i've got a couple of items to play around with

[rasczak]

I've got 3 network appliances to learn with and was hoping to get some ideas about with to try to do with them. i am familiar with IOS but not an expert by no means.

2 2900 switches
1 3600 router
1 linksys wireless router
2 desktops
2 laptop

 

[spidey07]

Play around with setting up a trunk between the 3600 and switches and play around with intervlan routing. Hook up two connections between the 2900s and play around with spanning tree, bpduguard, etc.

 

[rasczak]

I've tried looking up trunking, and I do not understand the concept very well. Am I to understand that you are using multiple ports to increase bandwidth for a single subnet?

 

[spidey07]

The trunking is to get the different VLANs from the switch to the router. then the router does the routing between them. It will get you used to trunking which is crucial in switching. Trunking is nothing more than carrying multiple vlans on a single port or link - dot1q (802.1q)is the technology.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk815/technologies_configuration_example09186a00800949fd.shtml

 

[jlazzaro]

using multiple ports to increase bandwidth is called port aggregation, or etherchanneling

trunking is the act of adding a vlan header to an ethernet frame in order to differentiate multiple vlans across a single link. the native vlan is an important part of this concept.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.1Q

 

[kevnich2]

Send that equipment my way. I've been looking at getting a couple cheap managed switches and router's to experiment with exactly what spidey is referring to. Though I think I'd rather try on some HP equipment as it seems to be cheaper and can do the same job. Am I right spidey or is what I've been reading false?

Any pointers on some cheap equipment I can pick up on ebay to play around with? A few switches and a router is about all I need, nothing fancy.

 

[spidey07]

Send that equipment my way. I've been looking at getting a couple cheap managed switches and router's to experiment with exactly what spidey is referring to. Though I think I'd rather try on some HP equipment as it seems to be cheaper and can do the same job. Am I right spidey or is what I've been reading false?

Any pointers on some cheap equipment I can pick up on ebay to play around with? A few switches and a router is about all I need, nothing fancy.

Low end out of support switches and routers can be had for 50 bucks or less. We've got thousands of them and can't give them away.