3rd Semester CCNA - Equipment needed?

[Poontos]

Budget $500 CDN for around Christmas. What would be the wisest investment to assist me with my CCNA and other networking concepts?

I have seen a few suggestions for a 2501. Is getting just one worthless? What about the 2507?

Any suggestions are very much welcome.

Thank you!

 

[Utterman]

I'm a first semester student in CCNA and I share my class with the 3rd semester students. From what I can tell, most of the 3rd semester consists of designing networks. There are some things that they do on the router setup, but it's not a ton of stuff. A router is pretty cool to have around, but it's no absolutly needed. Cisco had a deal for Cisco networking acad students could get a discounted router for $250, but that ended Oct. 31.

 

[joshInAlaska]

The Cisco Networking Academy uses the 2500 series routers. If you can get two of those, and a Cisco Switch, that will give you all of the hands on that you'll need. You would also want to get a CSU/DSU.

 

[Fatt]

Wisest investment?

The CCNA package from sybex that includes the e-lab and the CCNP router sim from RouterSim.com.

I suggested the CCNP routersim because the CCNA version doesn't support the more advanced routing protocols that you need for the WAN portion or for any study beyond CCNA.

 

[fastman]

Hardware is nice, but not a must. The Sim's now-a-days are great.

 

[Poontos]

Originally posted by: Fatt
Wisest investment?

The CCNA package from sybex that includes the e-lab and the CCNP router sim from RouterSim.com.

I suggested the CCNP routersim because the CCNA version doesn't support the more advanced routing protocols that you need for the WAN portion or for any study beyond CCNA.

Thanks for the info Fatt. Can you point me to which one specfically, as there are a few similar ones noted.

 

[Fatt]

Sybex CCNA Certification Kit

RouterSim BSCI Virtual Lab