CCNP/VOIP Home study lab

[rileymartin]

Hi,

I'm looking around to buy a Cisco layer 3 switch for my CCNP home study lab and it seems like the WS-C3550-48-EMI is a good choice. I also want to learn Cisco VOIP but I don't know anything about equipment requirements for learning VOIP. Can anyone give me some recommendations? Should I buy a 3550 with PoE? Is there a different switch you would recommend? Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

Riley

[dezoconnor]

Rather than buying the actual hardware have you thought about on-line labs such as Proctorlabs.com?

From here you can access all the kit you'll need such as switches, routers, Callmanager, unity etc.

[rileymartin]

Thanks but for now I feel I'll get a lot more out of learning on actual equipment.

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Riley,

The 3550 is a reasonable choice (and probably can be purchased at a good price) but is is End of Life. If you can afford to I would suggest a 3560 PoE with EMI Image :) This will be supported during your study period and is likely to be used in any related labs.

3560

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps5528/index.html

3550 EoL

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps646/index.html

Hope this helps!

Rob