What is a good Cisco router to use for a home lab?

[rana0460]

Hello everyone, I am studying up for the CCNA test and would like to get a lab started to play around with a cisco router. Does anyone have a particular enterprise router model they would recommend?

I was looking at a Cisco 2811 for around $60, but I am worried that it may be too outdated. I am not looking for anything new, just something used and still relevant.

[Ramblin Tech]

I would suggest looking at CML instead of building a physical lab with obsolete hardware. You can have more nodes in your topology and they will run much newer versions IOS/XE/XR/NXOS.  A network consisting of a single switch or router is not much of a network as L2/L3 network protocols really need to run between two or more devices.

[Martin L]

if 2800 router comes with IOS 15.x is good; if not, you can upgrade it after adding more RAM.  Originally those came with 12.4.

However, I would start with Packet tracer - Netacademy Sim made for CCNA courses and widely use for training.  Also, there is  CML and GNS3.

Regards, ML
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