Cheap 2811's for UK buyers

EDIT: Mixed up two adverts looking at them at the same time. Have just realised that these are missing all the faceplates so not such a bargain if you want the units complete. I've left the original post below should anyone still wish to check them out.

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At the time of posting this UK seller has 6 Cisco 2811 routers at £14.00 each delivered (they're actually £9.00 each + £5 P&P but I think you'd have to be pretty cheeky to ask for a discount when buying more than one).

I've paid between £20 and £35 each for mine so these are a bargain. At this price why even consider anything older!

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OctalDump

"Seller refurbished"

Lol, eBay.

You can buy yourself a faceplate for only $49USD + shipping...

WIC covers are a little cheaper

But I can't find any NME slot plates. I think maybe it'd be cheaper to by an NME.

It's fine for a lab, though. Just try not to spill Vimto in it.

Welly_59

Just bought 2 for total price of £20 including delivery

Now to pick up a console cable.

GDaines

Welly_59 wrote: »

Just bought 2 for total price of £20 including delivery
Now to pick up a console cable.

From this seller or someone else?

Welly_59

From this seller. This will be my first lab equipment, what's the best option for console connection? I've seen ones with built in usb converter, or buying a rj45 db9 cable and then either a usb to db9 or pci serial card?

GDaines

Welly_59 wrote: »

What's the best option for console connection? I've seen ones with built in usb converter, or buying a rj45 db9 cable and then either a usb to db9 or pci serial card?

Both my machines are old HPs which have a serial port, and I'm still tempted to install a 4-port serial card so I can hook up to 5 devices simultaneously instead of having to swap cables (at the PC end, no reboot required) every time I want to view a different device. I was tempted to see if you can connect multiple usb console cables and view different devices at the same time, but they're expensive so I don't even have one to see how the port appears to Putty.

GDaines

Welly_59 wrote: »

From this seller. This will be my first lab equipment.

With the deadline for taking the v2 exams so close I suspect you'll be taking the v3 from which I believe frame relay has been dropped. However, I still think there are lab setups in which you'll connect routers via serial connections to look at RIP, EIGRP and OSPF, in which case I'd recommend you look for a NM-4A/S or NM-8A/S card for one of your routers which will fill the big hole and give you enough ports to connect to all your other routers, and then in the other and future routers install one or two WIC-1T cards. Some people will tell you not to bother, and others may tell you to buy WIC-2T, but not only will you be filling just one slot instead of two, you'll pay more for cables. There are 4x WIC-1T cards here as a job lot which will save you £12.50 over buying them individually.

Where in the UK are you? You can PM if you don't want to post or update your location in your profile. I ask as I have as I have a BRI 8B-S/T 8-port ISDN card going spare which would fill the other large (NM) slot. No use to me as I still have another in one of my 2811's.

You can get as many standard serial console cables as you need here. You can get them cheaper if you buy from China, but I've had bad experiences so won't ever take the risk again. You'll save a few pence each but have to wait weeks, and if they don't work all you can do is chuck them in the bin (trash for our American friends) and pay all over again.

Welly_59

Thanks for the advice gdaines, much appreciated!

I'm in swansea. I'm not in a rush to pick up cards right now as I'm going the 2 exam route and they won't be needed for ccent(i think)

I've got 2 2960 switches on the way so should be good enough for some small setups.

One question I still have though is what can I use for end devices? Buying a bunch of laptops is a bit overkill but I was thinking of stuffing a few extra NIC cards in my pc and using a lightweight Linux build running in a virtual machine with a NIC assigned to each

GDaines

Welly_59 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice gdaines, much appreciated!

I'm in swansea. I'm not in a rush to pick up cards right now as I'm going the 2 exam route and they won't be needed for ccent(i think)

I've got 2 2960 switches on the way so should be good enough for some small setups.

One question I still have though is what can I use for end devices? Buying a bunch of laptops is a bit overkill but I was thinking of stuffing a few extra NIC cards in my pc and using a lightweight Linux build running in a virtual machine with a NIC assigned to each

Just in case you decide to go beyond CCNA I would suggest you buy Layer3 (3560) switches if you add any more to your lab, and make sure they're 'TS' models which can run IOS 15 as the PoE 'PS' models cannot.

My lab now sits at 1x 1841 and 4x 2811 routers, 1x 2960 layer2 switch, 2x layer3 3560 PS and 2x layer3 3560 TS switches. I use an HP Pro 6000 to console on to my devices via Putty, and it also runs Solarwinds TFTP Server. I have a bunch of old Lenovo boxes running Windows 7 for my clients. I have considered using a bunch of VMs but neither of my current boxes have a spare 4x PCI-E slot for my 4-port NIC, so until I have the funds to swap the Pro6000 for a dual-Xeon XW8600 workstation which will run the card I'm stuck using physical boxes. To answer your question though, if you have enough NICs then I'm sure the VM route will work just fine.

OctalDump

GDaines wrote: »

in the other and future routers install one or two WIC-1T cards. Some people will tell you not to bother, and others may tell you to buy WIC-2T, but not only will you be filling just one slot instead of two, you'll pay more for cables.

Apart from filling slots why do you recommend WIC-1T over WIC-2T (or even 4T)? I'm not sure what you mean by 'pay more for cables', either.

GDaines

OctalDump wrote: »

Apart from filling slots why do you recommend WIC-1T over WIC-2T (or even 4T)? I'm not sure what you mean by 'pay more for cables', either.

Not sure why you're pulling me up on this OctalDump, I'm not allowed to offer my suggestion to a fellow Brit?

I've suggested the 1T over the 2T for no other reason than to fill slots. The routers he's bought have no blanking plates, so lots of holes. Unless he needs to keep the slots free due to plans to fit some other cards somewhere down the line then the best way to fill the holes is to fit multiple 1-port cards instead of a single 2-port card. The links I gave showed that in the UK 2x single WIC-1T cards will cost the same as 1x WIC-2T card, but if he bought the job lot of 4 WIC-1T's he would save £12.50. As it happens the DB60-Smart cable is cheaper than a DB60-DB60 cable today on eBay, but that's certainly not always been the case, and offset by the job lot of cards the 1T route is still the cheapest route.

At the time I searched I couldn't find an NM-4T, but I have since and it's the cheapest card. I use the NM-8A/S which means I can hook up more routers, and the fact that it's slower than a 'T' won't matter in a lab. The NM-4A/S is the most expensive so I wouldn't buy it if either of the others was available.

OctalDump

GDaines wrote: »

Not sure why you're pulling me up on this OctalDump, I'm not allowed to offer my suggestion to a fellow Brit?

Just curious. But I probably wouldn't have asked if I had actually viewed the links you gave. I thought you meant the HWIC-1T like this one. And those use the same cables, so I couldn't figure out what you meant. But my mistake.

Yeah, as you suggest prices go up and down on eBay, and the best options change day to day.