Frame Relay, ISDN and other WAN setups

Charlie Mayes · ‎01-03-2008

I just have a simple question a about setuping my Cisco lab to emulate all the WAN technologies above. I have purchased 2 cisco routers (2620's) and was wondering if I can completely use these routers and 2 serial cards with a DCE and DTE setup to get the training I need to master Frame-Relay and ISDN and other technologies? I am also wondering if I can use 2620 routers with 2950 switches to train myself on the CCNP track as well as the CCNA?

Richard Burts · ‎01-03-2008

Charlie

The setup that you describe will not give you the ability to do ISDN at all and would give you only very limited ability to do Frame Relay. You can set up two routers back to back and get Frame Relay encapsulation to work and to pass traffic. But it does not give you things like LMI which you would need if you really want to get trained on Frame Relay. The back to back serial connection is excellent for HDLC and PPP but not for Frame Realy or ISDN.

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick

Charlie Mayes · ‎01-03-2008

Thanks Rick,

What cards do I need to buy to get full functionally for my WAN CCNA and CCNP labs? Also will the routers and switches I have purchased give me everything I need for the CCNP track?

Richard Burts · ‎01-03-2008

Charlie

It is not a question of different (or more) cards. To do ISDN you need some piece of equipment that does ISDN switching. There are various emulators that can help create an ISDN lab environment, but my opinion is that for what you would do with them, they are pretty expensive.

To do Frame Relay you could get a fairly good lab if you have a third router with at least 2 serial interfaces. You can configure Frame Relay switching on a router and generate things like LMI, and different values for DLCIs. But you would need 1 router as the Frame Relay switch, and it would talk to 2 routers which are the Frame Relay routers that you would normally configure.

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick

Charlie Mayes · ‎01-03-2008

OK great!! I have 2 2620's but, am short one serial card since the fourth one I had failed this weekend and you know all about that issue. I will order me another card this week. Oh yeah do you have list of websites places where I can get pretty good deals on used cheap Cisco Equiptment? My money is really tight after the holidays?

paolo bevilacqua · ‎01-03-2008

Try the leading online auction website. There are many trusteable vendors and great deals can be often had.