CISCO Questions (Hardware)

zetec452 · 6 Jul 2006 at 19:41

Hi,

I'm moving house soon and will need a new router as my zyxel is staying at my parents house.

I did start my CCNA but didn't finish it as I moved to take on a new job.

I'd like to try and get my hands on a fairly cheap unit that I could run at my new home. It would be nice to have wireless, 4 ports, routing and firewall. VoIP would be a real bonus but probably pop the price up a bit.

What models would you recommended? I can have a search on ebay then.

Cheers.

Jon

crashuk · 6 Jul 2006 at 20:05

just get a simulator gives you a better understanding of networks.

zetec452 · 6 Jul 2006 at 20:20

Are these free to download?

Where would one find this kind of thing?

bitslice · 6 Jul 2006 at 20:41

freebie sim:
http://www.semsim.com/SemSim.zip

more here:
http://www.certification-crazy.net/router_simulators.htm

zetec452 · 6 Jul 2006 at 21:06

Cheers matey

Dist · 6 Jul 2006 at 23:16

sorry for using your thread but i didnt feal that my question deserves a new thread.

is there any simulaters that simulate problems? for example, having a simulater and playing around with the commands can teach you a bit, but if the program could simulate random errors and problems with the network on different degrees of dificulty (like a simple ethernet port not enabled to something much more advanced), then that could teach much more imo.

Imy · 6 Jul 2006 at 23:37

When I was doing my degree, we used something called OPNET for that kind of stuff.

bitslice · 6 Jul 2006 at 23:44

Dist said:
is there any simulaters that simulate problems?

umm, a good idea, not seen one though.
I reckon if you try out lots of new router layouts, these problems appear all by themselves :-)

having the actual hardware is good for this, it always creates it own problems

crashuk · 7 Jul 2006 at 01:48

JonRohan said:
Are these free to download?

Where would one find this kind of thing?

i have 2 sims that i dont want you can have them if you like.

Ricochet J · 7 Jul 2006 at 11:39

Right. Simulators are absolutely rubbish. Don't bother thinking about them.

What you need are three 2500 series routers and two Catalyst switches.

The most they'll tell you to do is a three router setup with two switches.
If you can do it real life you'll be better prepared.

zetec452 · 7 Jul 2006 at 13:06

crashuk said:
i have 2 sims that i dont want you can have them if you like.

Sounds good. if you dont mind. Are they ok to email? [email protected]

Cheers,

zetec452 · 7 Jul 2006 at 14:14

eXSBass said:
What you need are three 2500 series routers and two Catalyst switches.

The most they'll tell you to do is a three router setup with two switches.
If you can do it real life you'll be better prepared.

And how much would it cost for all that?

crashuk · 7 Jul 2006 at 15:14

JonRohan said:
Sounds good. if you dont mind. Are they ok to email?

Cheers,

ok i have your email ill mail it over the week end.

crashuk · 7 Jul 2006 at 15:16

What you need are three 2500 series routers and two Catalyst switches.

Dont bother buying them its a waste of money, use the sims, sims will help you create complex networks with switches and routers.

V-Spec · 7 Jul 2006 at 15:26

crashuk said:
Dont bother buying them its a waste of money, use the sims, sims will help you create complex networks with switches and routers.

I'd never class buying the hardware as a waste of money, especially 2500s cause they're well cheap and its perfect for basic hands on, especially for lots of discreet basic topics like IOS upgrades which you need to know how to do, but can't do on a sim.. Sims also support about 5% of IOS.

Curiosityx · 7 Jul 2006 at 15:58

If you want a Cisco box for Firewall/Routing/Wifi i would recommend an 800 series intergrated unit.

An 877 or 871 would do the job only problem is that they are quite expensive for a home user device ~ £300

I would go for something in the Linksys range like a WRT54g or a WAG54g for home use and then put together yourself a Cisco lab seperatly comprising of 2500 series routers and 1900xl switches.

You can pick up the labs on a well known site for good money with cables included.

Dont bother buying them its a waste of money, use the sims, sims will help you create complex networks with switches and routers.

Ive had mixed experiences at best but i cannot judge because some people find them useful, i personally prefer to work on the equipment so i can get a better feel for it.

crashuk · 7 Jul 2006 at 16:19

yes but when you want to do areas and stuff like that you can do it on sims.

Curiosityx · 7 Jul 2006 at 16:24

crashuk said:
yes but when you want to do areas and stuff like that you can do it on sims.

As i said, when they work properly. The Cisco exams are bad enough with no saving the configs.

bigredshark · 7 Jul 2006 at 22:08

personally i have a 2800 ISR at home to play with and use an airport express for my wireless. if you're about to do exams etc will your employer lend you kit, when i did my CCNP i dragged a bunch of 3750s and a few 2621XMs home from work to do all the lab work on. though for advanced stuff you'll probably want the sim (work wouldn't lend me a 7200VXR...)

that said the CCNA is very basic (no OSPF or BGP) and i know people who did it all on theory, so the sim would do you fine, if you want a cisco for home to play with, see if you can get a 1721 with an ADSL WIC, won't be the cheapest though...

crashuk · 8 Jul 2006 at 01:17

bigredshark said:
personally i have a 2800 ISR at home to play with and use an airport express for my wireless. if you're about to do exams etc will your employer lend you kit, when i did my CCNP i dragged a bunch of 3750s and a few 2621XMs home from work to do all the lab work on. though for advanced stuff you'll probably want the sim (work wouldn't lend me a 7200VXR...)

that said the CCNA is very basic (no OSPF or BGP) and i know people who did it all on theory, so the sim would do you fine, if you want a cisco for home to play with, see if you can get a 1721 with an ADSL WIC, won't be the cheapest though...

ccna does have OSPF