CCNA LAB from Old Equipment
moreland11
Member Posts: 24 ■□□□□□□□□□
in CCNA & CCENT
Hello All,
I know this is like a rerun but hopefully I can get some needed advice. I just finished up my MCITP: EA and Comptia Security+ and I'm very excited to start working towards the CCNA and possibly on to the CCNP. I was able to gather some equipment that has long been out of production for my company and I was hoping I could use some of it in my lab. Currently I have the following.
(1) 2650xm w/ (1) VWIC 2MFT-T1
(2) 2501 w/ (2) Transceivers
(2) 1760 32F w/ (1) WIC 1T and (1) WIC 1DSU-T1 V2
(2) 2950
Extra WIC Cards (2) VWIC 1MFT-T1 (2) VWIC 2MFT-T1
with a soft budget of $200 to start off with (I still need some cables and upgrade the ram also)
So a few questions I have are:
What additions do I need to make to my current setup to get as much hands experience as possible?
Will I be able to use any of the above for a frame relay? (I keep seeing this mentioned alot lol)
What serial cables would you recommend? (DTE/DCE back-to-back? or is there a better cross over cable?)
What options do I have for getting the IOS packages?
Any help would be appreciated. Getting started on the lab can be a bit overwelming. I'm hoping I start reading the books it becomes more clear. I'm a bit lost when I see backbone vs Frame Relay. Again... Thanks.
I know this is like a rerun but hopefully I can get some needed advice. I just finished up my MCITP: EA and Comptia Security+ and I'm very excited to start working towards the CCNA and possibly on to the CCNP. I was able to gather some equipment that has long been out of production for my company and I was hoping I could use some of it in my lab. Currently I have the following.
(1) 2650xm w/ (1) VWIC 2MFT-T1
(2) 2501 w/ (2) Transceivers
(2) 1760 32F w/ (1) WIC 1T and (1) WIC 1DSU-T1 V2
(2) 2950
Extra WIC Cards (2) VWIC 1MFT-T1 (2) VWIC 2MFT-T1
with a soft budget of $200 to start off with (I still need some cables and upgrade the ram also)
So a few questions I have are:
What additions do I need to make to my current setup to get as much hands experience as possible?
Will I be able to use any of the above for a frame relay? (I keep seeing this mentioned alot lol)
What serial cables would you recommend? (DTE/DCE back-to-back? or is there a better cross over cable?)
What options do I have for getting the IOS packages?
Any help would be appreciated. Getting started on the lab can be a bit overwelming. I'm hoping I start reading the books it becomes more clear. I'm a bit lost when I see backbone vs Frame Relay. Again... Thanks.
Comments
-
JeanM
Member Posts: 1,117
Welcome!
Have you read this already - CCNA Certification: CCNA, Cisco certification, Cisco routers, Cisco switches, Ci , it would be a good first read and help you with some of your questions.
Cables depend on what cards you have on hand, but you are correct DTE/DCE is common for serial to serial. For Frame Relay typically you'd have a router with multiple serial cards or a network module that gives you multiple serial ports + 2 or 3 routers that attach to it via serial cables as "Spokes).2015 goals - ccna voice / vmware vcp. -
jsb515
Member Posts: 253
you got a nice start on equipment for sure! you will learn a lot just from researching what you have on hand already. Look up the devices on Cisco and get an understanding of what you got and what it can do. -
moreland11
Member Posts: 24 ■□□□□□□□□□
It's been interesting so far but I haven't been able to fully devote my time on it yet but my books should be in today. I ordered the latest Study Guide and Review Guide by Todd Lammle. If figure by the time I need to make additions I'll be in better shape as far as knowing what I need lol. I did order ram for the 1760's and I'm going to go ahead and buy some DTE/DCE cables and possibly a NM card to get an access/terminal server going.
Thanks for the help guys. -
moreland11
Member Posts: 24 ■□□□□□□□□□
Well I'll be finishing up my last chapter (WAN / Frame Relay) in Todd Lammle's Study Guide. It took me most of the book to figure out what to use in my lab!! lol. My advise to anyone else would now be gns3 + books then worry about your physical lab.
Compared to doing the MCITP: EA I have really realllly enjoyed the Cisco/Networking side. I plan on doing CCNA, CCNA security, CCNP, CCNP Security (if only for the ASA stuff).