Hi There

Have a look at Wendell Odom's blog. He has blogged previously about what is required to build up a lab for the CCNA & CCNP exams.

Wendell is a CCIE who also write books for Cisco Press and has written two books for the CCNA (ICND 1 & ICND 2) which appear to be well thought of by people studying for that exam. I have one of his CCIE books which I think is really great.

Anyway, if you read his blog about what he reccommends, you can then compare this to the offerings from Cisco Kits and see how/if they match up.

I would also advise you to check out Ebay, as you can pick up some really great bargains there and might be able to put your lab together even cheaper.

Finally, if you have access to IOS versions for 2600, 3600, 3700 or 7200 routers, then check out Dynamips/Dynagen. This is a Router "Emulator" not SIMULATOR and allows you to set up a virtual lab on your PC/Laptop running REAL IOS.

You can read more about Dynamips/Dynagen here http://dynagen.org/ have a look through the tutorial section (link on top right hand side of page).

There is also a graphical version of Dynamips/Dynagen called GNS3. You can find out more about GNS3 here http://www.gns3.net/

HTH

Best Regards,

Michael