I did a bit of research today and it turns out that purchasing the UC520 is actually cheaper than buying a 1861 and building it out- and you obviously get no CUE, FXS, FX0 with the 1861 out of the box (or voice bundle). Granted, we're not doing fxs, fx0 on the CCIE Lab anymore, but it couldn't hurt to have this for simulating customer networks etc.
MAIN SITE: 1760-V router off Ebay for $100 - $200 WS-C3560-8PC-S - Catalyst 3560 Compact 8 10/100 PoE + 1 T/SFP; IP Base Image - $419 VWIC2-2MFT-T1/E1 - $600 SRST SITE & CME SITE each get the following: UC520-8U-4FXO-K9 - 8-user configuration with 4 PSTN trunks (FXO), 4 analog ports (FXS), 8 PoE ports, 1 VIC slot for expansion, Feature licenses for call control, voicemail and Cisco Unified IP Phones - $1133 VWIC2-2MFT-T1/E1 - $600 3 CP-7961G= - Cisco IP Phone 7961, spare - $134 x 3 = $402 Plus I'll have IP Blue / IP Communicator in addition to the real phones. I'm still working on the VMWare piece for all of the servers. All the prices listed above are 70% off NFR prices (except for the 1760 on EBAY). Thus, the total cost would be just under $5000. Plus I need to build the VMWare server... Do you see anything that I'm missing or any ways I could save cost? Here a few things I'm still considering: Perhaps another 1760 in place of the 2nd UC520? Cut out one of the VWIC2 cards and just connect that router to the main site via Ethernet. Cut out the 3rd site completely since I could still practice gatekeeper, CUBE, TI, E1, SRST, CME with just 2 UC520's. If I did these options, I would save a significant amount but the lab would only be good for practicing technologies, not doing a full lab. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! Russ
