Current views on home lab specs

I've spent several hours reading about what kit people suggest for home labs for CCNA use, with no clear consensus amongst people's opinions. I believe I need:

(a) two switches capable of VLANs, trunking, VTP, 802.1q and ISL (b) two routers, each with one serial port and one ethernet RJ45 port, capabale of trunking, VTP, 802.1q and ISL (c) something for frame relay (not sure best approach) (d) something for ISDN

so, do I choose 2950 switches? what if I choose 2900 or 1900 switches? does that have any impact?

do I choose 2500 routers? which variants? I can't see any clear indication of which is most suitable for CCNA work.

how best to arrange the frame relay aspect?

no idea what to do about ISDN

I would be grateful for any suggestions of specific models or a current "best approach" list.

Reply to
Andrew W Young
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"Andrew W Young" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@tylehurst.demon.co.uk...

A 2924-XL-EN should de, thay can be found pretty cheap on ebay. remember that the 2950 series does not have support for ISL

Might consider buing three. 2500 series routers should do if you load them up with 16/16 in flash and memory in order to run newer version of the IOS. Consider to go for the 2600 series instead. they do cost a little bit more but can be found relative cheap on ebay.

Then you definately need to go for the 2600 series routers.

Both 2500 and 2600 can handle frame-realy.

Again the 2500 and the 2600 can handle ISDN but depends on the model. For the 2600 series routers you will need a WIC for ISDN (you will need WIC for seriel interfaces on the 2600 routes as well).

You might want to buy a ISDN simulater. They a dropping in price at the moment since they are no longer needed for the CCIE R&S exams. Is ISDN still needed for the CCNA?

So a list of routers could look somethning like this:

3x 2610 with WIC-1T cards 1x 2924 switches (You can do trunking to the 2611 router) Optional an extra 2924 switch if you want to examine trunking betveen the switches. optional 2x ISDN BRI cards and a ISDN simulator. I am not sure if you actually need this. and cables. you will need DCE/DTE crossover cables for the serial connections.

Hopes this clears things up a little bit :-)

Reply to
Martin Kiefer

Reply to
Howard Huntley

In article , Howard Huntley writes

Both excellent, but probably a bit more money than I was willing to spend. I was thinking of perhaps 4 or 5 devices I could hide in the corner!

Reply to
Andrew W Young

In article , Martin Kiefer writes

But the 2924 does support ISL? And where does the 2900 fit in?

What's the main advantage of practising on a 2600 over a 2500 ?

Oh. I saw that thebryantadvantage.com use 2500s for all their rack rentals. What's the main disadvantage of the 2500s? Is it that they cannot support one of the trunking protocols?

Yes, definitely.

Many thanks.

Reply to
Andrew W Young

"Andrew W Young" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@tylehurst.demon.co.uk...

Yes the 2900 series switches have support for ISL.

Newer technology. You will probably not see any 2500 routers on the real world. Faster CPU and modular design. You can use a wide area of WIC and NM in them.

But in order to just get startet I will not say that buying a couple of 2500 routers is stupid. If you can find 2x 2500 with 16/M/16F they will do for the serial links and get you some practice training. And then just add a

2600 router and a switch later when it will be needed.

There is no support for trunking on the 2500 series routers.

Ok, it has been almost 3 years since i have done the CCNA. Just recertified my CCNA a couple of weeks ago with the 350-001 exam and that one did not include any ISDN :-)

You are welcome.

Reply to
Martin Kiefer

Why do you need "16/M/16F in the 2500" listed below??

"Mart>

Reply to
Howard Huntley

"Howard Huntley" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

For the newer IOS versions.

Reply to
Martin Kiefer

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