Thinking of buying a cisco router to mess about with

DJMK4

DJMK4

DJMK4

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Im a keen learner, i did a lot of Networking in university using cisco set-ups but since iv been working (in IT) i havnt had a chance to mess about on them.

If i buy a cheap router from the bay, would it be possible to use it at home for learning purposes?
 
are there any particular areas of networking that your interested in? you could get a 1700 series router (purely from a size and noise perspective!) with an adsl wic and the 12.4 security ios if you want to use it on your t'internet connection. only problem with that is that you wouldn't be able to tinker if you like your internet connection! not much point in having one router if you want to learn routing, as all you will have is a default route out to the internet and then a couple of locally connected interfaces. perhaps get 2x 2600 routers and a 2900 switch. alternatively, if you fancy a play before making a purchase then have a look at netsimk to see what you think.
 
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At the moment in my job im playing a major role in the rollout of a VoIP based telecoms system. Iv always been into networking.

I think if i could start of with 1 cisco router, have a play around with that, get that working on my home network, i will start to develop a test lab which then brings me onto the CCNA
 
sweet, start yourself off with a 1721 series router with an adsl wic and 12.4 ios (there is one on the bay for £100, if thats within budget), then perhaps get a 2900 switch down the line for your lan off the t'internet router, and then after that you could put as many further routers and switches as you want...
 
atomiser said:
sweet, start yourself off with a 1721 series router with an adsl wic and 12.4 ios (there is one on the bay for £100, if thats within budget), then perhaps get a 2900 switch down the line for your lan off the t'internet router, and then after that you could put as many further routers and switches as you want...
Click to expand...


Looks good to me :) just out of curiousity, what other cisco modelled routers could i use?
 
really depends what you want to do... i would always try and get the newest stuff you can afford - 2600 routers with 10/100 interfaces are really decent for learning on as they are nice and modular. if you can take the hit in one go there are often labs of kit on the bay which is a really decent way of buying the kit - you pay a bit more for it, but often you get equipment in good condition, all running the same memory, same ios, all the cables etc and even a bit of support too. i saw one a while back which had a 2600 router with a nm-4t installed, two further 2600's with wic-1t's, and two 2900 switches. fairly sure they were going for £4-500ish. quite expensive, but more than enough to get you through your ccna, and a very good basis for ccnp.
 
Well as i said the main reason is to start learning my way around cisco routers again. I want to play around with things like bandwidth management, is this possible?

If i wanted a 2600, what else would i need to get in order to have a basic setup at home with my ADSL line? if i can get them first then ill get the rest of the kit later, we have quite abit of spare equipment in work but the 2600 router they have on the shelf is a spare just incase one of our 2 routers dies :(
 
Would it be possible to go


ADSL > Netgear DG834G > 2600 Router> Switch> Workstations

or can i go

ADSL > 2600 Router with ADSL wic > Switch > Workstations
 
both will work. there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

the netgear will do dhcp and nat for you, but it also has a statefull firewall built in too.

the 2600, i believe, will only do acl's - therefore is just a packet filtering firewall, not state aware.

if you use your adsl > netgear > 2600 suggestion then the configuration on the 2600 will be pretty boring unless you want to get into double nat configurations etc.

however, the adsl > 2600 would be less secure because, as mentioned previously, i do not believe it is state aware.
 
If i decided to go down the

ADSL > Netgear DG834G > 2600 > Nodes

Could i still implement bandwidth management?
 
if you have the right version of ios i imagine you would be able to govern how much of the internet pipe is available to a specific ip address and/or protocol. obviously none of the upstream internet routers would honour any qos that you install locally, but for what i imagine you want to use it for i cant see any reason why it wouldnt work - again, if you have the right feature set within the version of the ios you are using.
 
check out gns-3

you can run multiple virtual routers on you machine - each runs full ios command set (you need to suplpy the ios)

hth
 
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