Buying CCNP Switches

[waleedothman]

Is buying 2 WS-C3550-24-EMI enough for the ccnp switch 642-813 (+GNS3)???????? (real switches can be connected to GNS3 right ?)

Or one should buy different switches,and where to get the best prices and available shipments to Beirut, Lebanon??

[cadet alain]

Hi,

To experiment more things I would take 3 like this and yes you can connect them to gns3.

Ebay seems a good option to buy from states I guess because I'm living in europe and I bought my switches on ebay from austria at a very good price

but I saw some good prices from USA also.

Regards.

Alain.

[waleedothman]

Hi Alian,

I was also told that i must be using 3 WS-C3550-24-EMI for most labs??

May I ask what was the price of the 3 switches?

[cadet alain]

Yes, 3 is better for  e.g spanning-tree and on ebay  3550 -24 fastethernet  with EMI are around 250-350 $.

Regards.

Alain.

[ahmed.jama]

Hi Walid,

Any reason why you are not using the EtherSwitch module (NM-16ESW) on GNS3 as opposed to buying an actual switch for the exam?

AJ

[cadet alain]

Hi,

Any reason why you are not using the EtherSwitch module (NM-16ESW) on GNS3 as opposed to buying an actual switch for the exam?

the NM-16ESW lacks a lot of features like: no dtp, no ISL, no port-security, only CSTP,limited QoS, etc.

Regards.

Alain.

[waleedothman]

Hi,

To Ahmad these are the missing features in GNS3

http://www.gns3.net/phpBB/topic229.html?sid=0fd75b0c27e12b3da31432be967ba464

To Alain,

Having multiple NICs on my PC (2.4 GHz dual core , 4 GB RAM) with the 3 switches will do the trick? Or are there any other problems to overcome?

Will I be able to perform all the 642-813 labs?? Will I be able to connect my routers to the switch clouds?

[cadet alain]

Hi,

Having multiple NICs on my PC (2.4 GHz dual core , 4 GB RAM) with the 3 switches will do the trick? 

Yes it will.

take a look at this forum for linking real switches to dynamips.

http://7200emu.hacki.at/

Regards.

Alain.

[rassoul.ghaznavi]

I love 3550 switches, They are old but they were a revolution at the time.

I strongly suggest them for your tests and labs.

http://www.alivetrading.com/s~q-cisco-3550.aspx