Hi, I have a hard time with virtual labs, so I would like to purchase CCNA/CCNP lab and I was hoping you guys could help me with some suggestions on what to get.
Thank you for your time.
-
CCNA/CCNP Lab kit
-
If you're wanting to buy lab equipment, you have to decide on how detailed you want get.
The recommendation for CCNP should also be sufficient for CCNA studies too.So I would say you want at least 3 routers running 15.x IOS with k9....you don't have to get gig ports unless you just want it. So you can probably get 2800 series routers. For point-to-point, you want serial connection... The others can be FastE.
You want a couple of layer 3 switches, 3750s would be awesome but I've done most of mine using 355os and 3560s...once again running 15.X ISO with k9 . You can thrown in a 2960 for a straight layer 2 if you want...
of course you'll have to make or buy ethernet cables, buy serial cables, power cables for the devices.
This will be be suffice for your to make a topology for just about anything you'll do for CCNP.
-
Download packet tracer 7.x the latest version it is free. It does most of what you need. I purchased Cisco Virtual Lab. It requires a lot of hardware. Doesn't do serial / frame relay and other things. Cisco requires you to get the smart net for each Cisco device to get the latest firmware. Even if you buy used equipment it might not come with and IoS, cables, or a smart net. Especially off of eBay. It took me a while to find a HP server that came with a HP Carepaq so I could get the update firmware and drivers for it. Be very careful buying used hardware from eBay. Much of it is broken or missing the IoS.
-
Thank you Mr. Wong and thank you Mr. McKenney
