bacaartikeldisiniaja -- CCNA or CCNP candidates who want to be fully prepared for the exam will have a home lab for practice. With pre-owned Cisco routers and switches becoming more affordable and plentiful than ever, there's no excuse not to own one.
Given the many different models available, there will naturally be some confusion between his future CCNA and CCNP as to which routers to buy and which to avoid.
You can set up your home lab with almost any set of Cisco routers. Part of the learning process is building your own lab, with equipment at your disposal! For those of you looking to start a home lab or expand your existing lab, this article will Here's a list of routers I use in my Cisco pods. Of course, you don't have to have all this gear, but it gives you a good idea of where to start.
The most versatile router available for CCNA/CCNP home labs is the 2520. These routers have four serial ports, an Ethernet port, and a BRI interface for ISDN practices.
This interface combination means that you can actually use it as a frame relay switch while using the ethernet port and his BRI port for routing. (It's okay to use the lab router as both a frame relay switch and a practice router. See my his website for an example frame relay switch configuration.)
My pod consists of 5 routers and 2 switches, 3 of the 5 routers are versatile 2520s. A recent eBay search revealed that these routers sell for between $99 and $125.
I also use a 2501 in my home lab. These have fewer interfaces, but the combination of 2 serial ports and 1 Ethernet port gives you plenty of practice.
A combination that works quite well is to use three 2520s. One as a dedicated Frame Relay switch, one as R1, and one as R2. Adding the 2501 as R3 creates a frame cloud connecting R1, R2, and R3, a direct serial connection between R1 and R3, an Ethernet segment across all three routers, and an ISDN connection between R1 and R2 (if available). ) can have simulator. This combination allows you to accumulate a huge amount of practice for your exams, and sell them whenever you're done!
The 2501 is very affordable, many in the $50s on eBay. It's entirely possible to get three 2520s and one 2501 together for under $500, and you'll get most of your money back if you decide to sell them when you're done with them.
With four routers to use, you may be tired of moving console cables around. The Access Server (actually a Cisco router, not the white box we think of when we hear "server") helps us with that. Access servers allow you to connect to other routers using octal cables, eliminating the need to move console cables frequently. For access server configuration examples, visit my website and see the free training section.
Access server prices vary considerably. If you do an eBay search and see that it costs thousands of dollars, don't panic. CCNA/CCNP home labs don't need expensive access servers. 2511 is a good router.
