Test Network Setup with 1700 Series Routers

[willniccolls]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to Cisco equipment use. Fortunately I have in my possession two spare Cisco 1700 series routers with which I can set up a lab to learn and play.

I'm not sure what cards to get for them--they have none. Can someone offer guidance? My guess is I can get second hand WIC's on e-bay but I'm not certain the models or options I need.

My goals would be to do the following, at a minimum, (I think! I'm open to suggestions on other options or limitations I might face)

1. Configure a routed network between two subnets connected by a router.

2. Configure the routers to connect to each other, as one would do for say a T1 connection between two remote offices, each having a subnet connected.

Right now the routers have no cards.

Best regards,

Will

[Richard Burts]

Will

You do not tell us what model of 1700 you are dealing with so we do not know exactly what you are starting with. But in general I would think that you would want a serial WIC for each router (probably a T1 WIC) so you could set up back to back serial connection. And I would suggest getting a second Ethernet (WIC-1ENET) WIC so that you could have the built in FastEthernet as a LAN interface and could use the second Ethernet to connect the routers via LAN interface.

HTH

Rick

[willniccolls]

Great thanks, they are 1721 models

So with two routers, I could use two of the T1 WIC's, one in each, to connect the routers together with a serial connection, then if I have say one Fast Ethernet card I could support two LAN subnets on one router? Or would there just not be that much learning value in the setup of two physical LAN subnets on one router...?

Thanks for your quick response

[Richard Burts]

Will

I can see benefit from having 1 serial link/subnet and 2 LAN subnets, especially in the variety of scenarios that you could implement with that combination of equipment. (all subnets on a router in the same network, 2 subnets in a network and the other subnet in another network, all subnets in different networks, dynamic routing protocols with auto sumarization enabled, dynamic routing protocols with auto summarization disabled, OSPF on the routers when connected by serial interface or OSPF on the routers when connected by Ethernet interface (is there a DR elected in both situations?)

HTH

Rick