CCNA

Dave77 · 26 Jan 2006 at 00:20

Hello,

I'm currently doing a CCNA, can someone suggest a router that would be good to buy to practice on, the SIMS are not very good. I guess I really need a pair to do anything. Would pay up to £100 or so, hopefully possible to get something with that.

Thanks.

Dave

Adz · 26 Jan 2006 at 00:25

How about a nice Juniper?

I've never done a CCNA but your best bet is probably a 26xx - have a look on eBay. You might have to increase your budget a bit though.

Or... if you have a spare PC, you could always install Linux + Zebra/Quagga. It's not quite a Cisco but the fundamentals are the same and it's something nice to put on the CV.

branddaly · 26 Jan 2006 at 01:58

A couple of 26xx's on ebay tend to go for around £150ish including the cables. I didn't think that there is a lot that can't be learnt from the Boson netsim, (however the ones with the offical study guides are horrendous) or at least nothing that comes up on the exam. However I work with the things day in day out, so I may be covering gaps in the training through experience.

V-Spec · 26 Jan 2006 at 08:34

Buy a pair of 2503s off "the auction site" for around £100 and get a back to back DB60 serial cable, and a pair of ethernet transceivers.

You don't need to spend excessive money on 2600s for the CCNA, the 2500s all run 12.2T IOS which is fine, they have Ethernet and 2 serial interfaces so you can do the frame-relay stuff.

Skilldibop · 26 Jan 2006 at 09:18

I'd go with 2500s. I have two 2516s and a 1721 that i used for my CCNA stuff.
2600 will be at least £150 each. But commonly don't come with WIC modules cos they sell well as separeate itmes in auctions so these cost more. 1700s do all you need and support fast ethernet and dot1q for VTP. I managed to pick one up for £100 with WIC but no PSU.
With hindsight you can probably do better paying the £350 or so if someone is selling a "CCNA/CCNP kit" as it will have WICs, Cables and sometimes extra stuff like a copy of cisco tftp server, packet tracer and other goodies.

tbh the cheapest 2600 on ebay i found recently was £220 with WIC and IOS 12.2 and they don't really do much that a 1700 can't do, appart from 2 FE holes. Which isn't really necessary for labs.