where to get cheap cisco routers?

im looking to get 3 2500 series cisco routers. i know ebay is the place one would look, but shipping is killer, especially if im getting them from 3 diff vendors. already tried craigslist but nothing interesting. these 'ciscokit' sites also seem to overcharge for this stuff. does this forum have a buy/sell section?

thanks

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Comments

dtlokee

Try calling some local Cisco partners, you never know what they have lying around, 2500's should be easy to come by.

Young Grasshopper

could i use 2600 series routers instead of 2500's? any advantages over using the 2500s? if i get 2600 what kind of wic cards should i purchase to go along with them?

thanks

tiersten

Young Grasshopper wrote:

could i use 2600 series routers instead of 2500's?

Yes

Young Grasshopper wrote:

any advantages over using the 2500s?

Faster CPU, more memory and flash. You can run a newer (not latest) version of IOS on it. You can add NMs and WICs to expand it.

Young Grasshopper wrote:

if i get 2600 what kind of wic cards should i purchase to go along with them?

WIC-1T or WIC-2T + appropriate cables.

ilcram19-2

three letter GNS

lildeezul

3 words

hands on equipment

rbutturini

You should be able to find 2501s pretty cheap. Anything from that generation below a 2600 is pretty useless now.

tiersten

Use as many resources you can IMO. I think that actual equipment is better but you can complement that with simulators/emulators if you want to save money/space or just want something portable. GNS3 (3 letters and 1 number

) and Dynamips have legal issues since Cisco don't let you use IOS with it but *shrug*

tiersten

rbutturini wrote:

You should be able to find 2501s pretty cheap. Anything from that generation below a 2600 is pretty useless now.

2500 routers aren't useful if you actually want to use it for a real network but for a lab its still useful.

Young Grasshopper

thanks for the replies. i am looking at getting 3 2600 series routers. 2610, 2611, or 2612. which 3 should i get? also these will come with no WIC card from what im being told. they are asking $40 each. here is what i have already

3x 2950 24p
1 2621xm

i would like to do everything needed to pass the ccna. this is all coming from one guy btw so i am saving some money if i were to buy everything individually from 3 diff buyers on ebay.

thanks

ilcram19-2

the 2500 are pretty much obsulete they are not worth of spending money even the 2600, they do not support the latest ios and if you wanna move to ccnp they wont help you at all,
if you want to buy equipment buy 2600xm, or 871 isr routers that would be your best bet, other wise you would be throwing your money away even if you max the memory lol

dynamik

Best guide to the 2600s ever: http://routergod.com/elizabethhurley/ (Might be NSFW with swimsuit pics)

Young Grasshopper

ilcram19-2 wrote:

the 2500 are pretty much obsulete they are not worth of spending money even the 2600, they do not support the latest ios and if you wanna move to ccnp they wont help you at all,
if you want to buy equipment buy 2600xm, or 871 isr routers that would be your best bet, other wise you would be throwing your money away even if you max the memory lol

i will just resell any equipment i have if thats the case after i get my ccna. i know a few people that would buy it off me locally.

networker050184

ilcram19-2 wrote:

the 2500 are pretty much obsulete they are not worth of spending money even the 2600, they do not support the latest ios and if you wanna move to ccnp they wont help you at all,
if you want to buy equipment buy 2600xm, or 871 isr routers that would be your best bet, other wise you would be throwing your money away even if you max the memory lol

I totally disagree with this statement. The 2600's won't be useless for the CCNP. I know people who use 2500s and 2600s for their CCIE study. Sure you can't do everything you need, but to say they are useless is a stretch to say the least.

tiersten

networker050184 wrote:

ilcram19-2 wrote:

the 2500 are pretty much obsulete they are not worth of spending money even the 2600, they do not support the latest ios and if you wanna move to ccnp they wont help you at all,
if you want to buy equipment buy 2600xm, or 871 isr routers that would be your best bet, other wise you would be throwing your money away even if you max the memory lol

I totally disagree with this statement. The 2600's won't be useless for the CCNP. I know people who use 2500s and 2600s for their CCIE study. Sure you can't do everything you need, but to say they are useless is a stretch to say the least.

2500 routers are used to inject routes for the CCIE lab.

You don't need to run the latest greatest IOS on your routers. Its nice to be able to but its not essential. Nobody ever said that you must use the 2500 routers as your main ones anyway.

Why would they be useless for CCNP anyway?

2600XM routers are obsolete as well if you check. They can't run the latest IOS either. The last 12.4T release for them in 12.4.15T7 whilst everything else has moved onto 12.4.20T. You can actually wedge in a mainline 12.4 IOS from a 2600XM onto a plain 2600. It'll be a tad unstable due to severely limited RAM but you can do it.

871 routers are limited on features they support and you're stuck with just ethernet/wireless. If you really want to suggest a router which is currently supported, can run the latest greatest IOS and has the ability to be expanded then get an 1841. They're fairly compact, can run a full IOS, expanding RAM is easy since they're just regular SODIMMs and flash storage is a regular CF card. They're not even that expensive on eBay.

rbutturini

The only reason you would need the latest IOS is to pick up stuff like SDM, IPS etc., in which case you will need something that can run at least version 12.2 for a subset of the features. The 2500's would make for great border routers and sample setups. Nothing wrong with that at all.

tiersten

Young Grasshopper wrote:

thanks for the replies. i am looking at getting 3 2600 series routers. 2610, 2611, or 2612. which 3 should i get? also these will come with no WIC card from what im being told. they are asking $40 each. here is what i have already

3x 2950 24p
1 2621xm

i would like to do everything needed to pass the ccna. this is all coming from one guy btw so i am saving some money if i were to buy everything individually from 3 diff buyers on ebay.

thanks

Oops. Forgot about this question!

If that is your choice and you're set on getting 3 then get 3x2611. The 2611 is the same as a 2610 but has 2 ethernet interfaces instead of just 1. The 2612 has 1 ethernet and 1 token ring so its not as useful. Obviously if you can get an amazing deal on any of them then just snap it up.

Get some WIC-1T or WIC-2T cards for the 2600 routers. They'll work in both the 2600 and 2600XM. You'll probably want to make a frame relay router out of one of your 2600 routers as well by adding a NM-4A/S or NM-8A/S.

What type are the 2950 switches? There are two types of firmware loaded into them. Standard Image and Enhanced Image. You can't upgrade from Standard to Enhanced on the 2950 switches. If you want to do everything then you'll want at least 1 EI 2950 but its not essential.

Apart from that, I'd say you were pretty much set for the CCNA. People have managed to pass it with much less equipment.

tiersten

rbutturini wrote:

The only reason you would need the latest IOS is to pick up stuff like SDM, IPS etc., in which case you will need something that can run at least version 12.2 for a subset of the features. The 2500's would make for great border routers and sample setups. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Ahh. Got confused about your original post. I thought you said that getting a 2500 would be useless

Young Grasshopper

ok so i bought a 2501 and a 2514 off ebay. i also need a frame relay switch. does anyone recommend a good router to use for this? looks like most people have used either a 2520 or a 2521. i also need to know what kind of cables ill need to hook this all up, if the routers need to have thier memory maxed out, what interface cards to buy. my 2621xm looks like its missing the card so i know i will purchase a wic-1t card for this. ive also seen these 'ethernet' converters on some of these 2500 series routers. just wanted to know if these are necessary or optional for everything.

thanks

kryolla

CCNA LAB

CCNP Lab

Young Grasshopper

thanks i think ive got all the equipment i need

3x 2950
1 2501
1 2514
1 2520
1 2610xm with WIC1-T

ive bought all the cables, transcievers i need. last thing is ram. do all the 2500 routers need to be 16/16 each? the 2501 and the 2514 only have 8/8 each.

mikej412

Young Grasshopper wrote:

do all the 2500 routers need to be 16/16 each?

Yes, you will eventually want them to be 16/16 to run the enterprise images (12.2) or the last 12.3 image.

Young Grasshopper

whats the diff between the 2? my company has router ios access at cisco.com, also are all the memory modules the same for all 3 routers? id rather buy everything from one vendor.

tiersten

Young Grasshopper wrote:

whats the diff between the 2?

RAM and flash. Flash stores IOS. RAM is the working memory. You buy each one separately.

Young Grasshopper wrote:

my company has router ios access at cisco.com

You're not actually supposed to download things you don't have the correct SMARTnet support contract. Part of the download procedure is that you agree to pay Cisco money for any unauthorised downloads if they ask you for it. I don't think its likely they'll do anything if you suddenly start downoading 25xx images but *shrug*

Young Grasshopper wrote:

also are all the memory modules the same for all 3 routers?

It is the same type of RAM and flash for the 25xx routers. The 2600XM uses a different kind of RAM and flash.

Young Grasshopper

tiersten wrote:

Young Grasshopper wrote:

whats the diff between the 2?

RAM and flash. Flash stores IOS. RAM is the working memory. You buy each one separately.

thanks, but i wanted to know what the diff was between 12.2 enterprise and 12.3. i dont even recall reading here about people running 12.3 on these things only 12.2

Young Grasshopper

thanks for everyones help. i have all the routers and switches finalized.

2520
2501
2514
2620xm
all 2500 routers memory maxed
3x2950 switches

i wanted to know which IOS's should i be running on all 4? some here have said to run the latest IOS's on everything(12.3-12.4) and some have said run 12.2 on the 2500s as 12.3 doesnt support eigrp?

thanks

famosbrown

I've got the latest IOS installed on all of my equipment that it will support.

My 2610XM's have 12.4 (21) ios. I can't run the T version because I don't have a large enough Flash...I need 48 and only have 32.

My 2950's are running the latest IOS, but I can't remember it...forgot to tell the wife to turn my equipment on before she left the house so I can get to them