Question for homelab setup(CCNA)

mattman26

bare with me i have zero cisco experience, but i definitely want to get this cert.

so im thinking about purchasing a kit from Cisco Certification: CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, used Cisco router, Cisco switch, Cisco routers.(is this a legit site?). but my only concern is when i have it all setup what do i do with it, what i mean is are there labs in a book that i can follow?

also another thing is I have no idea where to start studying any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You everyone and good luck on your studies as well.

zrockstar

You can do much better putting a lab together yourself than buying from a site like that. As far as labs go, the Exploration Series (Search Results) has a lab book that goes along with every textbook. Most people just use the Lammel or Odom stuff, but the labs in the Exploration Series are really good, as well as the text.

SharkDiver

Mattman,

Yes, this site is legit. I bought a kit from them a few years ago. My kit came with a lab book. If you look at their categories on the left side of the screen, one of them is "Books, CDs, DVDs etc." They still have the lab book for sale separately if it isn't included in the kit you buy. I thought the lab book was pretty good.

jbimler

SharkDiver wrote: »

Mattman,

Yes, this site is legit. I bought a kit from them a few years ago. My kit came with a lab book. If you look at their categories on the left side of the screen, one of them is "Books, CDs, DVDs etc." They still have the lab book for sale separately if it isn't included in the kit you buy. I thought the lab book was pretty good.

Which kit would you recommend to not only pass the test but get some good experience.

xbuzz

I'm doing CCENT atm and i've had the gear from my first week.

The advise I would give, is that there's no rush to get gear. You'll need to cover the material for CCENT at least once to learn how to connect everything together, and by then you'll have a greater knowledge of what you actually need to buy. I bought my gear in kit form from a good uk seller and i was happy with the gear and price.

alan2308

jbimler wrote: »

Which kit would you recommend to not only pass the test but get some good experience.

Part of the reason that we always recommend putting the lab together yourself is because of what you learn in the process. Learning about the capabilities of different models, determining which modules and how many of each, different serial cables, etc.

The second big reason is cost. The cheapest lab on that site that I would consider good enough is about $400. I can find a lab that is just as good and probably better doing it myself. And besides the cost savings, you don't need the whole enchilada on day 1. Early in your studies, there's plenty you can do with a single router or a single switch before you have any use for the whole lab.

Roguetadhg

Very true.

The only issue with building a lab is cost. That coupled with the cost of tests, materials, social... It quickly becomes more than just dollar signs.

for CCENT, packet tracer, or boson netsim will be plenty. ICND2, you'll want to start to get away from Netsim. Packet tracer would be great at this level, or start to look into gns3.

mattman26

Thank you everyone, i will definitely use this in my studies, other then the lab what is a good book to use pref one with practice test in them or a cd with videos or questions

Thank you again

alan2308

mattman26 wrote: »

Thank you everyone, i will definitely use this in my studies, other then the lab what is a good book to use pref one with practice test in them or a cd with videos or questions

Thank you again

For a book you have two good options. Wendell Odom's book and Todd Lammle's book. They both cover everything you need, so the only real difference is writing style. Google Books has previews of both so you can get a feel for that.

SharkDiver

MattMan,

I would suggest the CCNA Official Certification Guide and Chris Bryant's ebooks. As far as putting together a lab, I would actually suggest putting together your own lab from eBay rather than buy a pre-fab kit. I did buy a kit from them, and I did use it for the CCNA, but when I moved on to the CCNP, I found that you could build your own lab, with more current hardware, much cheaper.

I would also suggest this for your labs:
Amazon.com: CCNA 640-802 Network Simulator (2nd Edition) (9781587204449): Wendell Odom: Books

I used the first edition of this and got hundreds of hours of practice out of it.

Todd Burrell

Mattman:
You're exactly where I was about 6 months ago, and I was seriously considering just buying a kit instead of taking the time to purchase everything separately. I am VERY glad I took the time to buy equipment off of Ebay instead of getting the all-in-one kit. I purchased the following:

2 2620XM routers
3 2950 switches
WIC-2t cards for the routers (for serial connections)
Related cabling (look on this site for descriptions of the cables needed - you can also get these off of Ebay)

I purchased this equipment for the main purpose of also going on for my CCNP - and I have since added a couple of 3550 switches.

I also used the Wendell Odom books for ICND1/ICND2. They are somewhat dry, but they cover the material very well. I also used the Boson practice exams (a must). The Boson exams are very similar to the actual composite CCNA exam.

Use this forum for any issues you have. There are a number of very knowledgeable people on here so you should be able to get any issues resolved very quickly.

You also have to absolutely be able to subnet quickly. Work on getting very accurate and very fast with subnets.

Good luck.

JustFred

Boson sure is expensive,

I have been to their site and the stuff looks good but its not for someone on a small budget. Guess i will stick to Lammle's book

SdotLow

FredWatanabe wrote: »

Boson sure is expensive,

I have been to their site and the stuff looks good but its not for someone on a small budget. Guess i will stick to Lammle's book

You'd be looking for the Boson Ex-Sim Max practice test. If you have one of the Odom 2nd edition books (prior to last October, I believe) that has the Boson test engine in the back, you'll get a discount for purchasing the Ex-Sim Max. I believe it drops from 99.99 to 79.99.

If you've never taken an Cisco exam, they are pretty rough. It's not a straight up multiple choice exam. The exam will have simulation questions where you have to go to this router, and then this router, and then this switch, and figure out what is wrong by using the Cisco IOS. The Boson Ex-Sim max does a great job of preparing you for the exam. Also, if you get the Ex-Sim max and fail your test, they'll refund you the cost of the exam you failed (or maybe it was the cost of the ex-sim max, it's on their site). If you can pass the ex-sim max you should be able to pass the actual exam.

I just started refreshing on ICND1 while going through Lammle's 7th edition CCNA book. I'll be pressing hard into ICND2 once I get through one lap of Lammle's CCNA book and watching ICND1 / ICND2 CBT nuggets. I'll then go through Lammle's book again, doing all end of chapter tests, and then hit Odom's ICND2 book and do all tests. Finally I'll purchase Ex-Sim Max or ICND2 and get an idea of what I need to touch up on. This should (hopefully!) have me in a good place to sit the exam and not stress.

In regards to purchasing a lab for home - I would strongly suggest building it yourself and not purchasing a kit. I've found kits to be highly over priced, and the equipment you get is rather poor for the money you're paying. You can download CCNA lab books all over the web for free, so no need to concern yourself with not picking up their specific one.

Corndork2

Please.... DONT buy a pre-built lab.

You'd be amazed how much you learn about Cisco Hardware, model numbers, and module support by building your own lab. It will help you better understand the devices that you will be expected to configure. Also, building your own lab, versus buying one, usually saves you money, or gives you a better lab for the same amount of money.

mattman26

So what is good to buy my budget is around $300 i was thinking
2x 2501's and 2x 2950's is this good enough?

fsanyee

I hope you know that 2501's have 10mbps aui port which can't do router on a stick. The latest IOS version is 12.3 and no SDM support.

mattman26

cisco is all new to me...what router would you recommend?

alxx

At least 1x 2600xm (preferably 2611xm or 2621xm as they have 2 FastEthernet ports - more useful for CCNP) and 1 or 2 or 3x 1721/1751/1760.
For the 1721/1751 you want to try and get the 32F model, has a little with 32 inside it on the back.

You want a 2600 or much better 2600xm (or 3640 or 3660 or better) to act as the hub (frame switch) and the others as the spokes.
2600's do not have enough ram to run 12.4t ios versions (neither do 3640's) and need 64MB ram 16MB flash to run 12.4.

Do not buy 2500's unless you are getting one as an access server.Getting much to old.

Don't forget about wics (wan interface cards) and cables.
You'll need 2+ wics in the hub and 1+ in the routers for the spokes.
Choice of wic1t (60 pin serial) , wic2t and wic csu-dsu.
Wic2t give 2 ports per wic.

2600 and 2600xm can take nm4a/s and nm8a/s modules with 4 or 8 serial ports(same as wic1t)
(note nm4t won't work in 2600 or 2600xm)


Lab Gear just note his pricing is a few years old.


You can check what version of ios is the latest for a platform via feature navigator
Cisco Feature Navigator - Cisco Systems
Select search by platform, select 2620xm - 2621xm and select a release
If you select all releases then a feature set/license it'll tell you the needed ram and flash to run that image
(though sometimes you can get away with less ram, I'm running entservicesk9 12.4t(15) on a 2610 with 128MB ram , feature navigator says you need 192MB)


On some routers (2600xm) you may need to replace/upgrade the bootrom to upgrade past 128MB ram.

alan2308

I'm going to disagree with alxx a little bit and say that the 2500's still have some life in them, especially if you're adding quantity to a lab that already has some quality. If price is a big concern, go with a 2501 to use as a frame switch along with a pair of 1760's or 1721's. The 2600XM will cost more than both 1700's combined and while the non-XM 2600 will be much cheaper, it will still need a pair of WIC modules. The 2501 is a fixed function router with 2 built in serial ports and you can find them for $10 or less. And you can add a second 2501 later and combine them into a single 4 port frame relay switch. There's also other 2500 series routers that will serve as well as the 2501.

That being said, always get the best router that you can afford, especially if there's any chance that you'll be going on past the CCNA. The 2500's and non-XM 2600's will probably do 80% or better of CCNA topics, but that percentage drops a lot for the CCNP or even the CCNA specialty certs (CCNA security, CCNA voice, etc.). And even if anything beyond the CCNA is not on your radar now, you never know.

mattman26

Thank you for your advice guys, Right now im just focused on CCNA, i will probably start worrying about CCNP once i start working, i think im just gonna stick with 2501's 16/16 and the 2950's

fsanyee

This is your decision.
If I were you, im probably gonna buy thos 2950's and use GNS3 for routing (which can support all the features, not like 2500's).