You can get a 3550 on Ebay for $1800, which is a little costly, but you want to be a CCIE. And if you are paying $1500 for 2600's, I have a few you can buy.

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Well, all of us during this time of bad economy have financial constraints, but here is the bottom line if you wanna build an effective home LAB, (based on my experience for over a year in this whole thing R&S and Security)

- You need to have at least one 2600, whether we like it or not. In avarage (with no ATM and VoIP, 64 RAM, 32 Flash) it is $500-$600

- No need for ATM in your lab, rent some time

- If you are building security, you can get only one 501 PIX, would be better of course to get one 515, but if you can not afford it, get 501, you won't be able to use any DMZ setupo in case of PIX 501.

- Although it would be a real value if you have VoIP components, but even this if not affordable, can be substituted by online lab rentals.

- ISDN simulators are really expensive, but, GET ONE, IT IS WORTH IT!! TAKE MY WORD! I would even suggest you to practice on every single ISDN scenario you can even think of, see in a book, see in practice labs, anything about ISDN you see out there, try it out in the lab..

- All in all, you need *at least* 7 routers in your lab (including 2511).

- Would be HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to have at least one 3550, but if you can not afford it, get one 2924 and practice the difference through online labs as well. 2924 in av. is ~$200-$250

- If you can afford another 2924, get it.

- If you use online labs to substitute the absence of ATM, 3500, VoIP, I think it would be a budget of around $200-$300 spent on lab rentals (if u use it wisely)

Last edited by mosam on 04-10-03 at 12:04 AM

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Just quick clarification, whenever I say "If you can afford".. I mean its recommended to have such, but such component in the lab is not a real necessity

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