Switch or Route?

Hello all,

Planning to go for CCNP and I am a little in confused at which one to go for first.
Should I attempt the Switch exam first or the Route.I have gone through the Blueprints for both and find Switch more interesting but which one is more difficult Route or Switch.If i go for Route then I can use GNS3 for the sims but if I go for Switch I think I might need to buy some switches.If so what is the minimum required for switch?

Any suggestions would be a great help guys.Thanks.

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MrBrian

I too wondered this when I first started my ccnp studies. The collective answer that I heard was that it doesn't matter if you do SWITCH or ROUTE first, it's more of a preference thing, as long as you do TSHOOT last.

I think the majority of people do ROUTE first, but once again I don't think it matters much.

lordy

I will go SWITCH first. A friend of mine who already is a CCNP also did SWITCH first and said that he found it to be much easier than ROUTE.

Sohaib_a

Yeah even I am thinking of going for Switch first.
I want to know is there any way to emulate a switch in GNS3,I have read in some forums that the 'NM-16ESW' module in the routers can be used but doesn't emulate all the functionality of a layer3 switch.if not, what hardware would be required for the exam.

tomaifauchai

There's a few things NM-16SW doesn't support.

Check the list below and compare to blueprint

GNS3 • List of missing switching features in GNS3 : HOWTOs

CCIEWANNABE

Hello,

My recommendation would be to go with the CCNP:Route exam first. You can do pretty much everything covered in the ROUTE exam with GNS3. Then for the Switch exam I would purchase 3 2950's and 1 3550. That will give you enough switches to play with Etherchannels/Spanning Tree. The good thing about a lab consisting of GNS3 and Real Switches is the fact that you can connect your real switches to GNS3 as I show you how this can be done in the video below:

‪CONNECTING_REAL_SWITCHES_TO_GNS3 PART 1‬‏ - YouTube

If you need any more help please let me know.

Good luck!

Sohaib_a

Thanks for info.I guess i'll look into the Route first then,i did find some labs online for route using GNS3 as well.
But in terms of difficulty,which one is more? Switch or Route ?

Also if can get my hands on 3 3550's would that be good enough for the Switch exam?Also what version on Cisco IOS should be running on it which would be enough for CCNP?

bomber456

Sohaib_a wrote: »

Thanks for info.I guess i'll look into the Route first then,i did find some labs online for route using GNS3 as well.
But in terms of difficulty,which one is more? Switch or Route ?

Also if can get my hands on 3 3550's would that be good enough for the Switch exam?Also what version on Cisco IOS should be running on it which would be enough for CCNP?

yeah deffo do the router first

3 3550s would be overkill tbh, 2 will do, and 2 2950s.

use gns3 and you should be fine for the route exam.

nel

tbh, i dont think it really matters, your going to have to do both anyway. Most people seem to find the route more difficult, so you could get the hardest out of the way first. I done switch cos i worked heavily with them, so it made sense. now im working more with routing, so its fell quite well for me. TSHOOT is typically last because it takes the info from the first two.

Good luck.