Personally, I built a "poor man's" rack and set it up in my basement. It has eight 2500 series routers (mostly 2501s). I also have a couple of 2924 switches and a 1700 series router that is doing "router on a stick" so that my switches can act somewhat like they know how to route. At the heart of the whole thing is a 2522 router that acts like a frame-relay switch. Then I have a 2511 Router that allows console into all the other equipment. Got all the routers maxed out at 16MB flash, 16MB sdram. I'd estimate that I'm able to get about 80% of the technologies working. It runs OSPF, RIP, EIGRP, and BGP just fine. So, that should get me pretty far. After a little digging for the right IOS version, I've even been able to get IPv6 running! I put it all together including cabling and a full 72" rack for about $1000. Got most of the parts on ebay and a couple off of craigslist.
I realize that it is not going to get me all the way to where I need to be, but it lets me work on my own schedule. It even lets me have access to it spontaneously. I also am a family man. I can spend an hour or two or three on it anytime I wish. Then I can rent rack space on the weekends when I can carve out 8 or 10 hours straight to dedicate to studying. I've also tried playing around with dynmips a little, but have found that I prefer my old-school hardware for the most part. HTH, Brian Valentine From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rogelio Gamino Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 7:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Rack rentals I've been using Dynamips but as we all know it has some limitations. Are you all using Proctor Labs? Is there another option? During the work week the only slot I could use from Proctol Labs is the one starting at midnight but then I wouldn't get any sleep before going to work. It would be nice if the slots were staggered so that they had slots every 4 hours. I don't want to limit myself to the 4pm to midnight on weekends. During the work week I could use their racks if they started around 8pm, finish around 4am, sleep a couples of hours and then go to work. Not complaining, just looking for options. The CCIE lab is difficult as it is so it would be nice if I could find an option that would better fit into a married /w children, working person's schedule. Thanks, RG No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 8.0.100 / Virus Database: 270.2.0/1494 - Release Date: 6/10/2008 7:22 AM
