Expanding my lab - switches?

iamme4eva

Hey,

Although I'm studying for ROUTE at the moment, and have enough kit to get by, I'm looking at buying a couple of switches for when I come to do SWITCH.

My current lab is:

2950 switch (24 port)
2 x 1700 series routers
2501 router
2503 router
2620XM router (2 x WIC 1-T's and a NM-4A/S)

I managed to rescue a full size 19 inch rack from a skip at work, a bunch of power distribution and cable management stuff, and some other bits, so my spare room has kind of been taken over (much to the digust of her indoors!).

Anyway, I'm thinking about going for the 3550's - they are reasonably priced on eBay. I've heard that they don't do private VLAN's though (not that I have a clue what they are yet!) - are they important to the SWITCH exam or can I get by without labbing them? The 3560's are a lot more expensive!!!

alexdagr8est

Hey dude Im going to be studying for my ccnp route soon, My company has a 3550 at work and they do do private vlans.. you can do inter-vlan routing etc. (everything the same as the 3560's)
If you want XP with a Layer 3 switch, maybe try and fork out for the 3550 (or an even cheaper L3 switch not too sure which models are cheaper but 3550s will mean the IOS is not too old)
I just bought 2x 3560's in anticipation for my CCNP switch (remember that if you do fork out the money, alot of the time you can resell for a similar price) I will also keep them for my home because they are gigabit and I want Gigabit speeds for my home network to transfer files to and from my NAS and I want to Etherchannel my Nas too... (because I can :P )


my lab which i never used for my ccna

2801 router wic 1-T
1801 router (which I can use for the net at home too )
1841 router
3725 router wic-1t
2x 2960 switches
and just bought those 2x 3560 8 port switches

Coolhandluke

Just for clarification:

The 3550's don't do private vlans.
You do need to know then for the exam but you can get by with rack rental or using free racks if you can get some time on them.
As far as I remember that's the only limitation of the 3550 for the switch exam.

Good luck !

SteveO86

3550 or 3560 the 3560 will be a bit more expensive but will also be useful if pursue the CCIE.

the 3550 are also layer 3 capable so they will helpful with the SWITCH exam.