For CCNA, using 3x 2950 and 1x 3550 is a good idea. If you can get a 3560 or 3750 for about the same price of the 3550 then you should get one of those.
About the routers, the 2611, 3725 and 3745 are cheap to get nowadays but they only run IOS 12.4. I would prefer the 1841 and/or 2811. Those are also cheap, they boot faster and they run IOS 15.
Hey Rene,
Thanks for reply, that helped a lot. Now, person I am buying from is suggesting â3x Cisco2811 (this is the best for CCNA/CCNP/CCIE)â, would you recommend going for it? I see youâve mentioned 2811, so I am assuming its a YES. Do I have to ask for 2811XM? Is there XM attached to this model?
Thanks for recommending switches. I look forward to hearing from you.
The 2811 is a good choice. Thereâs no XM model, that was only for the 2600 series. Make sure the 2811 routers have enough flash + memory. The latest IOS 15 version for the 2811 requires 128MB flash and 512MB memory.
Itâs best to check gns3.com for this. I have to say that itâs pretty much self-explanatory. However if you need anything, they have documentation and some videos.
Youâll have 99% o the functionality. The difference between the two is that the 3550 doesnât support private VLANs and the QoS mechanism is different.
For CCNA / CCNP R&S, the 3550 is still a great choice.
Love it, Love it Rene, instructions is so easy understandable. Iâm studying for CCNP and I might have a lot of questions regarding CCNP examine. Any tip you would regarding this mission?
Mike
Reneâ. Is this material ready for the new CCNA exam? And what is ur recommendation with regards to the two part exam format as it related to your study material. I already have the 1st part and need the 2nd part - I am re-certifying -
This material is for the new CCNA R&S exam yes. Nowadays there is a quite some overlap between the two exams, if your ICND1 certificate is still valid then I would take only the ICND2 exam. You could encounter anything from the following list on the exam though:
Hello, I have 4 Cisco SG300 switches which seems to support many options, so far I havenât seen anything they donât support⌠so far. I currently have them configured with 802.1Q trunking. I think I can setup etherchannel too, which I plan on trying this weekend. What are the features to look for for the CCNA in a switch?
Hello, I downloaded GNS3 and am interested in 1000v. From what I have found it looks like you have to buy 1000v, or am I looking at the wrong thing. If so do you know the approximate cost? I have the latest version of VMWare Fusion, which I think is the same as Workstation only it runs on a Mac instead of Linux.
For GNS3 I have an IOS image for a 7200 and 7200p (15.2), will one of those work with for CCNA and GNS3?
The âThe Essential Editionâ is a free version for the CSR1000V. I believe itâs limited by bandwidth but that doesnât matter for labs. If you have ESXi itâs really easy to deploy themâŚyou can probably make it work on Fusion too.
The SG300 switches have quite some features, things like vlans, trunking, etherchannels should be no problem.
They donât run the âregularâ Cisco IOS software though which makes them unsuitable for CCNA or CCNP. A lot of protocols are probably not fully supported and many of the CCNA commands wonât work.
I have GNS3 installed with a 7200 image for the routers. I have a question on which interfaces to configure, for the first slot I have 2700C-IO-FE there are 5 more slots available and the options are:
PA-A1, PA-FE-TX, PA-2FE-TX, PA-GE, PA-4T+, PA-8T, PA-4E, PA-8E and PA-POS-OC3
Also what is the difference between the 7200 and 7200p?