2600 Series or 1700 Series for my routers??

BadBoy House

Ok I've finished considering which switch to get (cheers to you guys) now I need to suss out my routers.

I've currently got 1 x 2610 and 1 x 1721. I want more.

Which would be the wisest series to go for? - bearing in mind I want to keep these for future cisco cert use.

I'll pick up a frame relay router down the line.

cerberos

Best to least is 2650XM, 2621XM, 2620XM, and the 2610XM, but it would be better to bust the 2650XM...Ignore the 1721... http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/44052-comparison-1721-vs-2620xm.html. Same question i did ask a few days ago...

Slowhand

Go with the 2600XM series, hands-down. The only reason I have four 1721 routers in my lab is because I got the whole lot, with maxed-out RAM and two serial cards each for less than $200. They work just fine for most things, but the 2600XMs will take you much further. Stay way from the old 2600 series altogether, they're no longer relevant even for the CCNA since you can't install version 12.4 of the IOS on them; they're really only good for testing out basic functionality and features that transcend versions since 12.1, 12.2, and 12.3.

BadBoy House

just had a look on ebay and the xm series are pretty expensive.

i'm gonna keep an eye out for a bargain on the XM series and pick up some 1721's for the time being. looks like they'll be fine for ccna/ccnp and possible ccie

kryolla

my advice which I got from Mike on the other thread is look at the ios feature navigator and see if you will use all the new commands in 12.4. A lot of people are stuck on using 12.4 and at a NA or even a NP level you dont use a lot of the new commands. Its good to get some routers that support 12.4 but your whole lab doesnt have to support 12.4. Another thing is look at what topology you want like in NP lab portfolio or even IE workbooks and see what routers support those interfaces, do you really need 2 serial and 1 ethernet or can 1 serial and 1 ethernet do. Here are my routers for IE lab and if I need to practice something that isnt supported than I can just rent rack time.

R1 2500 12.3 IOS
R2 2500 12.3 IOS
R3 3640 12.4 IOS
R4 2600xm 12.4 IOS
R5 2650 12.4 IOS
R6 1760 12.4 IOS
BB1/FRSW 2600 12.3 IOS
BB2 2500 12.3 IOS
BB3 2500 12.3 IOS

BadBoy House

have you got a link to that other thread?

you've actually made a really good point there - the whole lab doesn't have to be all top end kit.

what versions of the 2500 series have you got?

kryolla

its the link cerberos provided and for 2500 I have 2501 and I think 2503