>On Sun, 27 Aug 2000, daeola wrote:
>
> > Hello Everyone,
> >
> > 1.) Could someone please advise me on the sort of routers suitable
> > for a home lab on a student budget. Basically, the routers that
> > would give me enough confidence and experience to tackle most networking
> > jobs and pass all certifications up to ccnp and ccdp.
> > After looking through cisco's sites, It's amazing how many
> > different routers are available.
>
>
>don't think in terms of "routers"......instead think in terms of
>"interfaces". A cisco 4000 with 1e 2s, vs. a cisco 2501 with 1e
>2s........is really going to do the same for you. So think about
>interfaces/applications.......some things you will want:
>
>ethernet
>token ring
>fast ethernet (for ISL/dot1q vlans)
>async (DDR/etc)
>isdn (DDR/isdn)
>sync (t1/Frame relay)
>
>that should be fine. ATM etc is not really needed and probably not within
>your budget. Good routers to look for:
Good advice. Still, also be aware of software restrictions, such as
the ability to have only one BGP process per BGP router. It's
extremely difficult to see some of the more complex BGP operations,
such as AS path filtering or confederations, without 4-5 routers as a
minimum. In fact, the number of routers in the CCIE lab limits the
sort of BGP configurations you can have.
>
>1600's seem to hold too much value, but don't rule them out.
>
>4000's I feel are one of the best deals out there. You can buy a chassis
>for like $400 or so, and then a 2 port serial card is about $110, you can
>buy what you need when you need it.
Having worked with traveling training labs, 4000's also are very
rugged. The only real disadvantage of the 4000 proper, as opposed to
the 4500/4700, is the lack of FastEthernet.
>
>FastEthernet can be "expensive" to get. The 4000 has a FastEthernet
>interface, as does the 3620.
>
>A 3620 can make an interesting router. You can put a 1fe2w giving you
>fast ethernet and 2 WAN slots (isdn/serial), and you can put a 1e1tr2w in
>another slot giving you ethernet/token ring/and 2 more wan slots.
>
>just work it all behind your budget.
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