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Can someone recommend a router for my Cisco networking CCNA?

I'm going through the Cisco CCNP program - I'm now in my CCNA. I desperately need my own routers at home, as I live so far away from the school's lab. However, I'm pretty ignorant of what kind of router I'll need. Money is a concern, too, and I don't mind buying used. I was thinking of buying an appropriate router off eBay. Can someone recommend a specific router (model and such)? One I had looked at only had one ethernet port, which didn't seem good, and someone asked about modules..... Any help would be appreciated, especially someone already in networking.

Public Comments

1. Anything in the 1600, 1700, 800, 2500, 3600 series will do you just fine. I'm sure that you can find something suitable on Ebay.
2. For a home network, a linksys G wireless router is the best because you can upgrade the software, boost the signal and recover from bricking. http://www.dd-wrt.com We were running 3com switches for our work network, but found heat issues. We recently updated to hp switches, and found them to be outstanding, as we can log in remotely for settings and troubleshooting off location. http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/rack-options/kvm/vm/index.html Hope this helps
3. Back when I was working on my CCNA, I used a software emulator for Cisco's hardware/IOS. It was made by Boson, and acted just like the real thing (Minus the fan noise and rack space). It even allowed you to build and configure a virtual topology with Cisco devices (Switches as well as routers). The cost may be slightly prohibitive, but given the prices of the hardware, I think the software may be a more cost effective route. Hope this helps.
4. Buying the equipment that you would need for a home lab is going to cost you and unless you are going to obtain a higher Cisco certification and plan on keeping the equipment for a while. If that is the option that you really want be forewarned that you will loose money on the resale of all of the equipment (I made that mistake). Boson makes a great router simulator and a free option is Dynamips. Another option if you are not looking to invest a lot of money would be to type in online rack rental in any search engine. I have seen a few out there that cater to the CCNA certification and if you are going to get more certs, they are very handy for the CCNP/CCIE.