3640 NE modules & WIC cards for CCNA/NP 2

[darko24]

Hi everyone,

I just got hold of 3 x 3640 routers with no modules. I am about to start buying some and I need an advice.

This is my situation: studying for CCNA and intend to continue with CCNP. Which modules will I need to have most of the CCNP topics covered.

I looked through the forums for the answer but I mostly found advice about which routers to get without much talk about the modules.

Thanks to everyone who finds a minute to help.

 

[burtsbees]

WIC-1T (I'd say at least 6), and 3 switches (2950). The cables you'll need are one console cable (DB-9 toRJ5, rollover) a few crossover cables, some straight through cables, and 6 or so DB-60 DTE/DCE crossover cables---they come in 1 foot, 3 and 6 feet---get them depending on how you rack everything, of course You ca get all of this on either Ebay or Anthony Panda dot com.

Burt

 

[maczen]

If you have three 3640 routers then your have 12 open NM slots. If you are going to use WIC-1T's then you will be needing Network Modules to put them in. I would suggest something like this for CCNA/CCNP study.

2x NM-4A/S or NM-4T
1x NM-1FE2W or NM-1FE1R2W
2x WIC-1T

This will give you plenty of serial ports to play with... The NM-4A/S cards can be used for Frame-Relay or for your back-to-back connections and gives you the ability to play with all CCNA concepts. The 4A/S card will double as your access server in the future as the 2509/2511 routers don't handle VPN very well in regard to this setup. The NM-1FE2W or NM-1FE1R2W cards will give you a fast ethernet port for Inter-VLAN Routing as well as two WIC slots for WIC-1T cards (serial ports)..

OTHER POSSIBLE SETUPS:

1x NM-4A/S or NM-4T
2x NM-2W
4x WIC-1T
1x NM-1FE2W or NM-1FE1R2W

OR

1x NM-8A/S or NM-16A/S or NM-32A/S
1x NM-4A/S or NM-4T
1x NM-1FE2W or NM-1FE1R2W
1x WIC-1T

NOTE: The NM-4T is synchronous only... can not be used on your 3640 as an Access Server to reverse telnet to all of your other equipment so I would recommend investing in that NM-8A/S if you find one at a good price... Also note that there is a WIC-2T card.. This is a Smart card that has much smaller ports than the other cards.. MAKE SURE THAT YOU RESEARCH THE CORRECT CABLES AND CONNECTORS FOR THE CARDS AND NMs YOU BUY!!!

Hope this helps!!! Enjoy!!!

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[darko24]

Thanks guys, this certainly helped a lot.

I forgot to mention that I already have three 2950s (two run EI), a 2511 access router and one NM-2E2W. Would this change anything in your proposed choice of modules?

Also, does anyone know a good place to research the cables and connectors? For now I only have one octal cable for 2511, 1 console cable and a bunch of straight-through and crossover CAT6s.

Thanks again, great help.

 

[burtsbees]

The db-60 DTE/DCE cables are only a few bucks (like 5 or so) on ebay for the 3 foot ones---just do a search on ebay for db60 dce/dte. Some descriptions will say crossover, which they are, and some won't, but they're all the same.

Burt

 

[CiscoGuy33]

darko24,

For cables you can get them at

http://www.anthonypanda.com

(he also sells on Ebay). His price for memory, FLASH and cables is right in line, some of his other things are high, just check your prices!!

I have bought cables and memory from him 3x with no issues!

You will have a great lab with the 3640s and the 2950s, as far as what the guys suggested above, with the NM-2E2W you already have, you will at the very least need 2 more of these so that you have 1 in each router, this will give you Ethernet and a place for the WIC 1Ts which will be your serial or WAN connections!!

As you move towards CCNP you will want to put the max DRAM and FLASH in the 3640s so that you can load a 12.4 IOS. A 12.4 IOS would also be important for CCNA, but you would not have to have it on all 3!!

Read the post by Wendell Odom CCIE and Cisco Press author at Network World on setting up a CCNA lab -

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/24916

He also has a post on setting up a CCNP lab!!

Hope this helps!

E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[maczen]

Darko,
You and I have very similar labs only I have been building the server side of things up recently. Make sure to max those routers out on memory. They can handle 128MB DRAM and 32MB FLASH. The DRAM comes in 32MB memory cards and the FLASH comes in 16MB cards. Do an eBay search for 3640 memory to find kits... Usually around $50 for a 128/32 setup... Just buy what you need to max yours out..

This will allow you to do what CiscoG said in regard to installing 12.4 (You can install 12.4 Main with 64DRAM/16FLASH but you can not install Enterprise). You will want Enterprise to do your CCNA Security or Voice stuff as well as the CCNP!!!

Hope this helps... Oh, and CiscoG recommends Anthony Panda for memory as well.. You can check but the 128/32 packages looked cheaper the last time I checked.. plus the shipping is less!!! L8r

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[CiscoGuy33]

Billy,

Good points!

The reason I always bring up

http://www.anthonypanda.com

vs Ebay is that in dealing with memory it is easy to get scammed or just taken - just read the security warnings at Ebay on thumb drives :-(

With Anthony Panda like

http://www.cablesandkits.com/

it is a vender that one of us has dealt with and even if he is a little more $$ we hope that we can trust them based on the prior experience of another member!!

I have bought about 250 items on Ebay and I have had a few bad experiences and I got 1 bad router and 1 switch with a broken face plate, I will still buy on Ebay - it equals out over time and I know how to read between the lines a little better. I have read stories about others who have not been so lucky - some in buying routers and memory for the routers......

Just some thoughts, key is to read the auctions carefully, ask questions and if it is too good to be true - RUN AWAY!!!!!

E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[burtsbees]

Not to mention feedback. But I have never had problems with cables from Ebay.

Burt

 

[maczen]

Works both ways.. Look at the guy that sold his Yaught on eBay.. Final bid was for $6000. He took it to court because he didn't know what he was doing and did not place a reserve limit on the boat.. He lost... It was a VERY expensive Yaught... I almost feel bad for the guy!

By the way, I may be mispelling yaught.. lol

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[darko24]

OK guys, this is what I ended up with:

1 x NM-1FE1R2W
1 x NM-2E2W
1 x NM-4A/S
3 X WIC-1Ts
5 X CROSSOVER CABLES (will i need that many with 4 routers? Never mind - $5 each..)

Thinking about adding another FE port into the mix at some point so I can have two switches doing InterVLAN trunking. Probably when I get to BCMSN.

Two of my 3640s already have max memory, one of them I want to upgrade myself just to see how it's done.

Now I have to find a place to help me decipher the IOS naming scheme and versions. I have c3640-jk9s-mz.124-16a.bin, and all I gather from the file name is that the version is 12.4... Any ideas where to find out more about it?

Thanks

 

[darko24]

CORRECTION - I meant to say 5 x back to back cables.

 

[maczen]

To decipher the hidden meaning behind the arcane Cisco IOS names (and determine exactly what they can do) visit:

http://www.cisco.com/go/fn

You almost have everything you will need. The cards/modules you have listed are sufficient but you only actually need two back-to-back cables to run between the 3640's/ You should probably use the 2511 as an access server and therefore you need an Octal Cable. Like this:

http://www.cablesandkits.com/cisco-lead-octal-cable-caboctalasync-p-570.html

This will allow you to access all of your 3640's via a reverse telnet connection from one terminal session with the 2511! Nice!!!

By the way.. No need for another FastEthernet card.. Only need one into the switched network... and when you get to advanced switching there will be more stuff to buy.. Save it for last if you can!!! (prices drop)!!!

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[maczen]

Not going to tell you what IOS etc. you will need! This should be a learning experience... Play around with the Feature Navigator! It's nice!!!

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[darko24]

Hi,

I have an octal cable already so I started playing with 2511. Will Dynamic DNS and some port forwarding help me SSH the router from the internet (don't have a static IP address)? If not I guess I'll have to get one of those utilities/scripts to email me if the address changes...

Feature Navigator is great. I knew about it but forgot to look there.

Thanks for the advice.

Darko

 

[maczen]

Ya.. Try

http://www.dyndns.com

As far as the 2511 goes.. I would not use it like that as the IOS you can use is not very good with VPN.. I would use a 3640 with a 4A/S OR 8A/S with 12.4.. Have fun!!!

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[CiscoGuy33]

Darko,

That will work - that is how those CCIE labs that rent time on Ebay work, however they surly have a static IP address. You will need to do something so that you can get your IP like you said!

About 2 years ago we had a member in this forum that used to have his lab online - do not remember who it was and I have not seen him offer the IP address any longer. Maybe he is still here and can tell you how he did it and why he no longer offers the IP

Are you away that much that you would need to SSH in from the internet?

E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[darko24]

I am away enough for the setup to be useful, but I mainly want to do it because it's more interesting to try to solve a real problem then just enter the commands from the book. By far the easiest way to do it would be to remote access my PC and then work from there but that would be cheating. With all this gear I should be able to do it like a real man . I will be victorious!!! Eventually...

Now, the VPN business is a can of worms I didn't count on. I was just gonna do a straightforward SSH with a very long local username and password, and hope for the best. Doable?

Darko

 

[maczen]

There are many variables involved with your VPN setup. And many questions.

What edge/border device are you using? I am assuming that the access server is not on the edge but it can be... So let's look at that setup as it would be the easiest... First, I would use a 3640 as your access server in this setup as opposed to the 2511 for the erasons that I specified previously. It was Brian McGahan, triple CCIE No. 8593 that told me not to use the 2509/2511 in this type setup due to limitations of IOS... I can dig up the post from the Cisco Learning Network if you want but regardless if you want to VPN to the access server then I would suggest using a 3640 or something capable of running 12.4.

That said, here is a good reference to VPN setup on IOS.

http://www.fredshack.com/docs/vpnios.html

And here is a Microsoft setup with 2003 Server.. In case you want to go the next step after..

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759171.aspx

I hope this helps!



B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI