Detailed questions about lab for ccna/ccnp

Greenmet29

I am thinking about going for my CCNP after I finish my CCNA, and maybe one or two of the advanced CCNA tracks.

I have a gbic port for a 2950 switch that I have and i'm not sure if i'll ever actually need it. Is there anything i'll ever NEED a gbic port for that the 10/100 port won't do in a lab environment?

Also, i've been thinking about getting a layer 3 switch. I have 2 2950 switches, and am in the market for another switch in order to do spanning tree and vlan labs. I've thought about going with another 2950 switch, but because i'm thinking about eventually moving on to CCNP, would it be good to go ahead and spring for the L3 switch now? If so, do you have any suggestions on what one I should look at?

Thanks!

seekrit

Greenmet29 wrote: »

I am thinking about going for my CCNP after I finish my CCNA, and maybe one or two of the advanced CCNA tracks.

I have a gbic port for a 2950 switch that I have and i'm not sure if i'll ever actually need it. Is there anything i'll ever NEED a gbic port for that the 10/100 port won't do in a lab environment?

for my CCNA I used 2 x 2950g's and a single 3550-smi with a sc-sc multimode fiber cable running between one of the 2950g and the 3550. It's nice to switch it up a little for spanning-tree root-port elections and looking at different path costs. But you certainly don't "need" it

Greenmet29 wrote: »

Also, i've been thinking about getting a layer 3 switch. I have 2 2950 switches, and am in the market for another switch in order to do spanning tree and vlan labs. I've thought about going with another 2950 switch, but because i'm thinking about eventually moving on to CCNP, would it be good to go ahead and spring for the L3 switch now? If so, do you have any suggestions on what one I should look at?

Thanks!

Get the 3550 now, and if you can get the PoE. They're about the same price and come in real handy for your voice and wireless when you're hooking up phones and AP's.