4500M router. CCNP lab?

[martin-mcsloy]

I was wondering if the above router is suitable to be part of a ccnp lab. All comments and suggestions are welcome!

[glen.grant]

Thats a pretty old platform and may not be able to even run some of the more up to date IOS's . Not even sure they fastethernet interfaces on them .

[pkaretnikov]

The 4500Ms do have fast ethernet and ATM interfaces available for them, however they are somewhat expensive to obtain. The 4500M and 4700M where fairly powerful routers, the 4700M being more powerful than the 3600 series that where supposed to replace them. If you can find one with a FE and ATM for a good price, I'd get it.

I think the last IOS available was a 12.1 release. This will cover most of the lab work you might need, but I'm sure that you would also need a newer router to work with as well (assuming you wanted to build a small lab).