Considering 2621 for CCNA & more

[gramzster]

Hi Everyone,
I am currently studying for my CCNA, and becuase I've saved up a little bit of money, I was considering purchasing the 2621 (which includes NAT, and A Firewall... I think) I was just wondering that because it has these additional features, if I could connect it to my cable connection after (because I also believe it includes a DHCP Client).
Thanks,
Graham

 

[jkallen]

It'll work for the CCNA alright and a whole lot more. That's a great router if you can get your hands on it. You also shouldn't have a problem getting it to work with your cable provider. Here's a link that should help.

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/109/router_behind_cm_19268.shtml

 

[wybnormal]

I agree but.. for the price, you can get a 2514 and 25xx for having both the cable connection AND wan connection via a DTE/DCE cable between two of the router serial ports.. which is more important for the CCNA then anything else.

internet------DSL/Cablemodem----2514---LAN
|serial link
250x

Now you can play with point to point, routing protocols, routing IPX, routing IP, iphelper if you hang a workstation of the 250x lan port and so on..

All for the princely sum of roughly 1100.00 thats 500 a router(a bit high) and 30 bucks for the back to back cable.

A 2621 runs about 1500 bucks.. a 2611(10 1/2 only) runs around 1000.00 and that may or may not include 1 WIC for a single serial port. The only time I would suggest a 2621 for a lab is when you need to play with trunking vlans.. for which you should have the 10/100 port on the 2621.. all though it's said (I have not tried it) that you can trunk a 2611 via 802.1q on the 10 1/2 port.

Just my opinion

MikeS
Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"The trouble with giving up civil rights is that you never get them back"

 

[jgercken]

I agree. (2) 2501's (~$300 ea) and a DCE-DTE cable would give you much more to work with. Get one with 16M of Flash & RAM in order to load the recent, feature rich, IOS images. Be aware that a 2501 can't be a PPPoE client so it may not work with your cable modem.
-Jeff ----------------------------------------
Wassabi Pop Tarts! Write Kellogs today!

 

[wybnormal]

Jeff- good reminder about the PPPoE issue.. I keep forgetting about since neither of my connections have that problem. what I have done and recommended in the past is to get a cheapo firewall like a Linksys or used Webramp to handle that and then hang the Cisco off the firewall. It adds only 100 bucks or less to the overall price.. and if you stick a hub between them, you have a poormans DMZ.

MikeS
Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"The trouble with giving up civil rights is that you never get them back"