Cisco equipment for CCNA

F

fantasticdan

n00b
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
62
Hi All,

I'm going to be starting a taught CCNA course next week. It's going to be for a couple of hours 2 nights a week, but I'd like to pick up a few bits and pieces that would help me to practise on when I'm at home.

Is there anything that you would recommend specifically? My budget is pretty limited, but if it's really worth while I'm sure I could stretch to it.

Thanks
 
used 2500 series routers with enterprise IOS and used 2900 switches also with enterprise IOS

here is my lab

ciscolab1bs6.jpg
 
Honestly, if your budget is very tight, I would just recommend GNS3 (a nice gui to dynamips). Dynamips is a Cisco router emulator; you have to supply an IOS, but then you can emulate as many routers as your PC can muster, in various configurations.

It won't do switches, but for playing with routers at home with no budget, it's awesome. No worrying about buying bad equipment from eBay, no worrying about having to upgrade flash/RAM to run an image, no worry about DCE/DTE cables, or AUI adapters.
 
Fint said:
Honestly, if your budget is very tight, I would just recommend GNS3 (a nice gui to dynamips). Dynamips is a Cisco router emulator; you have to supply an IOS, but then you can emulate as many routers as your PC can muster, in various configurations.

It won't do switches, but for playing with routers at home with no budget, it's awesome. No worrying about buying bad equipment from eBay, no worrying about having to upgrade flash/RAM to run an image, no worry about DCE/DTE cables, or AUI adapters.
Click to expand...

And arguably, worrying about IOS upgrades and DCE cables is all part of being CCNA.
 
A good lab for CCNA:
- 2x 2900XL switches
- 1x 2950 switch
- 1x 2620/2621 router
- 1x 2610/2611 router

With three switches and two routers you can pretty much setup any lab that might be on the exam. Probably set you back a few hundo, but it will be well worth it.
 
How does just having routers and switches help without having PC's on the network, or are you guys taking that into account?
pardon my ignorance. I do work with pix's at work(just getting into it now) and I want to learn more.
 
jratzo said:
How does just having routers and switches help without having PC's on the network, or are you guys taking that into account?
pardon my ignorance. I do work with pix's at work(just getting into it now) and I want to learn more.
Click to expand...

you dont really need PC's connected, it would be great but not needed for the CCNA, you have the cisco equipment, routers and switches because the CCNA teaches you the basics of how to set them up, and if you do something like connect 4 routers together you can see the routing tables and how they get updated from a terminal.

if you can set the routers and switches up the right way then all you would need to do is plug in the computers and there will not be a problem.

i used a great program cisco has called CISCO PACKET TRACER, it is a network/cisco sim and you can simulate workstations that way
 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
A good lab for CCNA:
- 2x 2900XL switches
- 1x 2950 switch
- 1x 2620/2621 router
- 1x 2610/2611 router

With three switches and two routers you can pretty much setup any lab that might be on the exam. Probably set you back a few hundo, but it will be well worth it.
Click to expand...

So firewalls aren't a part of the CCNA?
 
jratzo said:
So firewalls aren't a part of the CCNA?
Click to expand...

they are now, as well as wireless



if ur gonna spend a few hundred, might as well just use the cisco online class thing, it comes with great software for emulating a lab plus you get craploads of assignments to check your work as well as sample tests... basically, you can't fail. I'm not so sure they have this jazz for CCNP though.
 
i think they now cover firewalls and what they are but they don't go over how to configure them
 
jratzo said:
How does just having routers and switches help without having PC's on the network, or are you guys taking that into account?
pardon my ignorance. I do work with pix's at work(just getting into it now) and I want to learn more.
Click to expand...

Loop back interfaces FTW
 
Verge said:
they are now, as well as wireless



if ur gonna spend a few hundred, might as well just use the cisco online class thing, it comes with great software for emulating a lab plus you get craploads of assignments to check your work as well as sample tests... basically, you can't fail. I'm not so sure they have this jazz for CCNP though.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to this? http://www.netwind.com/html/cisco_ccna_online_class.html
 
Also the wireless is very basic. More concepts than anything else. Just be able subnet quickly in your head and/or on a piece of paper.
 
I'd go with the actual physical equipment. You will learn the cabling, setup, IOS image updates, etc. Actual hands on stuff. EBay has some good deals (I picked up some good equipment for <$100 total), and when you are done, if you don't need the stuff, you can resell it for pretty much what you paid for it, usually.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top