Question about home lab

PsychoFin

Hey guys,

I've come across a very good deal. A guy near me is selling the following equipment for around 300$:

1x Cisco 2621 with NM-16A as 16 ports terminal server
1x Cisco 2621 with NM-1E extra ethernet port
1x Cisco 2621 with WIC-1B-S/T extra ISDN interface
2x Cisco 2503
8x Cisco 2504 with maximum memory

1x Cisco 2950 24 poort switch
2x Cisco 1900 12 poort switch

All the cables and transceivers are also included.

Do you guys think that it is worth it to buy this bunch of stuff, or is the stuff too old for CCIE and CCIP studies?

Appreciate your thoughts on this!

Cheers,
Fin

alan2308

Definitely too old. Those routers and the 2950 will get you through the CCNA, but that's about it.

The 1900's make nice spacers for your rack, or maybe a door stop.

Chris_

alan2308 wrote: »

Definitely too old. Those routers and the 2950 will get you through the CCNA, but that's about it.

The 1900's make nice spacers for your rack, or maybe a door stop.

I agree. You already have your CCNA and that is all this kit will get you through. Invest your money in some decent switches (3550/60) and some voice kit, depending on your certification goals. From a routing perspective GNS3 is all you need but switching and voice need real kit. I only have one router in my Lab and that's a 1760, to use for FXO/FXS ports. I don't even run CME on it as I didn't want to upgrade the memory, I run that on a GNS3 router - so my lab is:

2 x 2950 (£35 each)
1 x 3550 (£100)
1 x 3560 (£275)
1 x 3524 PWR (free from work)
2 x 7960 phones (£40 each)
1 x 1760 with FXO and FXS fitted (router £10!! cards roughly £30 each)
1 x awesome PC with 8Gb RAM and 6 network cards running GNS 3 (Already had the PC but beefed up with memory and extra NICs for about £80)

I may have gone over kill on the switches but some of them were donated by work. but to be honest if you invest your money in a few decent switches and a decent PC, your investment will be far more rewarding

I know us GNS3 heads can go on a bit but my lab allows me to be flexible and I can use a GNS 3 cloud to break the virtual world out to the real world; I can run PIX/ASA in GNS 3; i can run call manager in a VM, MARS, IPS /IDS I can run Juniper olive routers to spread my learning to cross vendor.......you get the point I hope.

Obviously there is some benefit to buying the real thing if you don't work in networking and have no exposure, but even if this is the case, buy decent kit and build up slowly as you can afford it - most of the complete 'kits' are just a pile of trash with a few gems in, for far more money than you should be paying.

PsychoFin

Thanks for the advice guys!

By the way, that set includes a rack as well!

I am scheduled to take SWITCH next week after which I will have my CCNP.
I also managed to snag a 3550 for about 120$, still waiting for it to be delivered though. Slowly building up the lab, and I hope to get a second switch soon so I can do some more interesting stuff with GNS3 though. I guess I will have to avail of the 50% off that INE are currently throwing around...

Thanks again guys!

Cheers,
Fin

DPG

DO IT!!

The NM-16A is worth around $200 alone.

phantasm

I'm of the opinion that all you need for a home lab is switches. Routing can be done best in GNS3.

alan2308

DPG wrote: »

DO IT!!

The NM-16A is worth around $200 alone.

That's true. That NM and the rack alone may justify the entire $300 asking price and you could possibly resell the rest.

PsychoFin

Thanks for all the answers guys! I will let you know what I decide later on! Still in talks with the guy.

Cheers,
Fin