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Home > Archive > CCNA > July 2004 > Router recommendations to practice CCNA
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Router recommendations to practice CCNA
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| I'll be studying for the CCNA exam soon, and was looking for a Cisco router to help with my studies. Must be 10/100 Ethernet Interface, and I'd prefer if it was small in size (1-4 LAN ports would be fine). Age of the router doesnt really matter (as long as I can use it to practice for the CCNA).
Right now I'm looking at the 800 series & the 1700 series.
Any recommendations on a model # or series #(the cheaper the better  ) | |
| smrkdown 2004-07-22, 5:41 pm |
| 2500 series is pretty much the standard. For the CCNA, you want a router with serial and ethernet interfaces, so the 2501 is usually the most popular. These are 19" rackmountable units though and the speed of the ethernet ports is 10 mb/sec. | |
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| thanks for the info.
smrkdown: you mentioned the importance of the serial ports, what would I connect them to? The serial to DTE cable wouldn't be useful for the purposes of studying, would it? (since I wont really need a DSU/CSU)
Since the console port is what is used to configure the router, then what would be the WAN / LAN ports? I'm assuming the AUX and the AUI (Ethernet AUI adapter needed?) but I'm still a Cisco newbie & the 2501 is a little old school 
What are all the accessories I would need?
*side note* Why is the 2500 series pretty much the standard for studying for the CCNA? | |
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| The serial ports are the WAN ports, you need a dte/dce cable to connect the two -
http://www.anthonypanda.com/product...d_id=1&opt_id=2 is a great source.
The AUI interface is the ethernet interface for your LAN, and needs an AUI transciever http://makeashorterlink.com/?S385232E8 and you will also need a straight RJ45 patch lead per AUI interface.
The 2500's are popular mainly because of cost, and because they are ethernet. Also as they have 2 serial interfaces they are quite flexible, for instance if you had 3 you could connect them in a triangle sort of topology (full mesh). You can buy token ring 2500's if you want to reduce costs, but obviously you won't be able to do all the features needed.
The AUX port is typically used for connecting modems, but can be used to interconnect routers as an interface - though this is a little deep (if your interested searh www.cisco.com for "aux back to back")
If you were to buy 3x2501's you would also need, 3XDTE/DCE cable, 3*AUI converter, 3*straight RJ45, 3xMains leads at least one console.
You also need a switch, I believe the CCNA is based on a catalyst 2950.
I hope I didn't miss anything. | |
| smrkdown 2004-07-24, 6:44 pm |
| Mat P pretty much covered it all. And yes, the serial ports are essential also. You'll use them to practice configuring clocking, various encapsulation types, frame relay sub-commands etc. Like Mat P said, the 2500's are the most popular because of cost, and they provide all of the functionality you need. If you could afford 2600 series, more power to you. You'd need 2611's, and they run about 500.00 ea. on ebay. | |
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| I was hoping to temporarily replace my current router w/ a Cisco router, as I'd get more practice & use out of it in that case.
I'm assuming I can't do that without a complex configuration using a DSU/CSU and other equipment. Am I wrong?
This obviously isn't the type of router I'm used to dealing with  | |
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| You will definately be able to connect to the internet using a Cisco Router however with the information you have provided nobody will be able to advise on which model you require.
It all depends on the presentation of your internet connection from your ISP, my ISP gives me ethernet via a cable modem so I would require a router with 2 ethernet ports, the configuration isn't that difficult and will come with time once you have a basic grasp of the principles. For a model number you should look at the Cisco web site, quick product reference guide -
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/75...guide-pdf.shtml - the SOHO 91 would probably be best for my scenario.
Unfortunately this link doesn't cover legacy devices not sold any more- with a little knowledge, and by the end of your CCNA you should be able to do this using 2 2501 routers connected together via the serial ports, using the ethernet of one for the WAN, and the other for your LAN. You would want to add some basic firewalling to the config which I don't believe is covered in CCNA.
An added complication is software version. You would need an IOS which needs features such as NAT and DHCP - a 2500 brought from Ebay may not have all the features needed so you may need to get hold of an IOS upgrade from an alternative source and possibly upgrade the memory.
I hope I haven't thrown too much in here and put you off!! | |
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| thanks Mat P.
It's not that I'm put off, it's more that the 2501 is more "legacy" than what I'm used to...I just didn't fully understand it.
Thanks for the info, the 2 2501's connected makes sense. I might just get one for the time being just to get to know it & configure the LAN portion.
FYI..I have a cable modem as well
Thanks again for the help | |
| smrkdown 2004-07-25, 11:32 am |
| The Cisco uBR924 makes a great and inexpensive cable modem. | |
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| Doesn't that also have a couple of FXS ports as well? I think I heard of people adding them to CCIE labs for learning the voice portion. | |
| smrkdown 2004-07-25, 5:18 pm |
| Yeah, they have voice ports, so you can configure dial peers and stuff... works pretty well. |
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