Which Router Should I Buy For CCNA?
So you want to get your CCNA and you need to buy a router for your CCNA home lab? Now the question is which router should you get? I have been in your shoes and know when you are just starting out, it is tough to make sense of all the different models of Cisco Routers available. The good news is there are a lot of good options available to get a good CCNA router for a fair price.
I recommend getting a Cisco 2611 Router or a Cisco 2621 Router because they have to two Copper ports instead of one and offer the most training flexibility. If the cost isn’t much different, go for the 2621 because it offers 2 10/100 Ethernet ports and has 128MB of memory versus the 2611 that has 2 10Mb ports with 64MB of memory. Don’t forget to buy 2 routers as most of the CCNA Labs require two routers. You could also get 3 routers, but from my experience, you will rarely actually need 3 routers to practice for your CCNA.
Another issue that comes into play is the IOS. If you can get a router with 12.4 already installed, you are way ahead of the game. Remember, the only legal way you can get a copy of the IOS is to buy a Cisco Smartnet contract for your router. If worse comes to worse, look for 12.3, but do your best to avoid 12.2. While it is a solid IOS for production, the new CCNA really focuses on the newer 12.4 version and some commands may be different from what you are learning.
This recommendation is for building a CCNA Home Lab. If you plan on building a CCNP Home Lab, then you should check back later for a post about which router you should buy for CCNP. The great part is even though the routers for CCNP are more expensive, if you buy them while working on your CCNA, you can use them for both certifications.
Also, if you have the money, you may be better off buying a complete CCNA Home Lab. You can usually find a complete CCNA Lab Kit including 2 or more routers and 1 or more Cisco Switches. Just keep in mind what I said about the routers.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...About the Author
Adam has written 384 stories on this site.
Related Tutorials & Articles
Auxiliary Password To configure the auxiliary password, go into global configuration mode and type line aux ?. You can see that you only get a choice of 0–0 (that’s because there’s only one port): Router#config t Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z. Router(config)#line aux ? Command-Line Interface 167 <0-0> First Line number Router(config)#line aux 0 Router(config-line)#login Router(config-line)#password adam It’s important to...Read more
Basic Routing Concept A device which communicate two networks either they are based on different protocols is called “Router”. Basic function of router is to define a logical path for data packet because it works on network layer. It is specialty of router that it doesn’t forward the second layer broadcast packets. Router components 1) ROM (Read only memory) 2)...Read more
Interfaces To make changes to an interface, you use the interface command from global configuration mode: Router(config)#interface ? Async Async interface BVI Bridge-Group Virtual Interface CTunnel CTunnel interface Dialer Dialer interface FastEthernet FastEthernet IEEE 802.3 Group-Async Async Group interface Lex Lex interface Loopback Loopback interface MFR Multilink Frame Relay bundle interface 158 Multilink Null Serial Tunnel Vif Virtual-Template Virtual-TokenRing range Multilink-group interface Null interface Serial Tunnel interface PGM Multicast Host interface Virtual...Read more
A router performs redistribution when it uses a routing protocol to advertise routes that were learned by some other means. Those “other means” may be another routing protocol, static routes, or a direct connection to the destination network. For example, a router may be running both an OSPF process and a RIP process. If the...Read more
Console Password To set the console password, use the line console 0 command. But look at what happened when I tried to type line console 0 ? from the aux line configuration—I received an error. You can still type line console 0 and it will accept it, but the help screens just don’t work from that...Read more
One Comment on “Which Router Should I Buy For CCNA?”
Write a Comment
Gravatars are small images that can show your personality. You can get your gravatar for free today!
There is a problem with this article. The IOS recommendation. IOS 12.4 is not compatible with either the 2600 or 2611 series unless you get the XM version.
Hence the last available IOS version for these series of routers is 12.3.
Cheers.