Is this kit worth it?

[devik]

This kit cost me $414 including shipping, I was wondering if I did ok or I should buy better equipment for the (student) budget I'm on. I also plan on studying for the CCNP next year so I for sure dont want to have to start from scratch with my home lab. If this is ok for the price, is there anything I should add that might help? Thank you in advance!

x2 2620 Router 32D/16F 1 Serial Port + 1 Fast Ethernet Port
x1 2620 Router 32D/16F 2 Serial Ports (Frame/Relay Switch) + 1 Fast Ethernet Port
x2 2950 Switch 24 Fast Ethernet Ports

It also includes what I believe to be plenty of cables (if not, they're dirt cheap to make) including a console cable.

[Big Evil]

I think is over priced and not a high enough spec for CCNP.

A quick peep over ebay showed me the following - (buy now)

CISCO WS-C2950-24 Catalyst - $24.99 each
Cisco 2600 Series Ethernet Router - $19.95 each
CISCO WIC-1T $9.00
Cisco DCE/DTE Crossover Cable $8.55

The 2600 routers really need to be 2600XM and have them at 128/32, if not the 2600XM the 3640's. The 2950 is ok as switch, but for CCNP you need min 2960 and at least one layer 3 3550/60/3760.

2910XM with 128/32 would be around $70.
3640 is $58.
3550 SMI/EMI is $100

HTH

[devik]

The prices for ebay may be that but it doesn't include the shipping which for the 2950 is $17 bare bone. Spending $400 I suppose was not realistic for the CCNA lab, so I was able to get a refund and am expanding my budget.

Thank you for the research and although I usually despise eBay, I'll try that out and cross my fingers everything works.

[Big Evil]

Yeah i forget about the shipping, i guess once you factor that in to your kit that makes it al about the same give or take a few bucks.

Once you cross the line from CCNA to CCNP the labs start to cost and i know this first hand.

[devik]

Yeah i forget about the shipping, i guess once you factor that in to your kit that makes it al about the same give or take a few bucks.

Once you cross the line from CCNA to CCNP the labs start to cost and i know this first hand.

What about the 1700's just for the CCNA, $35 with 12.4 32/64?

[Big Evil]

That would work - most CCNA student find the 1700 is base routers for their studies.

[zoltron30]

heres a 3 router 2620xm lab which is a great deal. just get a couple of serial cards and i'm sure you can find 3550's with EMI for a good deal on ebay





http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-3-Cisco-2620XM-Wired-Routers-/150628327476?pt=COMP_EN_Routers&hash=item231225e034

[devik]

Thanks a lot for that, I ran across them already but I wont be around for that auction... I've been stuck having to look for Buy Now

I came across these 1760's, if I could only find WIC's for a really cheap price, my start lab would be complete. When I say cheap, I mean WIC-2T or two WIC-1's for $10...I'm trying to go under $450 and I still have the rack to buy.

I was able to get 3x 2950 switches for $125 used in good condition including all the little extras. Also, I was able to get CAT5e STP crossover cables for 85% off which happens to be hot pink lol...it's going in the closet so who cares.


1760's
http://cgi.ebay.com/Cisco-CISCO1760-Qty-Available-WARRANTY-XL-/330577529517?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cf7f4caad

[ddarwactor]

IMHO, there's absolutely nothing like the experience of working with the real equipment at home. I started purchasing stuff off of ebay about 2 weeks ago and so far have been through RAM, Flash and IOS upgrades, password resetting, losing Internet connection, Power Supply dying, IOS corruption and having to load a new image via Xmodem (lord, I haven't used Xmodem since my BBS days!), rolling and crossing my own cables, and the list goes on. This reminds me so much of getting my first P/S2 with no hard drive and a DOS Commands book that was thicker than Todd's Study Guide.
As painful as it sounds to some (not me, I LOVE this stuff!), I know this is the best way for me to remember what it took to be able to successfully ping each device all the way down the line. There's nothing more satisfying than working though a misconfiguration, finally hitting the enter key and getting the response I was expecting. I can't imagine how in the world they could simulate some of the stupid stuff I've done to myself...like what a terminal output looks like after you've set rommon confreg to a wrong value and what to do when that happens. wow...