Cisco router choices/CCNA advice

Verbium

Verbium

Verbium

Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2004
Posts
612
Location
Andover
Need a bit of advice, i've just recently purchased a cisco 2600 to aid my CCNA course with my uni. I understand that the 2600 is a modular router and from what i can gather this would be good later on in the CCNA. (As you can probably tell, i'm buying hardware while i go along)

Now my question is, what hardware next? I was thinking of some 1600's or 2500's as my 2600 can be changed to suit different tasks. I'm not all clueless on this, its only early days on the hardware side of things for me.
 
To be truthful, I don't think you need anything other than a standard router in the CCNA? As long as it has a fast ethernet/serial interface and console/aux connections then it's fine!

You'l need a decent enough 12/24 port switch, we've got 2950 series in the labs at uni.

For CCNP you will need additional interfaces but as you aren't doing that at the moment then you should be fine!

Make sure you've got the latest IOS on the router, btw.
 
It will be much better for you to have asecond router as wel, that way you can do some dynamic routing between them, like RIP or OSPF.....bit hard to see the effects of these on one router only.
 
to be honest, a decent sim is probably your best bet. while real routers might be nice, you're (likely) not going to be able to buy 2 or 3 2600s and a couple of switches...let alone recent ones, while a sim will give you all you need.

that said, while it's likely a better bet for individual ccna study, nothing beats a real lab, particularly when you didn't pay for it (I think I've successfully monopolised our entire work lab now - thats 17 routers and 8 L3 switches... :D )
 
the 2500 routers don't do vlans, is that correct? i've snagged a 2611xm router from work which i think does? it also has 2x fast ethernet interfaces, a serial interface and an isdn interface. i quite fancy picking up a few more routers from the bay but i would prefer to stick with the 2600 range. if i buy the pre-xm routers then these still have two ethernet interface but they are just ethernet and not fast ethernet. do they still do vlans? and what is the 'latest' ios? i'm fairly sure the one i snagged from work only has 8mb flash. it is running 12.1 i think. with regard to switches, i ought to be looking at the 2900 range, right?

edit: looks like mine has 32mb memory, 16mb flash and is running 12.3, so not the most powerful thing in the world but also not bad for free! just looking on the bay and the xm models (with fast ethernet) are, understandably, going for a lot more than the pre-xm models. i dont really need fast ethernet for labs, as long as they support vlans i'll be happy...
 
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Won't be long and I will have 3 x 2610s on the sale maybe a 2611 and 2514 with a ISDN simulator and a 19u cabinet with 24 port patch panel. :)
 
Sounds interesting zen62619, keep me updated with details as i've just got my 2600 through and would like to get another one to demo RIP etc. I've just come into some money so its spend spend spend atm :D
 
I'm not sure wether or not I should put them on ebay depends if I can find the buyers. Erm, I did have a pic somewhere on this forum well a few times of my cabinet rackmount system. I also used VMware for workstations to demo everything n stuff! was great!!!

Let me see if I can find the pics.
 
any news on the routers zen62619?

To keep up on news i just found a steal on the bay, 2610 router with a wic serial card and an extra Fast Ethernet card, cheapo postage and it all comes to £60. It's coming from austria though...hmm! lol.

Quick question, updating IOS on cisco routers... does anyone know a good source for firmware downloads?
 
Mr Sniper said:
any news on the routers zen62619?

To keep up on news i just found a steal on the bay, 2610 router with a wic serial card and an extra Fast Ethernet card, cheapo postage and it all comes to £60. It's coming from austria though...hmm! lol.

Quick question, updating IOS on cisco routers... does anyone know a good source for firmware downloads?
Click to expand...

I think I am gunna be selling them. I have a rackmount cabinet practically brand new aswell but not sure as I couldn't post that would have to be a local pickup.

As for the IOS just google the exact name of the IOS you need and it should bring up results. I have 12.3 on disk but you need 32/16 atleast.
 
theres a program called packet tracer 4.0 which is a sim for some cisco routers and switchs. Allows you to add in hosts etc, very very good.
 
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