suggestions for routers

I am starting to work on 70-216 and am thinking about using a router for
practice.
I know that I can set up a windows 2000 server with two or more NICs as a
router and can see some ways to use inexpensive home routers as well
(plugging one network into the WAN port but these are generally pretty
limited and do not have static routing or support any routing protocols) but
I am wondering if there is any point in getting one of the cheaper cisco
ones listed on ebay (usually these are 2501 but these appear to be quite
old).

This may be a pointless distraction from the real business of passing the
exam but I am doing this, at the moment, anyway for my own interest, even if
it does slow things down (took me four months to study for 70-215)

thanks for your help

MCSE
Mon Sep 01 20:42:27 CDT 2003

While it's not directly related to studying for 70-216, it might not hurt in
the long run, especially if you have plans for a CCNA.

The 2500 series are pretty much all at or past their end of life, but they
are still very adequate for most CCNA labs. You can usually get a good deal
like you said on eBay, but be careful and make sure you read the specs to
make sure you know what you are getting.

Best,
Will
www.mcseworld.com


"Paul Lantz" <plantzNOmoreSPAM@onlink.net> wrote in message
news:OQMiCMPcDHA.3872@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> I am starting to work on 70-216 and am thinking about using a router for
> practice.
> I know that I can set up a windows 2000 server with two or more NICs as a
> router and can see some ways to use inexpensive home routers as well
> (plugging one network into the WAN port but these are generally pretty
> limited and do not have static routing or support any routing protocols)
but
> I am wondering if there is any point in getting one of the cheaper cisco
> ones listed on ebay (usually these are 2501 but these appear to be quite
> old).
>
> This may be a pointless distraction from the real business of passing the
> exam but I am doing this, at the moment, anyway for my own interest, even
if
> it does slow things down (took me four months to study for 70-215)
>
> thanks for your help
>
>

Paul
Mon Sep 01 21:02:51 CDT 2003

I think I would need something with two ethernet interfaces, these seem kind
of rare and more expensive, eg 1605 for $320 (can see why a lot of people
probably just use an old computer since cheaper).

Are there any specific models that might be useful for routing between two
or three networks (if only Virtual PC had virtual routers!)

Gary
Tue Sep 02 00:05:27 CDT 2003

Take a look at the Boson NetSim. It gives a pretty realistic simulation of
a few Cisco routers and switches. While not all the Cisco IOS commands for
the supported routers are available you can use rip, igrp, eigrp, and ospf
as routing protocols. You can also set up serial, ethernet, fast ethernet,
frame relay, isdn interfaces and vlans.

NetSim is not without a few bugs, unfortunately, but it is much cheaper than
several routers and switches. With it you can have up to 200 total devices
with 40 different devices in the same network. It's pretty hard to beat for
$250.


"Paul Lantz" <plantzNOmoreSPAM@onlink.net> wrote in message
news:OQMiCMPcDHA.3872@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> I am starting to work on 70-216 and am thinking about using a router for
> practice.
> I know that I can set up a windows 2000 server with two or more NICs as a
> router and can see some ways to use inexpensive home routers as well
> (plugging one network into the WAN port but these are generally pretty
> limited and do not have static routing or support any routing protocols)
but
> I am wondering if there is any point in getting one of the cheaper cisco
> ones listed on ebay (usually these are 2501 but these appear to be quite
> old).
>
> This may be a pointless distraction from the real business of passing the
> exam but I am doing this, at the moment, anyway for my own interest, even
if
> it does slow things down (took me four months to study for 70-215)
>
> thanks for your help
>
>

Dragon
Tue Sep 02 12:08:55 CDT 2003

Check out www.routersim.com. Good solution for learning Routers in a sim
environment. Unfortunately, you will not be able to get your Win2K3 server
to talk to it, but still a good resource for learning routing and stuff.



"Paul Lantz" <plantzNOmoreSPAM@onlink.net> wrote in message
news:uoxYBaPcDHA.3520@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> I think I would need something with two ethernet interfaces, these seem
kind
> of rare and more expensive, eg 1605 for $320 (can see why a lot of people
> probably just use an old computer since cheaper).
>
> Are there any specific models that might be useful for routing between two
> or three networks (if only Virtual PC had virtual routers!)
>
>