What do I do with this pile of Cisco gear?

I happened to be at the right place at the right time and was able to acquire a pile of Cisco gear for a real nice price. I've been playing with some of it for a while as practice for my CCNA exam but thought I might be able to do better. I broke the gear into two "piles" I'll call "on the shelf" and "on the rack". The gear that I thought was more capable I put on a rack under my desk and I have been playing with it for a few weeks now. What's on the shelf is generally the less capable gear that didn't fit on the one rack. I can fit another box or two on the rack and/or set up another rack I have but putting both racks under my desk would make it a bit crowded.

This is what I have on the rack:
- Two 2509 routers/terminal servers
- One 2514 router
- One 2950-24 switch
- One 2924-XL-EN switch
- One 2610XM router
- Two 2620 (non-XM) routers

This is what I have on the shelf:
- One 1900 series switch
- One 2505 router
- Four 2501 routers
- One 2916 switch with X2914-XL card (four more ethernet ports)
- Two 2520 routers
- One 2610 (non-XM) router with 1E2W (ethernet) card and four WIC1DSU cards

I have a dozen DTE/DCE serial cables to hook the serial ports on the Cisco routers together. I also have an Apple Time Capsule wireless access point, cable modem (my broadband internet connection), a couple 10bT hubs, and a half dozen or so computers running Windows XP, Ubuntu 10.x, and MacOS X 10.x. The goal is to create a network topology that best reflects what I'd see on the CCNA/CCNP exams and in the "real" world to practice with.

I guess the way to sum up my question is, given the above set of gear how would YOU set it up?

Find more posts tagged with

SAVE $250 on Your CISCO Boot Camp — Use Code "EXAM26"

Exclusively for TechExams members for Infosec Boot Camps starting before April 30, 2026

View CISCO Boot Camps

Comments

alxx

There isn't one network topology there are many different ones.

http://www.certskills.com/LabGear/CCNA/Topologies.aspx

Complex topologies can be broken down into combinations of simpler ones.

e.g Campus Network for High Availability Design Guide* [Design Zone for Campus] - Cisco Systems

I'd suggest more labbing.

Work through the labs from freeccnaworkbook.com , configuring the network etc
http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/70766-configure-network-ccna-lab-scenarios.html

http://www.freeccnaworkbook.com/labs/
Also have a go on their lab (its free)

Roguetadhg

IOS versions matter. 12.4 is what you'll need (I believe)

Im envious of your gear though. I demand rank pictures for our satisfaction, it's my ****. Bonus points for including your entire computer setup in the picture

alxx

extra points for fibre

Roguetadhg

alxx wrote: »

extra points for fibre

Aqua fiber. Do it!

MacGuffin

So, you want photos?

The rack under my desk:

Wide shot of my desk:

Spare gear part one:

Part two:

The first photo shows the six routers and two switches I have on the rack right now with the Linux box I got as part of the deal of buying the Cisco gear.

In the second photo is my "desk", which is a Gorilla rack I put together. The top shelf holds my UPS (not seen, it's towards the back), two laptops, my shortwave Amateur radio, and cable modem. Hanging from the top shelf is my UHF/VHF Amateur radio, Citizens Band radio, and antenna switch. The middle shelf holds my brother's Dell server, another laptop, KVM switch, two CRTs, and clock. Bottom shelf holds mice, keyboards, a really crappy computer, random CDs and DVDs, and other crap. The stuff on the floor got cropped off but you'll see the rack from the first picture and the two Linux boxes. Hanging off the post on the right is a Dewalt lantern and some random computer cables.

Third picture has (top to bottom) a Cisco 1900 switch, a 10bT hub, 2505 router, and four 2501 routers.

Last picture has two DVD drives that happened to be on top of the Cisco gear, a 2416 switch, two 2500 series routers, and a 2600 series router.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot. IOS versions....

The 2600XM router is running IOS 12.4. The 2600 (non-XM) routers are running IOS 12.3. The 2500 series routers on the rack are running IOS 12.2. So far I've been able to do what I want with these routers without troubles. The older IOS versions are close enough to what I had in my classes that I don't recall any oddities.

The 2924XL on the rack is running IOS 12.0 which has caused some headaches. It's different enough that I have to think real hard on how to get it to do what I want quite often. I've given up on it for anything beyond the most basic of switching tasks.

The 2950 switch is running IOS 12.1. There's a few oddities from what I learned in class but nothing big enough that I can even recall them right now.

The Cisco gear on the shelf have IOS versions going all the way back to v8.0. Some have been updated to v12.2, some have corrupted flash and boot to ROMmon.

MacGuffin

A few more notes on my current set-up...

The 2500 series routers have the serial ports in a triangle network. The ethernet ports on all the routers are hooked into the 2950 switch. I gave myself the task of setting up a network with three VLANs I (oh so creatively) called "outside", "middle", and "inside". The outside network connected two 2600 routers and a 2509 to the Apple wireless access point (which is not shown in the photos). The inside VLAN connected the Linux boxes to a 2509, the 2514, and a 2600. The middle VLAN connected the "outside" routers to the "inside" routers. After setting up the VLANs I set the routers to do DHCP, NAT, route redistribution, and so on so that the Linux boxes could reach the internet.

There isn't one network topology there are many different ones.

I realize that. What I'm asking is, if you were given the gear I have then how would you put them together to practice for the CCNA exams? Would you try to fit some more 2500 routers in there to get more serial links? How many? Which ones? How would you hook those serial lines together? Ring? Star? Some sort of mesh?

All but one of my routers have just one ethernet port so that limits things a bit for topologies. The 2600 routers and at least two of my switches support 802.1q sub-interfaces so I can emulate as many ethernet ports I want with those. Thinking about that again the one 2600 router is on the shelf, and not on the rack, for a reason. I believe there is not enough RAM in it to support 802.1q. Unless I can figure out how to make the DSU cards work that router is not going to be useful. The ethernet card in it does not work, its for a 3600 series router or something but it got stuck in that router by a previous owner for some reason.

Can I do anything with those DSU cards without having to buy extra hardware? I recall reading somewhere that it takes more than just a cross-over cable to make them talk to each other. Is that right?

alxx, those links you gave have some good stuff. Thanks. That "Configure the Network" book looks interesting from the quick thumb through I gave it. I'll give it a closer look once I get some sleep.

Speaking of sleep... good night.

alxx

All depends on which labs for what topics

You don't need more hardware. Might want to sell some so you can use the $ to upgrade to some better ones.
Like a 2611xm or 2621xm (dual ethernet) or a 1841 (dual fast ethernet)
Or a 3550 switch or two - more recent/better switches would be a good first step

Could put one of the dsu cards in another router and connect them up.
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/28995

First thing for you to do is some research, search for all the docs for the hardware you have
and research its capabilities.

work out which can and can't be used for the various ccna and ccnp topics
like frame relay, ospf, bgp etc

What I have connected in my lab changes for every lab I do. Plugging in/removing cables etc is part of every lab.

MacGuffin

I did a bit more research on the internet and took that 2610 off the shelf to see what I could do with it.

First off, it turns out I can get those WIC-1DSU-56k4 cards to talk to each other with a roll-over cable. I was misinformed by my CCNP instructor that I needed some extra hardware to make that work. Now that I've moved two of those cards (of four total) into two different routers and have proven them functional I'd like to figure out how to make the best of the other two.

As part of my experiment I took my 2610 off the shelf and temporarily hooked it up to see what it could do. It's got a ten Mbit ethernet port on board, 32MB RAM, 8MB flash, and IOS 12.2 installed. Due to it's RAM/flash configuration (and no other routers to cannibalize for parts) it appears I cannot upgrade the IOS to any more than what it already has. Now the Cisco website says the router supports dot1q but an attempt to configure dot1q encapsulation on an ethernet sub-interface failed. Even the command "encapsulation" does not exist in its vocabulary.

Am I missing something on the capabilities of the 2610 router? Did the Cisco web page lie to me? Shouldn't I be able to setup dot1q encapsulation on that 2610?

That 2610 having only IOS 12.2, lacking the ability to do dot1q or ISL frame tagging, and having only four WIC-1DSU-56k4 cards to split among four routers, means this router will go back on the shelf. I'll take the WICs out and put them in the other routers on my rack. It appears this 2610 is less capable than some of the 2500 series routers I have. That is mildly disappointing, I had higher hopes for it.

I've found that the 2509s work well as routers OR terminal servers, but not both. It seems to me that having them run route redistribution protocols AND keep multiple reverse telnet sessions open bogs it down and it becomes sluggish. Also, having two of them on the rack did not turn out as well as I thought, I really only need one. I'm leaning towards taking one of the 2509s out and try to squeeze two 2520s in its place.

Here's another place where I might be missing something obvious. That 2924 switch in my rack seems to be talking another language. It's got IOS 12.0, which I assume should not be all that different than 12.1, but it seems significantly different than the 2950 in how some commands work and how certain features are configured.

Is IOS 12.0 for the 2900 supposed to be that different than 12.1 for the 2950?

I'm considering taking the 2924 off the rack and putting it on the shelf. The only reason I'm reluctant to do that is because that leaves me with only one switch on the rack. With it speaking such a significantly different language I really have not used it anyway.

That Cisco design guide that alxx linked to earlier reminded me of something I had seen before but forgot some of the details. I'll try to recreate that core/distribution/access layering on my rack. With that in mind...

My newly proposed rack configuration:
- One 2509 terminal server (I'll keep its routing duties very light)
- One 2514 router
- One 2950 switch (likely serving double duty as both distribution switch and access switch)
- Two 2520 routers
- One 2610XM with two WIC-1DSU-56k4 installed
- Two 2620 routers with one WIC-1DSU-56k installed each

This setup should serve me well as I study for the CCNA and CCNP Route tests. For the CCNP Switch and TShoot tests I believe I'll need to get some more hardware.

Comments?

MacGuffin

alxx wrote: »

All depends on which labs for what topics

You don't need more hardware. Might want to sell some so you can use the $ to upgrade to some better ones.
Like a 2611xm or 2621xm (dual ethernet) or a 1841 (dual fast ethernet)
Or a 3550 switch or two - more recent/better switches would be a good first step

Could put one of the dsu cards in another router and connect them up.
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/28995

First thing for you to do is some research, search for all the docs for the hardware you have
and research its capabilities.

work out which can and can't be used for the various ccna and ccnp topics
like frame relay, ospf, bgp etc

What I have connected in my lab changes for every lab I do. Plugging in/removing cables etc is part of every lab.

Looks like our our posts crossed paths. I was composing my previous post while you wrote this one.

Taking your last comment first...
While plugging in and removing cables is part of the lab I don't want to keep dragging equipment off the shelf. I want to have the most useful gear on the rack where I can use it, not trip over it, and not wear out a screwdriver from swapping things out of the rack.

I did research the capabilities of the equipment while choosing what I'd put in the rack. What I have there now shows only one or two pieces having been swapped out from the first time I put it together a few months ago. I've run into some issues and I'm re-evaluating my setup. This thread is part of my research for the third iteration.

As pointed out in my previous post I've found that I can put the DSU WICs to use and plan to do so.

Selling some of the gear to put towards getting a 3550 or similar has crossed my mind several times. I believe I'll have to follow through with that real soon now.

alxx

could try booting the 2610 via tftp

The router capabilities depend on the ios image and version.
Check in cisco feature navigator to see which features the installed ios has.

you can download ios for the 2950's free from cisco , just need to register.
latest is 12.1 22 (121-22.EA14)
You'll probably want the k version (i6k212q4) with encryption.

Maybe another 2950 or couple of 3550's ?
Can't help with the older switches as only have 2950's and 3550's

For the other part of the ccnp (private vlans) use one of the online labs with 3750's
like packet life or one of the paid labs.

You've got more than enough 2500's.
Maybe keep an eye out for a 3725 or 3745 or 1841 or similar.
The 1841's are great , dead silent unlike my 3660 or 3745(noisier than the 3660).
A whole stack are coming off lease. Seem going for around $150 - 250

Or use gsn3 for a couple of new router models and spend the cash on a couple of good switches and a couple more 2950's

MacGuffin

alxx wrote: »

could try booting the 2610 via tftp

The router capabilities depend on the ios image and version.
Check in cisco feature navigator to see which features the installed ios has.

Booting from tftp would help with the limited flash but not the limited RAM. I checked the feature navigator and it appears the 2610 needs 64MB RAM to hold an IOS that supports dot1q. Without dot1q I can't put this router on a stick. I suppose I could stick one or two of those WICs in it so it has some interfaces to route between but I don't see much point to it. I could put those WICs in the other routers that support it and still learn how to make them work. Buying more RAM, WICs, or whatever for it also seems pointless, I could put that money towards another switch or something else more useful.

alxx wrote: »

you can download ios for the 2950's free from cisco , just need to register.
latest is 12.1 22 (121-22.EA14)
You'll probably want the k version (i6k212q4) with encryption.

Tried that. Registered even. I cannot download IOS images without a support contract. I assume that costs money.

My 2950 already has 12.1(22)EA13. The problem lies with the other switches. Those have an IOS that is a bit out of date making configuration difficult. They don't "speak the same language" on the command line. They also likely lack some features I need but I haven't bothered to find out. I grew tired of fighting with them.

alxx wrote: »

Maybe another 2950 or couple of 3550's ?
Can't help with the older switches as only have 2950's and 3550's

For the other part of the ccnp (private vlans) use one of the online labs with 3750's
like packet life or one of the paid labs.

You've got more than enough 2500's.
Maybe keep an eye out for a 3725 or 3745 or 1841 or similar.
The 1841's are great , dead silent unlike my 3660 or 3745(noisier than the 3660).
A whole stack are coming off lease. Seem going for around $150 - 250

Or use gsn3 for a couple of new router models and spend the cash on a couple of good switches and a couple more 2950's

Yes, I *DO* have enough 2500s. I don't think I'd miss the 2501s, I'd sell those. The 2509s are nice as terminal servers, that makes them valuable. What do I value more? Keep the 2509 as a terminal servers or sell them for something potentially more useful? I'm definitely going to keep one, the other makes for a nice spare and/or generic router just as capable as the 2501s. The other 2500s are capable enough for now, not sure if I can get enough for them to make it worth the trouble. Anyway, just sort of doing a brain **** "thinking out loud" here.

I'm thinking that if I'm going to invest in more hardware I'm thinking I'd get a layer 3 switch first. I'm still pretty ignorant about what to look for in a switch. I had some experience with routers before my CCNA/CCNP classes so I had an idea of what I was getting into and what to look for in a router. When I started in networking I'm not even sure ethernet switches even existed. Now they got these "layer 3 switch" thing-a-ma-jobs.

The short term goal is to fix up my rack so I can brush up on my CCNA stuff before my next test attempt. There's not enough time to go shopping for new gear for that. The longer term goal is to get the gear I need for my CCNP tests. It's probably a good idea to investigate how to gear up for the CCNP but I don't want to distract from the more immediate concerns, those being the CCNA and CCNP-Route. I should have enough gear for that now, right?

alxx

3550 is layer 3

Do plenty of labs at home and do a few online Free CCNA Workbook » The Stub Lab Schedule Portal and https://packetlife.net/lab/schedule/
lets you try newer equipment for free.

My first network work, was on aircraft installing entertainment systems(worked for Qantas). Matsushita system 2000E.
Whole aircraft as one wan, with multiple token ring lans , via under seat cables(coax).
System was run by dual 486sx.
http://bbs.feeyo.com/posts/386/topic-0045-3867830.html

No longer work on aircraft!
Have spent plenty of time in the past debugging on/via arinc 429 databus.

Most of my current work is embedded systems/sensor systems and electronics interfacing.Mostly c, python and vhdl.
Currently mostly on omap3/omap4 and spartan 6 fpgas
Using these fpga boards from digilentinc
http://digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,836&Prod=ATLYS
http://digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,897&Prod=NEXYS3

MacGuffin

In between sessions of playing with my routers today I've been thinking about my switch situation. The first part is about the switches I currently own, the second is about what I may own in the future.

First part, if you have experience with these switches let me know what you think about them.

First switch is a 1924-EN. What version of IOS do you have on it? Has it been useful for you in studying for CCNA/CCNP? If not then how useful would this be to others? To put it another way, would someone even take this if given to them or should I just toss it in the trash?

Second switch is a 2916 with a 2914-XL (quad ethernet) card. Same questions. What version of the IOS do you have on it? Has it been useful for you? If not then can I even give this thing away?

Second part, I've been looking at some switches for sale on-line. I saw some 3550 series switches with power over ethernet. Is POE a desirable feature? Would the application of power on the ethernet port possibly damage a non-POE device, like a PC NIC?

I believe I'll get a 3550 in the next few weeks. I need to get some tests, classes, and other stuff out of the way before I buy more gear.

fsanyee

The 1900 series switches are not good for the exam. With the 2900 XL's, you can use almost every command which is enough for the CCNA exam. The best choice for the CCNA is the 2950 with enhanced image. For the CCNP you need 3550s.

MacGuffin

So, toss the 1900 in the skip?

Oh, and I forgot about my 2924XL. Same questions. What IOS should I have for it to be useful?

2924 has 8MB RAM. 2916 has 4MB RAM.

MacGuffin

Bump.

So, no replies on my questions about the 2900 series switches. No one has this kind of gear? I guess I should not be surprised as these switches are quite old.

I'd really like to get at least one of these switches up to par for my CCNA and CCNP studies. I've come to the conclusion that I'll need to get another switch or two at some point so I can practice for the CCNP. I can use software to emulate other routers but there is no substitute for real switches.

I'll need to do some more research on my own but if someone can offer a few words on what I can expect from these 2900 series switches then it could save me a lot of time and frustration.

alxx

2900XL are missing one or two features for ccna but only a couple.

Not idea on what ios.
Only have 2950's and 3550's myself.

3550's have most features needed for ccnp , not everything (private vlans) .