Possible CCNA Home Lab

Arthalen

Arthalen

Arthalen

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Joined
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Im into the theory of studying for the CCEnt on my way to studying for the full CCNA hopefully by the end of the year.

I've just done some training Cisco IOS configuring switches, and decided that a Home lab of actual equipment is definitly the way to play :D

So, as I already work in IT I've managed to scavenge some equipment, and wanted some advice from the Cisco heads in here on the best way to configure up all the equipment I've got.

Routers:
4x Cisco 2610XM (Yes, 4 routers!)
All routers have a single dedicated ethernet 100BaseT ports.

Switches:
1x Catalyst 2950

Interface Cards:
3x WIC-1T Serial Interface Cards
1x WIC-2T SS Serial Interface Cards
1x PRI ISDN NM

Now I was think of the following Configuration

Router 1 & WIC-2T Serial (Dual SS Interface on card)
linked via DCE/DTE X-Over cables to
Router 2 & WIC 1T Serial
Router 3 & WIC-1T Serial

This would then give me a nice little Frame Relay cloud to use. Not much of a cloud, but a start all the same. Then I would need to buy another WIC-1T, but in doing so I could link:

Router 3 & WIC-1T Serial (Second Interface)
linked via DCE/DTE X-Over cable
Router 4 & WIC-1T Serial

To give me a further single serial link using PPP.

Lastly, Router 2 would be linked via Ethernet to the Catalyst 2950 switch and then I would plug a laptop into the switch to configure/test/play/get geeky with all the cisco devices.

So as a start, that seem any good ?

PS I do intend on getting a second switch as well for Inter-VLAN and Spanning Tree practice.
 
sounds good,

Although be careful, as most people starting out always seem more interested in creating gigantic mounds of boxes and cables without really learning anything!

For your CCNA, I rekon a few routers, setup basic scenarios and go from there, the setup you've "specced" looks pretty good, CCNA is all about getting to know your way around routers, you could probably manage with 1 or 2.
 
4 routers is plenty. I'm on a CCNA course with the OU which is a cisco academy, so all learning material is direct from cisco, and the main setup they use for about 90% of learning (although im only on the 2nd semester, it could change later), is a simple 3 router setup using serial interfaces, and a switch attached to each router. That is sufficient for everything ive learnt up to this point, such as how routing protocols work and how to set up the routers.

With a 4th router though you should have a better chance to test out load ballancing, although its quite a simple concept.
 
Thanks guys that's really useful. I bought all the necessary leads and extra Wic card last night along with a reel of Cat 5, so hopefully by the weekend I'll be fully up and running.

Last night was interesting journey through Db60 and SS interfaces, cables and different layer 2 protocols - learning a lot through research of this kit as there is an absolutely amazing variety of kit out there.

My Advice to anyone Reading this who wants to spec out there own lab:

Switches: Stay away from Cisco 1900 switches as they do not support Cisco IOS. The cheapest suitable switches I could find are 2924s (£30-35) or step up to a cheap 2950 (£55+). Remember that you don't need hundreds of ports and that 12 port switches are good enough.

Routers: The cheaper the better! Look particularly for either 2500 or 2600 series routers, with a recent Ios version (12+). The key with routers is to ensure they have the required interfaces. Be wary of routers that need a seperate transceiver to convert a Ethernet Aui port into a 10BaseT Rj45 jack. At this stage I would recommend sticking to Routers that have a Ethernet port and DB60 Serial ports. You can then use a serial cross over cable to link two routers together to do basic routing scenarious.
 
The speck looks fine. Although you might have trouble connecting the routers together with 3x WIC1 and only the one WIC2. You might have to buy another WIC1 and stick it in the second WIC slot so you can chain them properly. Though for routing exercises you only need 3 in a ring to show how OSPF etc works with equal cost routes and stuff. That's about as complicated a routing scenario you'll see in CCNA. I'm currently doing it for the second time around and the only difference with version 4 is they assume all routers have two ethernet interfaces. you can get round this by not using the second or just adding a secondary IP to the single ethernet interface. The effect on the routing table is identical.
 
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