Cisco home lab
This is my first publication on medium. First of all, I want to write about my home lab that I use to practice and prepare for the exam. Also, I will extend my lab by buying more network devices. All lab updates I will describe in my following articles with more complex topologies.
The idea of building a lab with real hardware was to improve practical skills because as a graduate I have enough practice skills in Cisco Packet Tracer and EVE-NG (this emulator is really good).
All hardware in my home lab is second-hand equipment but works fine.
Lab Contents:
- Switches
The Cisco Catalyst 2950 and Cisco Catalyst 2960 — this is Layer 2 switches that are very good for CCNA. Both at almost the same price.
The Cisco Catalyst 3750 — switch that can do routing and supports link aggregation across the stack.
2. Routers
As for routers, I use Cisco 1841 (x4). These routers are small and support everything I want to try for CCNA. Also, I added two WIC-2T modules to play with serial interfaces.
3. Cables
To configure devices I have some USB connectors with RS-232 and USB to RJ45 console cable.
To connect switches and routers (or other devices) I use UTP cables. Modern switches and network cards support auto-sensing but in my case, with old network devices, I need to use crossover cables.
It is easy to make Ethernet Cable by using special tools and a simple tester. For serial connection, I have a Serial Crossover Cable (CAB-SS-2626X).
Lab Topologies
There are enough devices to build topologies as shown below:
Or Inter-VLAN routing topologies:
