What cards to use in Cisco Routers in a hame lab?

theducksfan2010

I'm building a home lab to do Cisco training with at my house. What cards are good to load into Cisco routers?

Are WIC-1DSU-T1V2 and WIC-1DSU-T1 good cards to use?

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Comments

lantech

First, what routers are you getting.

Right off the top of my head though some Wic-1Ts or Wic-2Ts and the NM-4A/S for a frame relay topology

JeanM

+1 on the above...usually the norm is to go with the good old Wic-1t or Wic-2t for single/dual port serial cards, and if you need multi serial port card you have the NM-4a/s and 8a/s and even 16a/s cards as well.

alan2308

Don't be so quick to discount the WIC-1DSU modules. Granted you will probably have to make your own T1 crossover cables, but most of the routers that I have came with one or two of them, and they're dirt cheap if you don't already have them.

JeanM

Can you even use these for FR labs?

lantech

Not sure if you can use the T1 cards for the frame relay labs. The 2620XMs I got each came with a WIC 2T card in them. And they were on the cheaper end of the price range on ebay.

JeanM

lantech wrote: »

Not sure if you can use the T1 cards for the frame relay labs. The 2620XMs I got each came with a WIC 2T card in them. And they were on the cheaper end of the price range on ebay.

Yep, I went with wic2t cards as well, then one of the NM modules for FR.

joshmadakor

In my home CCNA lab, I have three routers with two(2) WIC-1Ts each, and one router with a NM-4A/S.
I also have a NM-16A to act as an access server.
(More info on access servers: Building A Cisco Lab - Choosing An Access Server - Part 1 - YouTube)

Corndork2

I personally use ethernet, fast ethernet, gigabit ethernet, or serial connections.

T1's work ok as well, but the cabling is a little bit different. The Serial connection is the way to go in a home lab

lantech

I'd like to be able to use a nm-16a in one of my routers but it looks like one of those will be more than both of my routers put together.

theducksfan2010

These are the routers and switches that I have:

Cisco 3548XL EN (3) Switches (One is in the mail, warranty replacement).
Cisco 1720 w/ WIC-1DSU-T1V2
Cisco 1721 w/ WIC-1DSU-T1V2
Cisco 1721w/ WIC-1DSU-T1V2 and WIC-1DSU-T1

I have AT&T Uverse (DSL) that comes out of my wall in my office via cat 5 cable into a Netgear 8 port Gigabit switch. Will I be able to route internet through these routers and switches if I make cat5 crossover cables (have 250ft. cat5 cable and all the stuff to make at least 50 cables). As I understand it the T1 cards can handle internet T1 and down. But 1 of the tutors at my school said they wont work and I need to buy Ethernet WIC cards for my home lab. I hope that is not correct and my current cards are good, as it looks like most of the replies here are saying it would be.

joshmadakor

lantech wrote: »

I'd like to be able to use a nm-16a in one of my routers but it looks like one of those will be more than both of my routers put together.

Lol, I know it sucks. It costs more than an actual access server, but it'll save space and power so I went for it!

Excellent1

Only thing I would contribute at this point is to keep an eye out for WIC-2A/S cards, as well. These can sometimes be found for a good deal cheaper than the WIC-2T's. They use the same cables as the -2T's (smart serial)--the only difference is that they are slower than the -2T's, which means absolutely nothing for a home lab.

Anyway, just tossing it out there. Good luck.

theducksfan2010