Well, a few things. The Cisco 2500s are serviceable routers for your CCNA studies still as long as you have the proper IOS and maxed
out memory with all the accessories you need. You might say, but they are only 10mb routers. True, but they still work. The major
drawback besides the aforementioned lack of SDM and 12.4 support is that with 10mb routers you can’t do your inter-vlan routing labs
with them(which is true of any of the 10mb routers). So just make sure you have at least one 100mb router in your lab so you can do
inter-vlan routing and that takes care of that issue and helps to keep the cost of your lab down for those with a tight budget!
You want to make sure your router can support IPv6 as doing those labs will really help the IPv6 concepts sink in. Finally, SDM is more
than likely the wave of the future, so you might as well start to get used to it now!
Do I Need A Switch?
This can be debated a few different ways. First some people will say that 80% of the test is based on routing. To which I will agree. But
with only a small margin of error between passing and failing, not fully understanding switching concepts such as VLANs, STP, and root
elections could be the one question that stands between you passing and failing your exam. There will be some switch questions which
are memorization based such as “What is a Layer 2 protocol used to maintain a loop-free network?” Thank goodness we memorized
STP. That said, it would be nice for us to be able to actually “see” the switching concepts work. So this is basically how I view it. One
switch will give you the ability to run the commands on the switch and allow you to memorize the correct syntax and context in which to
run the commands. It will also allow you to do some of the VLAN labs. Two switches will allow you to see VTP Domain & VLAN information
propagate. In addition, you will see basic device elections. With three or more switches you will get all of the above and full device
elections. Remember, we are only at the CCNA level right now so we will not need a Layer 3 switch like a 3550 just yet. But it is a cool
concept of your CCNP studies. Finally you may ask why do some of my dual router kits not have switches in them. Well because you can
quite simply go to the section on our site labeled Switches and add the switch you would like to be a part of your kit. The switches don't
need extra transceivers, ports and such so I don't really have to kit them up with the routers. We do have some of the larger kits that
have both routers and switches in them too.
What Switch Should I Get?
This is one that there is so much debate on these days. I will give you my thoughts on it and there are a hundred different ways you can
build a lab. I will give you the information and let you decide how you want to build your lab.
The Cisco 2950 switch is the switch that is covered on the test and has the exact IOS command set that you will see on the lab. So if
you can afford one, it is great to get. But sometimes when customers only have a $200 budget, I can’t suggest for them to get a switch
and forego the routers. After all, the test is 80% routing! Back to the Cisco 2950, this is the best switch for the test if you can afford it.
But let’s say you can’t afford that switch , but still want a switch, what is next? We have the Cisco 2900 series. This is a step down from
the Cisco 2950 and supports all the same CCNA test commands except the switchport and global vlan command. So with that
knowledge, this switch may just work for you.
Finally, there is the Cisco 1900 series switches. There is not a lot of demand for these so they can be purchased very cheap. Some
people say they have absolutely no value in a CCNA lab. I tend to disagree for the most part. You may ask me, hey, what are you
smoking? The IOS that the Cisco 1900 series switches support is not the IOS that is on the test so how can it be useful? Well, let’s go
into knowing that they IOS commands on the 1900 series are not the ones that are on the test. Ok, so we are not going to focus on
them(remember, there are only a very few switch IOS commands on the CCNA exam in regard to syntax), but concepts that I find many
people having a hard time understanding in how STP works, how the device elections are handled and such. Those concepts work
exactly the same way on a 1900 as they do on the 2950 switch. Not to mention that you can do your VLAN, VTP and other similar labs on
the switch to get an understanding on how they work. So hopefully you can see why I still carry them to help customers who are on a
tight budget get exposure to such concepts. *Note, as of January 2009 the prices have come down on the 2900 series switches to the
point it does not seem to be of great value for us to still carry the 1900 switches. The price between the two switch types is so close it is
better to spend the extra few dollars and get a 2900 series switch.
As I did with the routers above, I have also included a switch feature chart below to help you make your Cisco switch selection.
Summary of Switch Features
_____________________________Summary of Cisco Switch Features
_______________________1912/1924_______2912/2924_______2950____________3550
Port Speed_______________10/100MB_______100MB_________100MB___________100MB
VLans____________________X______________X_______________X________________X
Trunking__________________X______________X_______________X________________X
Port Aggregation____________X______________X_______________X________________X
Mirroring__________________X______________X_______________X________________X
ISL______________________X______________X
802.1Q__________________________________X________________X_______________X
QoS ____________________________________
Author Resource:-
Cisco Kits is a leading provider of cisco ccna, CCIE and CCNP Cisco training courses and equipment. Visit then today for more information on certification or just furthering education.
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