Recommendations for buying lab hardware on the cheap?

I'm putting together my practice lab for use at home. This will be used when I only have an hour or two to study. On the weekends when I have 4+ hours I'll be renting rack time from a CCIE training vendor.

The plan is to have 4 physical switches and virtualize all my routers. I have (3) 4 port NICs that I'll be using to connect the routers to the switches. So long as I don't do any dot1q trunking on those interfaces I should be good (MTU size limitation in Linux). Anyway, 3560s are out of my price range so I'm thinking about picking up some 3550s (maybe one 3560 if I can find it cheap enough). Aside from ebay, anyone know a good place to find cheap refurb switches?

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ColbyG

Ebay and Craigslist are the only places I know of.

Nuul

The only two I knew of as well

Ebay seems to be on the high side and craigslist does't have much to choose from. I've been searching google for a refurb warehouse; I found one but they won't tell you the prices you have to give them your contact information so they can send you a quote.

ColbyG

I've found Ebay to be cheaper than any of those refurb people. To be honest, I think Ebay is the cheapest I've seen, unless someone on CL is selling something for cheaper because they don't know the value. Normally CL prices are insane though.

notgoing2fail

I'm an eBay junkie.

So far, knock on wood, I have not gotten ripped off yet and I've spent thousands on equipment off eBay.

My luck will run out eventually it is only a matter of time. I cross my fingers at this point now on everything I buy.....

Nuul

ColbyG wrote: »

To be honest, I think Ebay is the cheapest I've seen, unless someone on CL is selling something for cheaper because they don't know the value.

I'm starting to see this is the case. I found a few places that will tell you the price for 3550s and 3560s...and they are nearly list. It defies logic that ebay is the cheaper than a wholesaler. Looks like ebay it is

notgoing2fail wrote: »

My luck will run out eventually it is only a matter of time. I cross my fingers at this point now on everything I buy.....

I hear ya, that's one reason I've been avoiding it. I got lucky with the 4 port nics, those were $25 each vs the $300 that I was looking at with google shopping.

stuh84

There are always sellers who are quite reputable that you can go to, with very high feedback. Over in the UK, I've had good dealings with Triiton Networks, and they always seem to get good feedback.

I think best thing is, spend a little bit more for the piece of mind with a reputable seller, or take the risk if you can afford it.

whotime

cablesandkits.com has good prices on everything

keenon

ebay the switches, there's not other cheaper route unless you find someone local. I managed to score 2 3550-48s for $200 each last summer. But now the 3560s are EOL i think an upgrade may be in my future

ColbyG

3560s are EOL? WHAT?

Edit: Was that a typo?

Nuul

It wouldn't surprise me to find out that they are EOS. It's a bit early for EOL though. Then again they were pushing the 2960s pretty hard at cisco day...

tiersten

Nuul wrote: »

I have (3) 4 port NICs that I'll be using to connect the routers to the switches. So long as I don't do any dot1q trunking on those interfaces I should be good (MTU size limitation in Linux).

Linux supports jumbo frames so any limitation in MTU is from your NIC.

ColbyG

Nuul wrote: »

It wouldn't surprise me to find out that they are EOS. It's a bit early for EOL though. Then again they were pushing the 2960s pretty hard at cisco day...

What would replace the 3560? I can't think of anything.

tiersten

ColbyG wrote: »

What would replace the 3560? I can't think of anything.

They've got a 3560V2 now.

Nuul

To me, it looks like they are heading towards the stackable switches. The 3750 and the 2960-s I could be reading too much into the marketechture slides I saw at the Indy cisco day though.

ColbyG

tiersten wrote: »

They've got a 3560V2 now.

I guess that's true. Do they have a gigabit v2 yet though?

tiersten

ColbyG wrote: »

I guess that's true. Do they have a gigabit v2 yet though?

Doesn't look like it. You need the 3560-X for that. Who at Cisco is coming up with these names anyway?

yuriz43

3560 is EOL?

ColbyG

tiersten wrote: »

Who at Cisco is coming up with these names anyway?

The same jerks who decided to make 2900 and 1900 series routers and skip from 12.4 to 15, and all the other stupid crap they do, lol.

Tyrant1919

Ebay and Craigslist for sure. Lucky for me I visit the Bay Area every other weekend. So, cisco gear on craigslist is abundant. :^D

SysAdmin4066

whotime wrote: »

cablesandkits.com has good prices on everything

+1 for cables, modules and some hardware. The bulk of my equipment came from ebay, but when I needed cables, modules and I got a couple 2600xms from there.

yuriz43

Hey SysAdmin, what hardware do you have in your CCIE lab so far?

scorehigh

Ebay and Craigslist are the ones, unless you have some very good friends that work for a company that is about to upgrade their network and they are not upgrading via CISCO path in which they will give the equipment back to CISCO.

I got some grear from there, some cheap, however you need to look every day.
Somebody mentioned cablesandkits.com, they are ok, but you can get better prices.
However here is one of the last coupon emails that they are sending out.

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[SIZE=+2]
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[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=+2]
[SIZE=+2]Use [/SIZE][SIZE=+2]coupon: MEM3821[/SIZE][/SIZE]

Take care and good luck in your search.

SysAdmin4066

yuriz43 wrote: »

Hey SysAdmin, what hardware do you have in your CCIE lab so far?

R1 is a 3640, R2-R6 are 2610/2620/2611 XMs. 4 3550 switches for the SW1-SW4, 2 2610 (non xm) for BB1 and BB3, BB2 is a 2610XM (thanks to the OSPFv6 requirement). Nothing crazy, all routers are maxxed on memory and it's able to do most things. For the stuff I'm not able to do, I'll be renting. Been looking for a cheap 3560, but no luck. Even just one would be nice, but I'm not paying what the going rate is right now. You?

Nuul

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

For the stuff I'm not able to do, I'll be renting. Been looking for a cheap 3560, but no luck. Even just one would be nice, but I'm not paying what the going rate is right now.

I'm thinking the same thing. I can buy 4 3550 for what they want for one 3560. I only need the 3560s so I can be familiar with the QoS differences and private VLANs. I was going to do rack time for what I can't do at home...so I guess that's still cheaper than buying a 3560.

yuriz43

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

R1 is a 3640, R2-R6 are 2610/2620/2611 XMs. 4 3550 switches for the SW1-SW4, 2 2610 (non xm) for BB1 and BB3, BB2 is a 2610XM (thanks to the OSPFv6 requirement). Nothing crazy, all routers are maxxed on memory and it's able to do most things. For the stuff I'm not able to do, I'll be renting. Been looking for a cheap 3560, but no luck. Even just one would be nice, but I'm not paying what the going rate is right now. You?

I have 2x 3550, and 3x 2950(left over from the CCNA). I really want to get a 3560, but the price tag is making it a hard decision. For routers, I am using a Linux Dynamips server with 3 Quad NICs.

Renting a rack for a mock exam was something I definitely planned on doing, but not for learning the features the 3560. I am just hoping there is a good deal on ebay, Everything I have seen is around $800-$1000 range.