CCNA - Hardware

tntcoder

tntcoder

tntcoder

Soldato
Joined
7 Apr 2004
Posts
4,212
Hi,

Im interested in teaching myself for a CCNA certification, can anyone who has done one please tell me exactly which routers/switches i would need to set up a home lab for practicing the theory on and approximate second hand prices? Also if anyone could recommend a book list that would be great.

Thanks a lot,
Jack
 
i would only buy a few cheap routers, 2500 or 1600's. For ccna sims are okay imho, packet tracer will be fine to start with then boson is pretty good imho.

Somebody will probably moan about how bad sims are but ccna is genrally pretty simple configs, but i would get a router or two if you arn't savvy with the hardware already
 
imo, sims will always be usefull, although maybe not quite as much as hands on experience with the hardware. with simulations, you could have random/unknown errors and problems that you have to diagnoze and solve, where as if you buy a couple routers and a switch for a router lab, you cant create problems that you have to solve, without remember how you caused that problem (and thus how to reverse) in the first place, and so none of the problems (except initial setup) will be unexpected with a real small scale ccna lab.
 
tntcoder said:
Hi,

Im interested in teaching myself for a CCNA certification, can anyone who has done one please tell me exactly which routers/switches i would need to set up a home lab for practicing the theory on and approximate second hand prices? Also if anyone could recommend a book list that would be great.

Thanks a lot,
Jack
Click to expand...

I done this course a couple of years back, if you have a general knowledge of pcs you will do fine, its not that tough. The course breaks you in gently enough, at the start you will see that it goes waay back to the basics.

Dont sweat it :)
 
Buy 2* 2501's which come for about £20 each give or take £10.
Buy 1* 2500 (I forget which model is the Dual Ethernet) for about the same price of a 2501.
Buy 3* Catalyst 1900 switches for about £40 each, and then do the course in about a month or two.

Expand on these with CCNP, i'm your uncle ;)
 
Ricochet J said:
Buy 2* 2501's which come for about £20 each give or take £10.
Buy 1* 2500 (I forget which model is the Dual Ethernet) for about the same price of a 2501.
Buy 3* Catalyst 1900 switches for about £40 each, and then do the course in about a month or two.

Expand on these with CCNP, i'm your uncle ;)
Click to expand...

if your after kit for with ios 12 your looking at abit more than £20 each, i wouldent bother wth switches for ccna, only a few bits about it and sims are okay not as much to "see" than routers.
 
I managed to get a 2501 with Verson 12 IOS for £30! I've got a quote for a 2514 and another 2501 for £35 and £30 each respectively with, again, Version 12 IOS.
 
Ricochet J said:
I managed to get a 2501 with Verson 12 IOS for £30! I've got a quote for a 2514 and another 2501 for £35 and £30 each respectively with, again, Version 12 IOS.
Click to expand...

kit must have come down in the last year then, although i did get a 2610 for £40 which i thought was pretty good
 
You could use Dynamips, which is a simulator for 7200, 3600 and 2600 series routers, all you need is an ios image and the simulator available from:

http://www.ipflow.utc.fr/blog/

You can have multiple instances running and connected them up in a lab topology, can be time consuming but its 100% free.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom