Cisco Noob Needs Router Advice

Hey all, 3 weeks ago I jumped in to Cisco. I couldn't resist the urge to pick up a 2900XL on the fleabay for $1.65 plus shipping. Ive been teaching myself so far, but have found the limits of the switch. Doing more research on switches and routers, along with CCNA etc, I'll need a 2950 at some point, so that solves the problem in the switch catagory. For the router, I'm kinda lost. I know the differences of the routers (2611 vs 2620 2620 vs 2621xm) blah blah. But I don't know how that translates to capabilities of the routers. So would I be doing any disservice to myself by pick up a pair of 2620's to play with and learn and eventually use for testing? Or even something different. I know eventually the limits off these routers are going to being met with IPv6 etc. Im just looking for something to learn on and become familar with. Testing is a few years out, but I'm genuinely interested in learning and setting up a home lab.

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Comments

ciscoman2012

Look for an XM 2600 series router. Also look for one with 128DRAM and 32Flash which will let you run 12.4 IOS and use SDM.

Some options to consider:

2610XM, 2620XM, 2650XM - All have 1 FastEthernet port
2611XM, 2621XM, 2651XM - All have 2 FastEthernet ports

Turgon

Stidrvr wrote: »

Hey all, 3 weeks ago I jumped in to Cisco. I couldn't resist the urge to pick up a 2900XL on the fleabay for $1.65 plus shipping. Ive been teaching myself so far, but have found the limits of the switch. Doing more research on switches and routers, along with CCNA etc, I'll need a 2950 at some point, so that solves the problem in the switch catagory. For the router, I'm kinda lost. I know the differences of the routers (2611 vs 2620 2620 vs 2621xm) blah blah. But I don't know how that translates to capabilities of the routers. So would I be doing any disservice to myself by pick up a pair of 2620's to play with and learn and eventually use for testing? Or even something different. I know eventually the limits off these routers are going to being met with IPv6 etc. Im just looking for something to learn on and become familar with. Testing is a few years out, but I'm genuinely interested in learning and setting up a home lab.

2900XL's? I ran a four floor building on those in 2002. Things move on. I wouldn't get hung up on limits starting out. There's plenty of advice here but invest in affordable gear and see how you go. Even old routers will do most things with a flash/dram upgrade, but for layer 3 switching and router subinterfaces you want the right specs.

alxx

Plenty of recent threads on routers for labs.

routers 2600xm, 1721 , 1751 , 1760 or better

switches 2950 , 3550 or better

ciscoman2012

alxx wrote: »

Plenty of recent threads on routers for labs.

routers 2600xm, 1721 , 1751 , 1760 or better

switches 2950 , 3550 or better

...You sound like a broken record...:)

A good one though!! LOL

Todd Burrell

I would say what you purchase should depend on how far you plan on going with your Cisco studies. For me I planned on getting my CCNA and then the CCNP so I chose the following:

3 2620XM routers
3 2950 switches
1 3550 switch

I purchased a WIC1-DSU T1 card for each router and a WIC-2T and a NM-4E for each router (which was some overkill).

I'm sure you can get by with some 2500 series routers and 2950 switches for just the CCNA.

And if you are just starting out I would recommend getting the Network+ cert first. It's a good entry level and will give you some good knowledge that you can use for the CCNA.

Bottom line is I think it's nice to have the physical equipment to play with for these exams.

alxx

ciscoman2012 wrote: »

...You sound like a broken record...:)

A good one though!! LOL

Just trying to stop people going out and spending to much money on older gear.

Still get regular posts were someone went and brought 2 to 4 2500 routers for $200+
because they didn't research things first or enough , or just looked at forum posts without checking the date.

Hoping the trickle of 1841's and 3650's starting to come off lease/end of waranty/service period
turns into a good stream(or flood). Seen 1841's go for $120 to 150 and 3560's for as low as $120 a few more around $150 to 250.

With the heavy rain here (1/6 the state is flooded about 50 000sq miles) expecting a good bit of water logged/damaged gear to start showing up
on ebay and the forecast being 21 of the next 28 days for heavy rain not good. Wettest and coldest summer on record here - only been a few days over 25*C (way to cold).
Thousands evacuated as floodwaters rise
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