Switch 2950 question

I passed the ICND1 last week. Now on to ICND2.

Question about 2950.

I used only 2 * 2924 XL Ent switches along with a few 25xx routers while reading ICND1. I did notice some commnds were not available, and or are different the way they are configured in 2924 vs the book (book was using 2960). If I get a 2950 12 port switch with SI, IOS 12.1, will this use the latest IOS commands as used in 2960? Would this switch be sufficient?

Thanks for the reply guys.

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Comments

dtlokee

Yeah you don't really need the 2960 even though that is what the CCNA is based on. You may need to upgrade to a newer IOS to get rapid-pvst and mst (it's mentioned but not covered in detail)

dynamik

Can regular 2950s perform that additional functionality? I saw someone mention in another thread that you would need a 2950t or 2960.

While we're on the subject, is the 3550 the ideal 3rd switch (I have two 2950s) to add to your lab to perform layer 3 switching? I plan on continuing my studies towards the CCNP, and I was wondering if that would be sufficient for that as well?

dtlokee

dynamik wrote:

Can regular 2950s perform that additional functionality? I saw someone mention in another thread that you would need a 2950t or 2960.

While we're on the subject, is the 3550 the ideal 3rd switch (I have two 2950s) to add to your lab to perform layer 3 switching? I plan on continuing my studies towards the CCNP, and I was wondering if that would be sufficient for that as well?

The 2950 (the revision doesn't matter, just upgrade to the latest IOS) is fine for CCNA. Moving forward to CCNP a 3550 is good for most everything in the BCMSN, but you will be missing some features like private VLANs and if you look at PoE, the 3550 does not support standard PoE (802.3af), only Cisco prestandard PoE. The other major changes are in the QoS supprt for the 3560 vs 3550 and the 3560 supports IPv6 where the 3550 does not (since you can use your routers for all the IPv6 labs this isn't a big issue)

dynamik

Ouch. It looks like the 3560s typically run at least twice as much as the 3550s. In your opinion, is the greater feature set worth the money, or is the 3550 good enough?

dtlokee

The 3550 is fine. The only feature you will really be missing will be private VLANs, the remainder isn't all that critical for the CCNP. The only gotcha is the 3560 defaults to "dynamic auto" where as the 3550 was "dynamic desirable" meaning two 3560's connected toether will not form a trunk until you configure them, the 3550's will.

dynamik

Good to know. Thank you so much

yukky

sorry, this is another one of those questions:

What is a good number of switches to have for the CCNA? will two 2950 w/enhanced image cut it? or should i add a third switch (2950 w/EI? SI? cheaper 2924? etc.)

networker050184

I'd add another 2950 so you can get some good STP labs going.

dtlokee

You don't need the EI switches unless you want to L3/L4 QoS with them, go for the cheaper SI switches.

bighornsheep

Check out this page which explains 2950 SI, EI and how it compares to 2900XL

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps628/prod_bulletin09186a00800b3089.html