CCNA / CCSP Lab

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Hello all,

I just ordered a 2610XM and 1841 routers from ebay (its cheap and am broke what can i say and need ur wisdom on how to complete my little lab.

I am planning to take the ccna exam next month and hopefully ccsp thereafter. Now i am getting my first gear and slowly slowly my budget is getting lower and lower.
I got the 2610XM with 12.3 Enterprise IOS + 1 WIC serial + 1 adsl WIC for 87£ which i think is pretty decent.
I got the 1841 with 12.4 Advanced IP IOS for 250£ which is a bit expensive but i really really wanted that router. (will be updated with atleast one HWIC ADSL2+ card in the future)

Now I can spend no more than 150/250£ to buy 2 switches and possibly another router. If anyone can advise on what should be my next purchase I would be gratefull, since I haven't got the experience yet to identify all good models and configurations.
Ideally I wanted this little lab to serve for my studies for ccna/ccsp (maybe ccnp) but besides studying this system will be used on a small project of mine and would need (or preffer) more likely a fast responsive network for data transfers and streaming services (where i though a small catalyst express 500 with gb host connections would do the trick) (i say small since gb switches aint cheap at all.

Either way, please do advise me on some interesting configurations.

tHANKs

 

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Hello again,

it seems that my order/offer for the Cisco 1841 got cancelled by ebay as the seller was not legitimate or something. Now although happy i dint loose my £££ am sad since i can't find another 1841 at that price...
I found however a 1812 which has inbuild switch 8 port and isdn i think with (C181X-ADVIPSERVICESK9-M), Version 12.4(2)XA IOS. It costs 300£ used but seems ok.
My problem is that I wont be able to install any WIC card, e.g. ADSL2+ card on it in a month when I will be installing an 24mbit line here.

Also I read somewhere that 1841 is much better than the other models, dont remember why though.
Can someone recommend/highlight anything I am missing? As i said I am looking for a 1800 series router along with other gear to complete my little startup lab and needs to be expandable for further studies/usage.

Also how would one go to use adsl2+ with this router? is there any cisco adsl2+ modem that I could use with this setup?

Thank you

 

The 1841 is a damn good router, my current setup is as follows :

1841 -------- DTE/DCE -------- 1841

I have a 2950 switch off each 1841.

I am planning on getting a cheap frame relay switch and I have 4 Cisco 1721 routers just sitting there at the mo doing nothing.

As far as I am aware, the 1841 has a lot of expandable options - check out http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps5875/index.html for more info and an interactive 3d demo which outlines all the wic options etc.

Check out info from Chris Bryant as well as he gives advice on lab setups.

Shady

 

hi there and thanks for your reply,

my main problem is at the moment that i cannot locate the 1841 for a decent price, all shops seem to ask well above 400£ without any cards, hence adding an adsl2 hwic card and another for wireless will set me back 150-200£ which results in 550-600£ which i cannot spend on a single router. before it would all cost me no more than 400£ with both cards.

i found the 1801 for 250£ which has inbuild switch which is nice but only adsl (not adsl2) and no wireless installed or wic options.
is there any other way, in terms of using only cisco equipment, to have a wireless and adsl2 with the 1801? like an external cisco adsl2+ modem ? or a wireless access point?
anyone knows any models to search for? am looking at cisco site the past few days but am puzzled
i can also find the 1812 router for relative cheap but again has no adsl or wireless.

any advice much appreciated

 

Hello all

I just bought a new cisco 1841 with no wic cards installed for 300£ and now am waiting to receive the item while i shop for the next kit

currently my setup is
1 x 2610XM + 1 WIC serial + 1 adsl WIC
1 x 1841 no wic cards installed (planning to get the wireless card though and possibly an adsl2 card later)


am thinking of getting the 3640 router now and 2 switches. can someone advice me on whats modules/wic cards i need to have, in order to connect all devices and practice as many scenarios as possible?
I was thinking for 2950 switches as they are relative cheap and seem to have most features.
my main concern is the modules i need know to connect all devices, especially the 2610xm and the 3640(or if one can recommend another good router).

please do advise as I need to sort this out asap .

Thanks cert gurus

Code:

adsl line-------->2610xm----wan--->1841------>wireless---->laptop
                       '            '
                       '            '
                    3640         switch
                       '            '
                       '            '
                   switch         pc's
                       '
                       '
                     pc's

sorry for the lame diagram but i hope it kinda works or makes a representation of one possible scenario.
the thing is that I dont know what modules I should look for, for the 2610xm / 3640 in order to connect them.
any advice much appreciated. Is the 3640 any good in use with the two routers i already have? any other better choice? e.g. 2620? 2621? 2650? 2651? XM?/

Thank you

 

Hello again all,

I am bit confused with some switches i find. e.g. the WS-C3524-XL-EN is a kinda modular switch that has 2 GBIC slots. Now from my understanding they accept 2 cards for fibre only connection??? Could I use an adapter or the GBIC for standard rj45 and use it in my lab? or is this a nono?

Also another questions that troubles me, is what are the limits of a serial connection, what is the throughoutput from this? could i connect the 2610xm with the 3630 in another way or module?

thanks