CCENT Lab Help

All,

I am new to the board. I am a 17 year IT project manager, yes I said it, who has decided to complete his CCENT in the hope of becoming a better project manager or getting out of being a PM. With that out of the way I think I have been duped. I purchased a lab "kit" from ebay:

2 X 2900XLs
2 X 2500s routers

I'm just at the point in my studies of working with switches. I tried to fire up one of the 2900s and after a few hours on the web and trying to xmodem the missing ios I have found that there is not enough memory to accommodate the ios. c2900xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC17.bin is 1769.44 KB. Even is I delete everything from the switch I only get 1644 KB. The xmodem dies about half way through due to insufficient space. Am I, in typical project manager fashion, missing something?

Also...If I were to can all this equip and start over can anyone recommend a shopping list and source? I intend to go on to CCNP and can still make use to my lab for servers and what not. I have about $600.00 to part with.

Thanks & sorry if this is one of those questions that comes up every other day.

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Comments

instant000

Did you attempt this thread?

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/6434-ccna-faq-please-read-before-posting.html

j-man

Oh man, this topic has been beaten to death. What's difficult about it is everyone has different ideas about which certification path they want to go down.

Do a search on this forum for labs. You'll spend hours reading which will cause you to have a little bit more specific questions which will help us narrow things down for you.

Please stay away from kits. I've found that it's more educational researching what is required, finding it and then upgrading if needed. Again, this forum is a treasure trove of information and I've learned bunches from the members here.

A little nugget: You'd want to look for the 1700 or the 26xxXM series of routers and at least 2 2950 series switches. For CCNP, I'd add one 3550EMI.

There are so many more variables such as what WICs, cables and Network Modules.

Search the forum grasshopper and you will not be disappointed.

Oh and welcome to the TE forums. Kick back, enjoy yourself and chime in.

alan2308

j4glaws wrote: »

I'm just at the point in my studies of working with switches. I tried to fire up one of the 2900s and after a few hours on the web and trying to xmodem the missing ios I have found that there is not enough memory to accommodate the ios. c2900xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC17.bin is 1769.44 KB. Even is I delete everything from the switch I only get 1644 KB. The xmodem dies about half way through due to insufficient space. Am I, in typical project manager fashion, missing something?

There are two memory configurations for the 2900XL switches, 4MB RAM/2MB Flash and 8MB RAM/4MB Flash. I would think either one should be able to accommodate a 1769KB IOS, so there is probably something there that you aren't seeing.

j4glaws wrote: »

Also...If I were to can all this equip and start over can anyone recommend a shopping list and source? I intend to go on to CCNP and can still make use to my lab for servers and what not. I have about $600.00 to part with.

Keep what you have, it can still be used now. I have 2500's and 2900's that I used to study for the CCNA. The 2900XL's (assuming you can get them running) are great as a 3rd or 4th switch for a CCENT/CCNA lab, and the 2500's are good enough for CCNA/CCENT work.

Add a pair of 2950 switches, and a 1760 router and you'll be more than set for the CCNA without spending much more money (you should be able to get all 3 for around $100). If you're thinking CCNP after this, consider a 3550 switch and a second 1760 additionally.