Off Brand Switch

Daniel333

Hey guys,

I am sorta on certification hiatus. So all my labbing has been for fun. (been attacking my own network with Backtrack, been a blast)

I just thought it might be fun to toss a Non-Cisco switch in my lab. Maybe learn how to setup trunking etc. Any thoughts or recommendations on this?

I was hoping to find something on ebay maybe from Dell equivalent to a 3550. recommendations?

On that note, I should probably get a juniper router. Any recommended base model routers I can pick up off ebay just to learn their CLI and mess around?

Recap, which dell switch if any? And which model Juniper Router if any?

thanks!

down77

Harass some vendors to demo equipment if you have to! I started on a project a few years back (which I put on long term hiatus due to time/travel) where I was documenting the requirements for Tagging/Trunking, LACP, and Inter-Vlan routing between Cisco and vendor <X> equipment. I had gone through BNT, Brocade, Dell, Force10, HP, Juniper, Nortel, and a few others before I had stopped.

If real world experience/price is a concern then check ebay for some used Dell or HP gear. The price for some of the others can be a little high (hence the reason I said to harass the vendors for 30day demo eqpt). You will be surprised how chatty some vendor equipment can be while others are very efficient.

Good luck!