Rack rentals for switch?

mitch179

Does anyone have a recommendations for some rack rentals for switch?

obviously the cheaper the better

NetworkVeteran

INE is the most popular rack rental source. There are plenty of cheaper (typically, less refined) options if you Google.

mitch179

cheers,

I'll dig through a few of the ones google comes up with, just wanted to avoid paying for one that was no good

Danielh22185

INE's pricing is not bad at all. I am more than likely going to use INE's rack for my switch studies. It should still end up being A LOT cheaper than buying the physical equipment.

Zartanasaurus

Buying 3 switches from ebay then selling them back when you're done is the equivalent of a rack rental, except you get to use it whenever you want.
You can get working 100Mb 3560s for about $150 a pop these days. I can't see how rack rentals are cheaper.

NetworkVeteran

I spent <$50 to rent two 3550s and two 2950s for my switch exam for about a month. I didn't have dedicated access but I was able to access the rack 80%+ of the time when I needed to access it. I suspect that was a smaller outlay than buying and re-selling four devices, shipping, cables, power, etc. A good place to begin is to work out your equipment needs. I didn't use INE, but rather a cheaper site. Which meant wasting a few hours finding it and figuring it out.

I liked that I had next-day access and avoided lost time for missing/faulty cables/components.

Danielh22185

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Buying 3 switches from ebay then selling them back when you're done is the equivalent of a rack rental, except you get to use it whenever you want.
You can get working 100Mb 3560s for about $150 a pop these days. I can't see how rack rentals are cheaper.

INE's average price is ~$4 per 3hr session. That's ~$130 for 100 hours of labbing. You may / may not need that much. That's about the average cost of maybe 1 device physically.

I like the rack rentals method due to its ease of use. I can set something up quickly and start hammering through the commands. This is also why I am such a fan of GNS3. I can lab for hours and hours doing many different types of labs quickly.

mitch179

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

I spent <$50 to rent two 3550s and two 2950s for my switch exam for about a month. I didn't have dedicated access but I was able to access the rack 80%+ of the time when I needed to access it. I suspect that was a smaller outlay than buying and re-selling four devices, shipping, cables, power, etc. A good place to begin is to work out your equipment needs. I didn't use INE, but rather a cheaper site. Which meant wasting a few hours finding it and figuring it out.

I liked that I had next-day access and avoided lost time for missing/faulty cables/components.

Care to share what site you used?

mitch179

I just logged into my INE account and noticed I have 50 rack rental tokens, I guess it was a promo or something, that should get me started at least.