purchasing router..need your opinion.

[teknoguy]

I am new to the cisco world and would like to get certified in the near future. Im currently looking at buying a router. I have triied the router sims but they don't offer the full functionallity of a hardware router. In your opinion what would be a good router to learn on..
im looking on ebay right now at a 1600 and 2500 series router.

thanks.

 

[wybnormal]

A 2514 is a good one to start with as you can generally cable it up to the DSL or cable internet connection just like the real world. You get 2 ethernet ports and two serial ports. One more router and you have a WAN using back to back cabling between them.

MikeS
Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

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

 

[UNIX72]

Keep in mind alot of ISP's are using PPPOE now which won't work with the 2514 unless in bridge mode so then you need pppoe client/IP on each pc. I had a problem working with the 2514 for my desire setup. So i went and use my 2621 with a ADSL wic which works just fine (NAT). Just some advice.

 

[teknoguy]

would the 1600 or 1700 series router work well on cable internet.?

 

[wybnormal]

What I do is to place a dinky firewall like the Linksys in front of the 2514 and let it take the brunt of the config issues and peepers. You can tighten or loosing the filtering to test the 2514(or whatever) but the PPPoE is a non-issue this way. Not to mention the whole MAC address lock that some cable companies like to do. Once the firewall is there, you can change anything on the backside without issue.

MikeS
Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

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

 

[UNIX72]

Nice work around Mike. I to put a netgear router(pppoe) in from of my router but i change my LAN infrastructure. Now i have the DSL-2621-PIX501-5000 Switch(LAN). The pppoe client is on the 2600 router. I heard the PIX501 still does not support pppoe is that true?

 

[wybnormal]

Supposedly the PIX 501 with 6.1 does support it but I have no way to test it. My cable company (TimeWarner) while spotty at times, is pretty cool with what is on the wire. It's a shark fin 3Com modem(in my case I have a ciso ubr990 router) and nothing fancy like MAC locking or PPPoE...

I'm told that GTE uses PPPoE but that is 2nd hand.

MikeS Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

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