From: Michael Snyder (msnyder@revolutioncomputer.com)
Date: Wed Feb 12 2003 - 01:08:41 GMT-3
I've learned more from assembling my lab, than about any other cisco
related experience I can think of.
Don't overlook the 1602 series, it can run a full version of ios 12.1
Talk about being poor, I brought two 2524's with two 56k cards each,
one 2525 with the same cards, and two 1602's with extra 56k wics for
under $650 total.
Then I made a bunch of 56k crossover cables (they use the standard rj45
jacks).
I also upgraded the above routers to 16 ram with spare parts from older
computers, etc. Brought some common 16 meg flash cards for the 1600's.
My point is that you don't have to spend a lot of money, to have a
decent home lab. And even, it may be counter productive to just buy new
equipment off the shelves.
Heck, my 5002 came to me in a round about way.
I got a Supervisor I module off ebay for $100 (a pull from a upgrade)
Then I got a 48 port 10 mbs ethernet module for it, for $40 from ebay.
About a week later, I saw a 5002 chassis listed for sale for $250 in the
ISP archives. I called but they had aready sold it. But they had an
another chassis that was damaged. The price was right, so I said send
it to me.
The chassis looked ok, but it was about a 3/8" too short. I don't know
how much weight must have been on it, but it compressed the unit and
bowled out the sides.
Easy fix right? Wrong. The chassis is made out of stainless steel.
Not only does it not bend back to the right shape, but it returns to
it's former shape as soon as you release pressure. Ever try to
uncompress a steel box?
Four hours later, I get an idea. Who cares about the chassis, all I
care about is the alignment of the backplane.
Let me paint a picture for you.
Image me in my garage on beer number four or five that evening. It's 2
AM in the morning. I have removed what was a multi-thousand dollar
circuit board at one time, and placed it on my old beat up wood
worktable. Can't find the right size drill bit, I use an oversized bit
I find laying around.
I redrill the screw holes in the circuit board backplane, about 3/16"
larger then they should be. This allows the backplane to float, to meet
up with the modules as they are pushed in.
I put in the modules. The supervisor goes right in, but the second
module hangs. I pull it out. Great, I just bent a whole row of pins on
the backplane. Get out the needle nose pliers and spend 45 minutes
unbending the row of pins.
Another idea, it's now 3 am in the morning. It would help if I could
see those pins as the module goes in. I get out my circular saw and put
in a metal cutting blade. With all the electrics removed from the
chassis, I cut a 1"x4" hole in the bottom of the chassis near the
backplane. Sparks and flames fly in all directions.
I get everything cleaned up, and put the unit back together. This time
I can see the second module as it meets the backplane. This time no
bent pins.
You already know how this story comes out.
I plug the unit in, the supervisor passes it's post tests, then the
Ethernet module passes it's tests.
It's still used in my training rack to this day.
I've told everyone in the shop to never ever take the blades out of that
chassis; thought I haven't told them why :)
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
sam
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 5:39 PM
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: RE: Lab equipment list.
In Truth, I feel that speed and accuracy is an important thing in the
lab.
I have a sizeable lab at home like most of you guys would. I use it to
practice on all of my IGPs, redistribution, policy routing, QoS and so
forth...
I have a 2509, 5 2501s, a 4000 (Frame relay), a 2620 (For the fast
ethernet and voice) and a Cat 5000. All bought off ebay and upgraded
(Flash/RAM)at a fraction of the cost of those 'preassembled' labs. (No
offense... I'm poor ;> )
To practice on the more extensive components of the exam such as ISDN,
ATM, Voice and of course the 3550, you can rent lab time at one of many
commercially available rack rental sites. Do your homework first and
prepare a few labs if possible to practice on the equipment, that way
you don't have to waste precious hours setting up IP Addressing and
such.
I figured out a long time ago that the money that I could invest
upgrading my lab to an awesome 'all inclusive' CCIE lab would cost more
than all the hours of online lab-time I would use anyway.
I could sell the equipment afterwards to recoup my investment.. but
frankly, I've gotten pretty attached to my rack!
My 2c
Sam Sena
4500 New Brunswick Ave
Piscataway NJ
(732) 424-8008 (o)
(732) 424-7388 (f)
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
Stong, Ian C [GMG]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:14 PM
To: Nagarajan M; ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: RE: Lab equipment list.
That really depends on how much you have to spend and whether you want
to be
able to do everything or plan on renting some rack time for the more
expensive technologies. For the basics to cover the core routing
protocols
you can get by with three 2501's or 2610's or 4500's. You will need
16/16
of flash and memory at a minimum to run the 12.1 IOS feature set with
some
of the bells and whistles. Get some DTE/DCE cables to interconnect the
serial ports and some AUI transceivers if buying 2500's. A hub or
switch
would be good to have to interconnect the Ethernet (unless you just want
to
do point to point in which case you just need crossover cat5 cables).
The next steps would be to buy routers with ISDN interfaces and also buy
an
ISDN simulator. Then you could also spend a small fortune to buy a
catalyst
3550, routers with Voice ports, ATM switch and ATM ports and so forth.
Ian
http://www.ccie4u.com
Rack Rentals and Lab Scenarios
-----Original Message-----
From: Nagarajan M [mailto:mnaga@emirates.net.ae]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 6:38 AM
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: Lab equipment list.
Please suggest for CCIE R&S Lab equipments.I am building a study lab at
home.
Best regards,
Nagarajan
.
.
.
.
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