Building my lab... piece by piece

Hi all,

I have decided to start working toward my CCNA. I went through 2 semesters of double classes a few years back that covered the entire CCNA exam. This was right after they went version 3 I think and the cert was pretty tough. I feel confident in taking it, especially breaking it up with CCENT first. I am planning on finishing it by the end of the year. With this in mind, and with an eye toward CCNP afterward, I have started building my lab and I thought I would chronicle it here since there are usually A LOT of questions about home labs on these type forums.

First off, definitely the biggest single help to me was CertificationKits.com. I believe they're a sponsor of this forum, too. They have some very awesome guides on their website as to which routers and switches have which features and why you may or may not want to purchase them for your lab. Specifically, I'm talking about CCNA Certification: CCNA, Cisco certification, Cisco routers, Cisco switches, Ci .

With that guidance, I decided on the following:

2950 x2
3550 x1
26XX x2
26XX XM x1
Maybe one more as a frame relay switch.

What do you guys think?

So far, I've picked up the following on eBay:

2950 and 2611 $55 shipped
3x2950 $52 shipped

Two of those will be going to friends so I will have my 2 2950s and a 2611 for $65 roughly. Not too bad. Still have a few to go, though.

Just thought I would share my experiences.

I think I've been able to find pretty good prices. It takes a bit of hunting, but its doable. I've also already got a rack that I used to put musical equipment into. I'm probably going to have to get a bigger one, though.

Brandon

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Comments

SdotLow

The 2950s are perfect for CCNA. If you shop around, great deals can be found. I was able to get 3 2950s for about $60 shipped. That's not the norm, but those kinds of deals are out there. As was suggested to me, you could also consider the 1760 (and 1721) routers if you're wanting to run 12.4T (which I assume is what the XMs are for) without breaking the bank. You could potentially put all 6 of those together for around $200 to $250 with 1760s and get the same functionality as far as CCNA is concerned. You may want to add a router to act as a frame relay switch to simulate your cloud.

I'm just starting my Cisco journey so, as far as which routers are more ideal for doing what I haven't the foggiest. I've tried to read as much as I can on these forums and elsewhere and usually end up getting a lot of conflicting information. So what I did was go to ciscoland.com and look at their CCNA Security kit as a starting point for what I should shoot for. I have no idea what the reasoning is behind wanting or needing these items to be honest, and assume I'll become much more familiar after getting my hand on equipment and delve deeper into my studies.

My goal isn't to get something to just get past the CCNA, I'd like something that I can build on for future certs as I plan on going for my CCNP atleast.

CbrandonB

Have a read through this blog by Wendell Odom:

Cisco Cert Zone: CCNA Lab Series 2011: Overview

Read all 5 posts he has (so far). These are recent and contain a lot of the data I believe you are probably seeking.

Also check out his CCNP lab posts as pretty much anything in CCNP will be usable for CCNA.

Brandon

CbrandonB

Its been a while since I've posted, but I'm still on it. Had a lot going on this summer and fall and didn't get to do much with CCNA, but I started an online class a few weeks ago and now I'm back on it with the hopes of doing CCENT at the end of January and CCNA in February.

Having said that, my lab has gone through some changes, with a few more coming up soon.

I've sold the 2611 and the 2520/2521. I'm picking up two 26**xm routers and I got a 3550 from work to finish my lab. This should give me plenty to work with for sure. Grand total in the end:

2 x 2950 Switches
1 x 3550 Switch

3640 Router
2621 Router
2610XM Router
2650XM Router

Or something close to that.

I'll be ordering more lab equipment after Christmas and I'll update again then.

Brandon

CbrandonB

Got started on wiring this thing tonight.

Not too bad! I freaking LOVE the TS3000! To log in, I just Telnet in with the proper port number. Its fantastic! While doing labs, my extra monitor will look like this:

Highly recommended!

Up next are the XM routers.

Brandno

Netwurk

The Cyclades TS3000 is comparable in resale price to the Cisco 2511 but it looks like it has more ports. The 2511 also lets you access each router directly, but the 48 ports might make it a better deal. What kind of cables do you use to connect?

CbrandonB

Really? I always see them going for $150 to $250, depending. Although I have to admit a quick eBay search provides one at $100. Most of them are in the $240 to $275 range, though.

I just use rollover cables for the Cyclades. I think that's probably what the 2511rj uses, too.

Brandon

ciscoman2012

CbrandonB wrote: »

Really? I always see them going for $150 to $250, depending. Although I have to admit a quick eBay search provides one at $100. Most of them are in the $240 to $275 range, though.

I just use rollover cables for the Cyclades. I think that's probably what the 2511rj uses, too.

Brandon

This may be a silly question but how do you switch between devices on the Cyclades. I believe I read somewhere that it runs Linux OS. I may be mistaken though and was reading something else.

Anyways, how would you go about switching between devices? I assume it wouldn't be like the CLI on Cisco devices since it is a different vendor correct?

CbrandonB

That's one thing I really like about the Cyclades. You can telnet into each device separately using a port number of 70XX, with XX being the port number on the back of the Cyclades that what you're trying to telnet into is plugged into.

For example, I have my 3640 plugged into the first port. To get to it, I just open a cmd window, type in "telnet 192.168.1.241 7001" and I'm there. That's how I have each device open in a separate window in the screenshot above. Pretty simple and works great!

And yes, it does run an embedded form of Linux, which means it does take a minute or two to boot.

Brandon

ciscoman2012

So which device does 192.168.1.241 refer to? The Cyclades? If so, how do you go about setting the IP address on that unit?

CbrandonB

Yep, .241 is the Cyclades. It has a console port on it, so I configured its IP via CLI and then got into the web gui and tweaked a few things.

Brandon

ciscoman2012

CbrandonB wrote: »

Yep, .241 is the Cyclades. It has a console port on it, so I configured its IP via CLI and then got into the web gui and tweaked a few things.

Brandon

The CLI on the Cyclades? If so, how did you know how to configure it?

CbrandonB

Yep, there's a console port on the Cyclades for CLI into it. It has a "Setup Wizard" that takes you through some basic setup. Then you can use the web interface after that. Took all of 5 minutes.

I also put the latest software on it (I think from 200

through the web interface. Worked great! I just used the manual. Check it out if you'd like more details. Its well written.

Brandon

Netwurk

CbrandonB wrote: »

I just use rollover cables for the Cyclades. I think that's probably what the 2511rj uses, too.

Brandon

Yes, I have a 2511RJ, it uses rollovers. Made a bunch of them to get my lab going. Not hard to make as you just need to flip the connector before crimping. A lot of 2511's use the special (expensive) octal cables, pointing that out for anyone shopping for a terminal server.

CbrandonB wrote: »

That's one thing I really like about the Cyclades. You can telnet into each device separately using a port number of 70XX, with XX being the port number on the back of the Cyclades that what you're trying to telnet into is plugged into.

For example, I have my 3640 plugged into the first port. To get to it, I just open a cmd window, type in "telnet 192.168.1.241 7001" and I'm there. That's how I have each device open in a separate window in the screenshot above. Pretty simple and works great!

And yes, it does run an embedded form of Linux, which means it does take a minute or two to boot.

Brandon

You can also telnet into a 2511 that way. It uses ports 2001-2016, so you just need to telnet x.x.x.x 20xx to directly access a device. The 2511 also lets you set up menus, a little complicated to set up but worth the effort.

CbrandonB

Good to know on the 2511! My boss paid $175 for his, and that was about what they were going for at the time, if not more. I didn't even look, I just bought my Cyclades.

They both work great, though. He wanted to have everything match in his rack. Personally, especially coming from a music equipment background, I could care less.

Brandon

Netwurk

Got my 2511 because I know from experience that 2500's more or less last forever. I've never seen one die, both at work and home. Of course they get retired as running at 10Mbps half duplex is not especially modern. But terminal servers don't need to be fast, they just need to work. Not saying that a 2500 never fails, just that it's rare.

CbrandonB

Makes sense to me.

Brandon