Big networking help/information/request :) (warning: wall of text)

hellarda

hellarda

hellarda

Soldato
Joined
4 Mar 2008
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Location
Guildford
Morning,

I have been thinking about wanting to set up a proper networking/AD lab for me to play around with at home. Now I know most of you are just going to say 'you don't need that, its complete overkill blah blah' but yes it is overkill, but I won't actually be 'using' it, it will just be for testing and for me to experiment on and just have a play around :)

The reason I want to do this, is because networking is something I am really interested in and it is one of my 'options' for the future :) Still, being 16 I don't have lots of money to invest in this like I would like too (a couple of Dell SAN's would be nice but rather expensive :p), However as long as I get something useful out of doing this (qualifications maybe CCNA?) then my parents are prepared to put a little money into it for me (i think :) ) I should imagine around ~£200-£250, however this is not definite so as cheap as chips if pos :)

So what I have at the moment:

Networking:
Billion 7800N Router
Cisco Linksys SPS2024 24-Port 10/100/1000 Gigabit SP Managed Switch.
HP ProCurve 1410-8G Switch

PC's
My main gaming rig.
Family PC
Sisters Laptop
Old Gaming rig (supports Vt-x)
Old Dell Dimension (64 bit does not support VT-x)

Server's
Dell Poweredge 2850 (4gb RAM two 3ghz xeons 64-bit does not support VT-x)
Intel SR3200 Chassis with an intel server board (4gb RAM two 2.4Ghz xeons 32-bit only)
Custom AMD server box (4gb RAM (can add another 4gb if needed though) supports 64-bit and AMD-v)

Storage
HP Storageworks EK 1502 Enclosure with 13x 73gb no array configured yet.
Have some other HDD's lying around which I could use, but not many.

Now I need to leave one machine running WHS for the family backups of My rig, the family pc, and sisters laptop. Currently I have it running on my old gaming rig but could change that if necessary.

Basically what I want to have is a completely separate network for me to fiddle around with. So I'd have one network for all the family stuff so sisters laptop, family pc, whs server. And then have another network for me to test with which would have access to everything else. Also to make it possible to have my gaming rig as part of both networks?

Up until now I have been looking on the fleabay for any cheap switches/routers/servers/hdd's etc I have also asked my dad if his work are upgrading/throwing anything out that I would be able to have, but i'm not very hopeful as their IT department aren't very big.

But I don't really know what I need to buy, I would like to get some cisco stuff, but I don't know what exact kit would be a good starting point.

I also really want to experiment with SANs etc but obviously I won't be able to unless I can find it cheaply somewhere...

Anyways, some questions for this amazing community :D

What kit would be a good starting point to buy? (cisco, routers, switches, firewalls, sans etc etc)
Does anyone know any good resources to teach myself how to use cisco gear?
How would I manage to setup the two networks?
If anyone has any old networking equipment they don't need and would like me to take it off their hands :) would ofc be happy to pay postage :)))) (mods sorry if I am not allowed to ask that here, will delete if so.)

think that's it.

Will probably think of some more things later :p

Cheers guysss :)
 
hellarda said:
Morning,


However as long as I get something useful out of doing this (qualifications maybe CCNA?) then my parents are prepared to put a little money into it for me (i think :) ) I should imagine around ~£200-£250, however this is not definite so as cheap as chips if pos :)



Cheers guysss :)
Click to expand...

Step one would be focus on what cert you want. Pretty much nothing in that list will help with a CCNA as it's got naff all to do with Windows and PCs, it's all infrastructure stuff.
For that you'll want 3 or 4 Cisco routers and a couple of cisco switches. You can buy pre-made home Labs for about £350 that will be ideal. But if you're 16 you can do a properly taught CCNA course at a college where they have the kit for you to use. Usually it's free if you're under 18 too. (this is how I did mine first time round)

For windows server stuff you'd be better off trading int he rubbish boxes for a single very decent box and run VMWare on it. You can then build a lab inside it and the exposure to VMWare itself is useful too.

Storage wise, maybe re-use one of the boxes you have with FreeNAS on and use the iSCSI target and NFS features on that to connect storage to VMWare. (About as close as I think you'll get at home, SANs just aren't the kind of thing you can learn at home, not that there's a huge amount to learn. Most are fairly simple to set up anyway.)
 
Like the other poster said, what do you want...
If you want to do more of the Windows Server based things, then you may want to work towards the MCITP qualification (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcitp.aspx).

If you want to do more of the actual networking stuff, work towards the CCNA. You can also be tought the CCNA with all of the kit for free, at college, you can usually do this if you have 5A* - C grades including Maths and English.

P.S If you plan on self teaching yourself the CCNA and have very little knowledge of networking at this present moment. You may want to start with something non-vendor specific such as the CompTIA N+ qualification, and then progress on to the CCNA which is vendor specific to Cisco. Don't forget to set some money aside for books and video training if you're going to self teach yourself these things, because believe me, playing around with a lab won't get you that knowledge you need to get the CCNA.
 
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^ good point, forgot about books. Even if you're doing it free and books are provided, buy them off amazon anyway, because they're always useful for reference. Usually all 4 for CCNA will come to about £80

Though at the OPs age with practically ZERO experience I'd strongly advise against self tutoring. Exams are £120 a pop, retaking gets expensive.
 
^^
If the OP does go down the self tutoring road, I would very much recommend learning the fundamentals by getting the CompTIA N+ first. That isn't to say CompTIA N+ is going to be a breeze, but it'll be much better to start there, than to throw yourself in to the deep-end and try and self-teach the CCNA without having that fundamental non-vendor specific knowledge.

But I'd seriously recommend going to college if you want to learn the CCNA.

Another P.S If you're going to buy quite a few servers, rackmount servers can be very loud, so make sure you've found somewhere to put them if you buy them :)
 
cheers for the replies guys.

I don't exactly know what I want, I guess I sort of want to do both cisco stuff and Server/AD things.

I had a look at the CompTIA N+ and started trying to get my head around subnetting and now have completely forgotten it :(

I would love to do a proper course, however I am (aslong as I get 6B's at results day which I should) going to continue at my school to do A levels, and my school do not offer anything like that. I could do ICT A2 level (already done AS) but I don't really want to learn how to use powerpoint... and my teacher was terrible for the AS course last year... :/ Also seeing as I am doing 4 possibly 5 AS's (Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Music Technology and possibly Geography) I doubt I will have much time to do another course. So I think going down the self taught route would be the only way

which CCNA/Comptia N+ books are good?
Would the MCITP be worth doing?

ta
 
Subnets in theory are a lot more complicated than they ever will be in the real world.
The problem with theory is that you're rarely given any numbers to work with, where as in real life you do.

The official CCNA books published by Cisco are the best ones to get, and serve as useful reference material for when you need to do things at work. Saying that, most of the 'how to' guides are scattered around on Cisco's site anyway.
MCITP is worth taking but not very useful without experience of AD, simply because the concepts would generally be alien to you.

If you're not going to be looking for a job, then don't bother with a CCNA. You'll end up having to retake it after 3 years (I think?) to get recertified.

The computing routes in schools / education tend to focus on software and development - not something it sounds like you're interested in.
Definitely do physics and maths, both of these help with IT and understanding concepts like WDM ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelength-division_multiplexing ) for example.
 
Yamahahahahaha said:
Subnets in theory are a lot more complicated than they ever will be in the real world.
The problem with theory is that you're rarely given any numbers to work with, where as in real life you do. Yeh they seemed very complicated in the guide I was looking through... :S

The official CCNA books published by Cisco are the best ones to get, and serve as useful reference material for when you need to do things at work. Saying that, most of the 'how to' guides are scattered around on Cisco's site anyway.
MCITP is worth taking but not very useful without experience of AD, simply because the concepts would generally be alien to you.

Well I have had an AD Domain setup at home with two DC's and was trying to get stuff working, by just fiddling around with it, but I sort of gave up as it become difficult to get it to work etc :/

If you're not going to be looking for a job, then don't bother with a CCNA. You'll end up having to retake it after 3 years (I think?) to get recertified.

hmm, yes but it could be useful for getting a job while at uni or something... I dunno

The computing routes in schools / education tend to focus on software and development - not something it sounds like you're interested in.
Definitely do physics and maths, both of these help with IT and understanding concepts like WDM ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelength-division_multiplexing ) for example.

Yeh exactly, and no I'm definitely not interested in the software side, just doesn't really do anything for me. Yeh that was my thinking... hmm yeh that looks interesting :D
Click to expand...
 
If you plan to do A Levels, do them first then do CCNA/MCITP after. Though MCITP courses are expensive and better off done while working as AD will be completely alien until you see it working doing what it's meant to do.

I wouldn't do a course self study while doing A levels because they're a ton of work and self study will sap your time quite a bit. I did mine saturday mornings while working and that was tough enough. Wait till you've done your 6th form stuff.

Also don't do a computing A Level. In my experience they're a waste of time and the teachers are generally useless. Mostly because if you're any good at IT you can do a more interested job for more money... so why would you teach?

Just to clear up the point made above, yes CCNA does expire after 3 years. Though so long as you've passed it once recently most employers will still recognize the cert.
I've done mine twice and it's about to expire again...sod doing it a 3rd time, I'm just going to self study a CCNP that lasts for 5 years and won't bore me :)
 
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