CCNA/CCNP Home Lab

[IronFire]

The best purchase for my lab was a MOXA 16 Port terminal server brand new off eBay for £100 ( retails about £700 new).

When your starting out the amount of bad configurations that you can cause which drop network connectivity through telnet is quite high. With a terminal server you can put the whole shebang far away from you and still have console access. The Moxa box allows telnet to each individual port as well as remote binding of the com port to a PC so it looks as if its local.

The bottom switches are 2950-24-T with the Enhanced Image IOS.

 

[Deleted member 58846]

wow nice few labs there, ive just got my adsl wic and its set up 2 x 2610's one with an adsl wic in, going to be buying 2 x 2950's if i can offord it soon. and maybe another 2x 2610's aswell. Depends what money I can grab this next half a year.

EDIT : Shaz]sigh[ they look brand spanking new. nice jsut need a cabinet to put them in.. I'm gunna be gettin a 24 port rackmount patch panel aswell just more fun i suppose, not gunna cost me anything . Good luck to all those whos doing the CCNA. Great lab building....

 

[Shaz]sigh[]

Just picked up a 2950 from fleabay, "4 months old", £170, not too bad if it is what it says...

Just about to go in for a fully loaded (mem wise) 2610 and I think I'll stop there till I start on my CCNP path.

But yeah, do need a small cab, bit gutted as I just gave one away at work, was only a 20/24u too!

 

[Deleted member 58846]

Just picked up a 2950 from fleabay, "4 months old", £170, not too bad if it is what it says...

Just about to go in for a fully loaded (mem wise) 2610 and I think I'll stop there till I start on my CCNP path.

But yeah, do need a small cab, bit gutted as I just gave one away at work, was only a 20/24u too!

aw .. cabinets come in handy especially when you start to get a stack of them... get pics posted when ya get ya lab up

 

[Shaz]sigh[]

Noticed your 2501 on ebay, what's up with it?

 

[Deleted member 58846]

Nothing wrong with it at all, just flogging it as im gettin more 2610's with some T2 wics. That 2501 has maxed out memory 16/16 takes the latest 2500 series IOS.

 

[Shaz]sigh[]

aw .. cabinets come in handy especially when you start to get a stack of them... get pics posted when ya get ya lab up

As promised:

Just waiting on a 2523 for frame relay and an isdn simulator now and it's done... I think.

Yes, I know I need a cab but I have no spare pennies

 

[Ricochet J]

You lucky son of a gun

 

[Shaz]sigh[]

You lucky son of a gun

I lived and breathed ebay more like

 

[Ricochet J]

I lived and breathed ebay more like

So what have you done with them then?
Have you done those wee 3 router setups?

Keep us posted dude! Not everyone that does their CCNA (like me!) has a home lab! I hate you!

 

[Skiddley]

My lab from a previous thread;

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17568642&highlight=ccip

Now preparing for CCIE.

I've got 3 2500's that I'm getting rid of (pictured) 2501, 2503 and a 2520 if you're interested. You'll want a 2950 as a switch.

Just sold my 2950 on the bay yesterday for 171. Typical prices are £150-200.

Just in the process of putting a small rack together myself. Best thing to do is buy a pro audio studio rack, they offer sizes from 3 to 34U typically with many sizes in between.

EDIT: Don't suppose any of you have a pair of 3750's going cheap??

Skidd.

 

[Shaz]sigh[]

My lab from a previous thread;

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17568642&highlight=ccip

Now preparing for CCIE.

I've got 3 2500's that I'm getting rid of (pictured) 2501, 2503 and a 2520 if you're interested. You'll want a 2950 as a switch.

Just sold my 2950 on the bay yesterday for 171. Typical prices are £150-200.

Just in the process of putting a small rack together myself. Best thing to do is buy a pro audio studio rack, they offer sizes from 3 to 34U typically with many sizes in between.

Skidd.

Is that an nm-32a I spy? I was going to stump for one of those (at a painful price) but picked up a 2509 at a bargain price. Run out of terminal lines already but still... it'll do for a bit! Nice kit though.

 

[Skiddley]

Aye. Very useful but possibly overkill. Don't have to get off my ass to switch console cables about now . Kinda handy if you want to use you lab remotely

Plan for CCIE is;
3X 3640
4X 2621
1X 2621XM
1X3548-EN
2X3550 or 3750.

 

[Shaz]sigh[]

So what have you done with them then?
Have you done those wee 3 router setups?

Keep us posted dude! Not everyone that does their CCNA (like me!) has a home lab! I hate you!

Well mostly it's for CCNP.

Got my CCNA at the end of this month but not really needed to use them much for that, at most, bit of vlan, trunking, trunk routing, route protocols and um... wan stuff. Could definitely do the CCNA with couple of 2501s, a 2520 and a 2900 switch (and that's a big setup!).

Currently, in the photo there is...

A 1721, 32f/64d running 12.2t with a WIC 1t... got this free from work, pretty much unused. Keeping it as a spare incase...
A 2509 access server... just being used as an access server, think it's something like 8f/10d and running IOS 11 or possibly early 12.
A 2950 running enterprise edition (latest image), thinking of picking up another of these for CCNP or just getting another 2900xl. I've been offered a loan of a 2924 or a 3548 for free so... I'll need to check the requirements before deciding.
A 2924 running enterprise edition (latest and last? image) with comedy ATM 155 Fibre module and Gbic module.
2x2503s, 16f/16d, will run 12.2 Ent Plus/12.3 IP Plus
3x2610 with WIC 1ts and e0, 16f/64d, will run 12.3 Ent Plus
1x3640, 24f/96d with 2xWIC 2ts, 1x4BRI NM and fa0, will run 12.3 Ent Plus. Think this goes up to 12.4 with 32/128 but not really checked...

Also got the 2523 on the way, 16f/16d running 12.2 Ent plus.

Really looking forward to throwing myself in to things once the CCNAs out of the way.

(note that I'm not calling CCNA easy but I've got a brain like a sponge and there's not that much material in it so looking forward to a bigger challenge!)

 

[Deleted member 58846]

Them labs are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo niceeeeeeeeee still gettin there with mine still need a few 2950 if i can find sum1 with them cheap enough. you can pick up 2610's now for 30 snots off ebay easy.

 

[Shaz]sigh[]

you can pick up 2610's now for 30 snots off ebay easy.

I find the 16f/64d ones tend to go for around 60-70. One's with decent WICs in can go to 80 (oooh)!

2620s tend to command an extra £10-20 premium. From what I can see though, although they allow more flash, the IOS can't be decompressed in to dram cause it still only supports 64d, thus you're stuck with 12.3 ent (same as the 2610). You do get a fastethernet port if you want to do a bit of "router on a stick" (hoho).

 

[Shaz]sigh[]

EDIT: Don't suppose any of you have a pair of 3750's going cheap??

Skidd.

Ahahahahaaaa I wish. Still watching 3550s for a cheapy but I don't think I'll even consider it until I either...

a.) Need it for CCNP
b.) Get to CCIE

Might just hire rack time... :|

That or hope that when we move to a shared service centre at work, one of our 3560s isn't needed... hmm!

 

[Skiddley]

You can do router on a stick with Ethernet if you really need to. Personally I preferre to have 2 ethernet ports, so I only tend to go for 2611, 2621s - just gives you the flexibility when you need it. ~130 for a 2621 then you can use anthonypanda in HK to get your cheap mem upgrades.

As for flash on 2600's, you need to be careful, XMs support 32meg, 262x's need to have a recent boot rom to support the 32meg modules so take care.

3550's aren't *too* bad now, 500 notes each. Put it this way, my first 2500 was £250 and my first 2621 was £625!! How times change

You do know that 3550 are end of lifed and are being removed from the CCIE lab? Proctor's are recommending 3560s or 3750s now. Ouchy.

 

[V-Spec]

Hmm, can't say i've ever seen a 3550 go for any less than about £800 on ebay. 3560s are pretty much the same except the have more ram, newer revision processor and all gigabit ports. There are a few additional features such as additions to autoQos, arp inspection, and source guard.. apart from those theres not much difference.. Would be interesting to hear where you heard they're removing 3550s from the CCIE Lab, as i've not heard anything like this, and I take my lab on october 31st.... would like to know whether its true or not!!

 

[Deleted member 58846]

You can do router on a stick with Ethernet if you really need to. Personally I preferre to have 2 ethernet ports, so I only tend to go for 2611, 2621s - just gives you the flexibility when you need it. ~130 for a 2621 then you can use anthonypanda in HK to get your cheap mem upgrades.

As for flash on 2600's, you need to be careful, XMs support 32meg, 262x's need to have a recent boot rom to support the 32meg modules so take care.

3550's aren't *too* bad now, 500 notes each. Put it this way, my first 2500 was £250 and my first 2621 was £625!! How times change

You do know that 3550 are end of lifed and are being removed from the CCIE lab? Proctor's are recommending 3560s or 3750s now. Ouchy.

one of my 2610's is maxed out 64/16 with 12.3 IOS, cost me £25 to upgrade it from ebay. got another 2610 sitting here with 32/8 with 12.2 IOS but runs like a bag of poo. going to upgrade that soon to run 12.3 then see how things goes I might just buy 2620's see if I wanna take the networking abit further..