Personally, I like the 2502. Better to have a 2513/2514, with two LAN
interfaces, but the 2502's tend to be a bit cheaper than the typical Ebay
2501. One the majority of the 2500 routers, the serial interfaces are the
same, so you'll be okay there. I have a nice variety of 2500 boxen, and
tend to use the 2502's more than the 2501's, anyway, out of a sick
determination to get my head wrapped around TR. (Plus I get to tease the
Ethernet-only engineers at work, playing with their collision farms).
To really do anything with the TokenRing interface, you'll also need a
token ring hub, or a token ring MAU (IBM 8228's are cheap, and simple), as
well as another token ring device. When you configure the rouer's TR
interface, it won't fully come up, unless there's another TR device on the
hub/MAU. You might look to buy a TR NIC for your PC, to meet this
requirement, until you buy another TR-capable router. Several ebay
sellers have piles of older TR cards, NICs, and MAUs for pretty cheap. I
picked up a box full of TR toys last year, it came with a half-dozen NICs,
two 8228 MAUs, and a nice assortment of cables. Note that the 8228 is a
passive electro-mechanical device, and sometimes the relays inside get
stuck (if it's been dropped). You can use a TR reset tool ("phaser") to
reset the relays, but they aren't as easy to find as they used to be. If
you know any dinosaur network engineers, they probably have a spare in
their desk (I bribed a mainframe hippie for mine).
I would also suggest that you purchase a basic 1-year SmartNet contract on
the router, as well (around $275, IIRC). That gets you access to various
IOS software to run (but not the license to run them -- as long as it's
not for a production network, you'll probably be okay), as well as access
to the Cisco TAC helpdesk to answer questions (no matter how basic) on
setting up your router. It'll also provide for replacement hardware if
the router breaks, but that's less likely than needing help at 2AM, after
you've had a few beers and the damn LSAs won't show up in the OSPF table.
(Those TAC engineers in OZ have put up with me more than once, late at
night, failing to grasp simple stuff).
The only other thing I'd mention is that you'll be needing more than one
or two routers for CCIE prep, but start small, until you get the basics
understood. I think that one router is enough to tackle the CCNA
knowledge, and two is probably enough for CCNP topics. Three would be
nice, for playing with Frame-Relay emulation, and multi-area OSPF, but see
what your needs are, before you buy more than that. As you learn more,
you might decide you need a rackfull of boxes, but by then you'll
(hopefully) know enough about the product lines and their capabilities,
and can make better decisions about what to buy to meet your needs -- like
a few 7513s, a pair of LS1010's, maybe a nice Cat8500 ... :)
-jon-
--- jeremy wrote:
> Hi Group!
> I am planning to buy a
> CISCO 2502 Router at ebay from a reputed seller.
> This unit has 16MB RAM, 8MB FLASH, 12.0(17) IP/IPX/AT/DEC Feature Set.
> Comes with Token-Ring Media Filter.
>
> I would like to know if there are any major drawbacks on this model or
> if the above config seems vague.
> Please let me know if this is sufficient for a home lab??
> Can I have any suggestions as to what Router I should use to set up my
> home lab. for my CCNP,IE prep.
>
> Thanks a lot,
>
> Jeremy
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