What kit to buy for CCNA

Hi

I have MCSA, Sec+ and hope to homestudy CCNA

What kit do I need to buy router, books etc and where is best to get these?

Im based in Ireland so websites etc would be a great help

Also I looked at prometric site and cisco are listed what provider provids exams?

Also according to http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/le2/le0/le9/learning_certification_type_home.html[/url] can be done in 1 or 2 parts am I reading that correctly?

Thanks
Noel

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Comments

networker050184

Check out the CCNA FAQ. It answers all of your questions.

Kaminsky

Read the FAQ ... seriously, there is a ton of great info in there.

There is a lot of complete rubbish on ebay being very well marketted as ccna/ccnp. Before you go rushing off to ebay, look into what you will need first. You will save yourself a ton of money by holding off for a couple of days first. You may want to go on from the ccna and want to home lab say, the ccnp/sp as well. With a few days research first you won't have to sell your crap ccna lab onto somebody else that hasn't done their homework first, plan ahead !

For cheapish routers, look at the 1721's (not rack mounted but desk mounted and not sexy looking but very upgradable... will run 12.4 and help you through a cheap ccnp lab .. see below) or see if you can get hold of a cheapish 26..XM. These will serve your ccna and be usefull for ccnp as well. XMs ending in 0 have one FE interface. Those ending in 1 have two FE interfaces. The 26{1,2,5,9} mostly relates to the CPU speed and frames per second. In a home lab, this is pretty irrelevent.

If they come with a wic-1t or wic-2t, all the better. Save you having to buy them... and you will need them for ccna for serial (WAN) connections. If you want to lab as much of the ccna as you can you are looking at 2-3 routers for the minimum frame-relay, GAH sorry, frame relay lab. I can personally recommend dantrak-uk on ebayUK for cables. Cheap, quick and do what they say on the tin.

You will need back to back serial cables.. 1 for each link. Wic-1t's can have db60-db60 or db60-smart serial. (dont get ones longer than 1 foot unless you want a really messy looking lab) You can have db15 connectors but these are typically used when connecting to real life telco mux equipment. db15 will be the mux presentation and db60 or SS will be the router presentation. Make sure you get back to back.
They will be marked DCE at one end and DTE at the other. Difference that makes is at the DCE end, you configure the clocking. At the DTE end, you don't. I will let you figure out what that means.

You will need to check for the IOS installed on them. 12.3 or 12.4 is ideal. Lower than that, especially 11. or below, you are going to bump in to IOS command/syntax differences from what you will get on the ccna exam. Yes, some could argue that it is good to know them both but ..... nah ... not really! You go to a site with an old network that is running across 11. IOS and the first thing you are going to want to do is tell them to stop being stingy and put their hands in their pocket..

Switches is where it can get expensive. 2950s and 3500s (including XLs) will be fine for ccna but no good if you want to go further. (2950Ts being the exception) 3550s SMIs or the more expensive EMIs would be a good investment if you want to go on. (EMIs can do layer 3 which is part of ccnp) {some are SMIs with a EMI image so don't be fooled on ebay and check out the show version command} Even 3550 SMIs are not cheap on ebay so you might want to get cheap ccna switches for the ccna and if you want to go higher and lab the ccnp, then fork out the money. Remember, it doesn't really matter about 24 port or 48 port for a lab.... unless you do have 48 PCs in your house of course....

Here is a good couple of links that will help buying a lab too.
CCNA Lab Main Post Summary | NetworkWorld.com Community

I use this one a lot when using ebay. Thanks for the effort MGeorge
Lab 1-1 – Understanding Router Components and Accessories | Free CCNA Lab Workbook

bmwagner

I really enjoy the Chris Bryant study material. www.thebryantadvantage.com no need to by any routers or switches. You can rent his for cheap.

mikej412

Here's a thread that started off with the cheap 25xx routers and then goes into some of the other routers (the 1721 does SDM, router on a stick, runs 12.4, and is still pretty cheap) and has lots of good links
http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/38753-questions-about-different-routers-home-lab.html

jovan88

for my ccna I had one 2600 router, and one 2900XL switch. Just to get the feel of real equipment. It was good for doing password resets, IOS upgrades and all that stuff you should really know.

Then I did all bigger labs with packet tracer, which is good enough for the CCNA.

noel123ie

Thanks so much for all the help guys

Really appreciate it and a great starting point

mgeorge

Kaminsky wrote: »

I use this one a lot when using ebay. Thanks for the effort MGeorge
Lab 1-1 – Understanding Router Components and Accessories | Free CCNA Lab Workbook

Its nice to see that my site is helpful. I just completed section 2 last night and will be starting section 3 tonight, which currently is "Configuring Cisco Catalyst Series Switches" but I'll be swapping that section and the "Configruing Basic Cisco Device Security" section for local username authentication, ssh, access-list, basic aaa.

dstock7337

noel123ie wrote: »

Hi

I have MCSA, Sec+ and hope to homestudy CCNA

What kit do I need to buy router, books etc and where is best to get these?

Im based in Ireland so websites etc would be a great help

Also I looked at prometric site and cisco are listed what provider provids exams?

Also according to http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/le2/le0/le9/learning_certification_type_home.html[/url] can be done in 1 or 2 parts am I reading that correctly?

Thanks
Noel

In addition to checking out the FAQ and all of the cool info you'll find here, check out Wendell Odom's CCNA home lab articles. Puts things in a great perspective and really is helpful with purchases.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/24916

My consumer buying advice would be to make sure you only buy from reputable re-sellers that offer money back guarantees and warranty their products. Otherwise you are taking a high risk of buying garbage.