slightly higher spec, but how do you actually get Cisco Call Manager to work on them.

Do you just have to make sure you have IOS 12.4 installed, or are there other things that need to be installed as well. Do you also have to install CME on a normal windows server?

CallManager Express (now known as Communication Manager Express) is what you need. It is a built-in feature to the IP Voice IOS image feature set. Check this PDF:

http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/downloads/765/tools/quickreference/ciscoiospackaging-eng.pdf

So if you get a 2600xm with adventerprise (for example), it will have CME built in. With a 2600XM, you should be able to run CME 4.0 or greater. You will see versions like 7.0 floating around, but dont be intimidated...cisco just renumbered 4.3 to 7.0 (marketing people at their best).

You will have to download phone firmware for whatever IP phones you have.

So the components are basically the router (with CME capable IOS) and the phone firmware (which is usually served to the phones from the flash memory of the router). No PC neccessary in most cases.

surfthegecko

Thanks for the info Hypnotoadl, good overview.

Im sure at work we have Cisco CallManager Administrator installed on a windows 2003 server. Is this different again to CME?

Does CME control the physical side and CallManager Administrator allow greater flexibility using software.

Thanks

hypnotoad

surfthegecko wrote: »

Thanks for the info Hypnotoadl, good overview.

Im sure at work we have Cisco CallManager Administrator installed on a windows 2003 server. Is this different again to CME?

Does CME control the physical side and CallManager Administrator allow greater flexibility using software.

Thanks

The product they have installed on Server 2003 is basically the same thing as CME but scaled up for more users. Cisco did a thing where it did some Linux and Windows-based versions of the program, designed for locations with hundreds of phones.

surfthegecko

oh right, that makes sense i suppose. We probably have about 300 voip phones at work which would fit your description.

As im not going to have loads of voip phones in my room I will just stick to a switch that has an IP voice IOS installed which I believe is IOS 12.4 for something like the 2600xm routers.

Forsaken_GA

mikej412 wrote: »

Cisco Portable Product Sheets

Check out the Router Performance PDF

That's interesting. According to that PDF, I should max out at something like 10mbps, but I routinely put more than that through my 2611xm, though the CPU gets crunched long before I can get to max line speed.

Unless cacti is lying to me

tiersten

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

That's interesting. According to that PDF, I should max out at something like 10mbps, but I routinely put more than that through my 2611xm, though the CPU gets crunched long before I can get to max line speed.

Unless cacti is lying to me

The numbers Cisco quote are for tiny packets which means the most overhead.

Forsaken_GA

tiersten wrote: »

The numbers Cisco quote are for tiny packets which means the most overhead.

Ah, that makes more sense, and seems more accurate. I can get it up to about 75-80 mb/s on bulk file transfers, but at that point, nothing else is getting through and it stops answering SNMP

surfthegecko

Hi,

So I think I have found a nice 2620xm router which has CME installed.
Although the 2620xm doesnt have 2 fast ethernet ports I thought because it was cheaper I would then just buy a WIC card.

Do you know what the best WIC card to get would be if I want an additional network port?

Would something like a NM-1E2W be a good one? This would allow me to get my extra ethernet port and still have 2 WIC slots?

Thanks

tiersten

surfthegecko wrote: »

Although the 2620xm doesnt have 2 fast ethernet ports I thought because it was cheaper I would then just buy a WIC card.

Do you know what the best WIC card to get would be if I want an additional network port?

You can't. The 2600/2600XM does not support adding an ethernet port as a WIC. The commonly available WIC-1ENET is only for certain models in the 1700 range.

surfthegecko wrote: »

Would something like a NM-1E2W be a good one? This would allow me to get my extra ethernet port and still have 2 WIC slots?

No. The 2600/2600XM does not support the combo WIC + ethernet NMs. It is one or the other. You can't have both.

hypnotoad

Also, WICs and 1E's are slow compared to FE.

Forsaken_GA

An NM-1FE-TX will work just fine, that'll give you a second fast ethernet port, and leave your WIC slots free for something else

tiersten

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

An NM-1FE-TX will work just fine, that'll give you a second fast ethernet port, and leave your WIC slots free for something else

You sure the NM-1FE-TX works in a 2600XM? I always thought they were for 3600 and above. The 2600/2600XM was limited to the regular Ethernet NMs like the NM-1E, NM-4E or the NM-16ESW. I've never actually tried it though.

The Cisco datasheet for the NM-1FE-TX lists it as not being available for a 2600/2600XM.