Grandparents offered to buy me some lab equipment!!

I was telling my grand parents I was looking to get my CCNA Voice and CCNP Voice. They told me to put together an ebay cart and they'd buy me the stuff for my birthday next week!
Problem is, I don't know ANYTHING yet. I searched for what to buy but it's all jibberish to me right now as I just passed my CCNA last week and haven't started studying voice yet.

Here is what I have so far:
2651XM (128D/48F)
2650XM (128D/48F)
3 x 1760 (128D/32F)
5 x WIC-2T

C3550-24 PWR
C3550-24
2 x C2950-24

Can you guys give me a quick run down of what to buy to get me started as far as modules/cisco phones go for the new CCNP Voice track? I don't need everything right now, just the basic stuff withing about $1000 to get me started. Thanks!

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

tokhss

You have a good start with the equipment. but,

1. Dont rush

2. Dont Rush

3. whats your goal? ccnp-v or ccie-voice?

2651XM (128D/48F) - use this as a branch router. you will need an aim-atm-voice-30 card for digital to analog processor. example: your vwic card trunked to the pstn router which connects to an fxs port thats connected to a regular analog phone.
2650XM (128D/48F) - same as 2651xm.
3 x 1760 (128D/32F) - not sure .. never used it. but i know you will need pvdm's for your digital to analog conversion.
5 x WIC-2T - thats a good amount. keep it. will be used for your frame wan connection to the fr-relay switch or point to point connections.

C3550-24 PWR - thats good.. really all you need for now. break down the switch with multiple vlans and segment each location (HQ, br1, br2)
C3524-24 - not really needed as its not poe and cant be really or fully used to its potential right now.
2 x C2950-24 - same.

what i have in my lab is the following and i plan on further extending it for the ccie-v lab.

2x - 2811
1x - 2801
1x - 2650xm
1x - 3750-48-power

NM 8a/s - 8 port serial module
3x- wic -1T
2x - vwic-1mft- e1
2x - vwic-1mft- t1
1x - vwic-2mft- t1

1x - vwic-DID (can be used as DID mode or fxs mode)

1x - aim-voice-30 card ( this provides 30 channels to 1 interface only, connot be channelized to multiple interafaces)

2x - pvdm2- 32 channels
1x - pvdm2- 8 channles

max memory / flash on routers as some IOS versions require more than the min amount, such as the gatekeeper features.

I also have 3524 power, 2960 series, and 881W as my home internet router and multiple IP Phones, a couple analog phones connected to the pstn / frame relay router (2811)

good luck and think it all through.. take a paper and draw out your network, compare what some of the boot camp networks have and also some of our networks in this forum and you will get a good understanding of whats needed. The cisco books also provide some examples.

IPDirect

Thanks for your help man, I made a diagram of my network. BTW-Your setup is sweet!!! My goal is CCNP Voice for sure!

Side 1:
Cisco 2801 (CME router)
Cisco 2650XM Branch/DHCP Router
Cisco 3550 PWR
Cisco 7960
Cisco 7940
CIPC

With a simulated wan connection to...

Side 2:
Cisco 2651XM
Cisco 3524 PWR
Cisco 7960
Cisco 7940

I'll grab all the analog stuff I need at some point, prolly like an FXS card and analog phone.

tokhss

Looks good. Geek out now

hypnotoad

You can hit the CVOICE without a lot of euqipment -- it's mostly theory. Try out the material and decide if you wanna pursue the CCVP all the way through.

BTW there's no CM server in this setup. Get CM for VMWare. You also need some PVDM's. The CM Server will be the core of this thing after you get deeper into ccvp.

IPDirect

Thank you, I'm in the process of learning how to use VMware. I found a tutorial online so I followed that in order to install CM 8.0, but i'm not exactly sure how to connect my computer (with vmware and CM 8.0) to my network? I'm assuming just a regular cross over cable to my switch and assign the Cm8.0 the same ip address as my computer, but..

chmorin

IPDirect wrote: »

I'm assuming just a regular cross over cable to my switch and assign the Cm8.0 the same ip address as my computer, but..

Might want to re-think that. Are switches and computers like devices? IP Conflicts are generally not a good thing either. With VMWare, you can assign your VM to a physical interface on your computer. This is when it comes in handy to buy a NIC for your computer with more than one interface, so you can assign your VM an interface of its own.

IPDirect

chmorin wrote: »

Might want to re-think that. Are switches and computers like devices? IP Conflicts are generally not a good thing either. . This is when it comes in handy to buy a NIC for your computer with more than one interface, so you can assign your VM an interface of its own.

Haha, i was just waking up!! Not sure why i said crossover, meant straight through.