CCNA/CCNP/CCIE Home Lab Setup Help

Hello everyone

I am putting my CCNA/CCNP/CCIE lab together; this is what I came up with so far.
I need some help, am I on the right track and am I using the right modules

And I have to scale it down to about 3,000.00 is there hope for me?

I was thinking of scaling down to five routers

10x 2621XM Routers, 1x 2811 Router

4x 3550/3560 Switches

10x Cisco 2621XM Routers, 10x NM-4A/S (4 port Serial Module)

1x Cisco 2811 Router (768 MB RAM), 1x NM-4A/S module

1x Cisco 2610 Router with NM-8A/S Module – 8 Serial, 2 Ethernet Ports
Use as frame relay switch

3x Cisco 2610 Router with WIC-1T Serial Module (Backbone Routers)

1x Cisco 2511 – 2 Serial, 1 Ethernet
16 Asynchronous Ports
Use this as your Terminal Server

2x Cisco 3550-24PWR Switches with Power Over Ethernet Option (PoE) and latest EMI IP Serves
Layer 3 IOS for CCIE LAB

2x Cisco 3560-24PS Switches with latest EMI Advanced IP Services Layer 3 IOS for CCIE LAB

2x NM-2V Voice Carrier Modules, 2x VIC-2FXS Voice Modules, 2x Touch Tone Telephones

All Routers Fully Upgraded
256 MB DRAM(Main Memory), 32MB Flash

12.4 Advanced Enterprise

IOS Includes IPSEC/VPN/FIREWALL/IPV6/VOICE/Everything!!

Thank you in advance

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Comments

redwarrior

It is important before asking for advice to be open to the idea that the advice you receive might not be what you want to hear, but might also be what you need to hear. Otherwise, there really is no point in asking for advice.

...just a thought.

tiersten

Manuel_A wrote: »

And then connect the octal cable from my 2511 A/S to each device, to configure them.

Buy a spare octal cable. One of mine has a bad pin in the HD68 plug which doesn't make a good contact. It was a new sealed octal cable as well and the plug didn't look damaged in any way.

keenon

rossonieri#1 wrote: »

hi manuel

i think you'd better to start all these one step at a time.
do your CCNA study first - buy enough & equal equipment to study with,
and take the exam.

after you've passed that CCNA - move forward to study CCNP stuff and again, add some more equipment needed for it & as supplement to your existing CCNA rack, and the same goes for the CCIE.

from those study stages - you will experience how to do something eg. how to design your network, how to equip your network and so forth. and, all that counts.

enjoy the study & good luck

btw, with all due respect - i think this thread should be moved to the CCNA subforum so that any other CCNA-level member can learn together.

i agree completely.. buy only what you need or just dynamip it. until you need invest in alot of hardware..

Panzer919

Manuel_A wrote: »

I decided to start with:

6 – 3725 Routers
2 – 3550 switches
1 – 3640 Router for F/R
1 – 2511 Router for A/S

Please I could use some cabling ideas, for my frame-relay.

IMHO - do not waste your money on 3725 routers. Your looking at about $200 per router plus shipping and various WIC's to swap out. I just purchased 4 2650XM's with 256/48 for $95 with free shipping and came with a 1 year warranty. To me spending $95 on routers that can do the same as $200 routers is a no brainer. So you could allocate $1200 for routers or you can spend just under $600 and have $800 that can be better allocated somewhere else.

BennyLava

I agree with what others have said, a couple other things to consider:

1. Cabling and troubleshooting layer 1 problems are not a part of the CCIE lab. They're certainly important to learn, but you won't be tested on it for the lab. Once you get to the point that you're preparing for the lab exam, I don't see much of a benefit to having a lab you cabled yourself vs. renting a rack or using dynamips.

2. I believe the latest IOS 3725 will support is 12.4(15)T9. When Cisco starts using 12.4T on the R&S lab exam starting in October, there may be a few things that you won't be able to do with those routers that could be on the lab such as the QoS changes in 12.4(20)T. 7200 routers in dynamips can still run the latest 12.4T release.

apd123

Manuel_A wrote: »

I decided to start with:

6 – 3725 Routers
2 – 3550 switches
1 – 3640 Router for F/R
1 – 2511 Router for A/S

Please I could use some cabling ideas, for my frame-relay.

1. Buy cables
2. Plug cables into routers

Manuel_A

apd123 wrote: »

1. Buy cables
2. Plug cables into routers

Thank You I needed that.

redwarrior

Manuel, I think you would probably find more help and a better audience in the CCNA forums. The CCNP and CCIE forums are generally for more advanced network topics, but these kind of questions would get a better response in a CCNA forum and then others just starting out could learn from them, too. There's nothing wrong with starting out at the basics...we all did it at one time or another, but you have to walk before you can run.