
Ask HN: Hardware to Teach CCNA Skills? - jason_slack
I want to buy some hardware for an after school program to help students follow a CCNA track.<p>What hardware is cost effective, but still has some longevity? I&#x27;d like to buy them hardware that will at least last 2-3 years. Please mention hardware needed for the entire track. I&#x27;m not currently up on the skills for CCNA in 2019.
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techjuice
I bought hardware back when starting out and it has been the best thing for my
networking experience. I have simulators, but they just are not the same and
will leave student unprepared for the real world when things go wrong which
only happen on actual hardware. The simulators just do not give the same
appreciation when you are looking at a big BGP routed network with multiple
VPNs and other network types that you setup from scratch in a few full racks
that work just like production.

You can get older equipment and newer equipment which is a good mix to teach
students how to work with the old and the new.

For new hardware a few Catalyst 9300s should do with a few ISR 4000s and for
the best of student at least two ASR 1001Xs and two ASA latest versions just
be sure to order them to spec for what you have available. If you want a
classic setup you can use 3x Cisco 2911s and 3x Catalyst 3750s with an ASA
5510. Insure all the products you get have the K9 Security Bundle so they can
do crypto (SSH, SSL, IPSec, HTTPS, etc.) without that license everything will
be unencrypted only (telnet, http, etc.). Normally you can get the older ones
hardware licensed, ask the vendor to run the sh version command to verify the
license before you order. You will also want to make sure you get things
stackable if possible so students are not setting up LAGs when they can use
stacking instead so they do not have to give up ports, though do teach them
how to do this so they will know what to do if they are in that situation and
are not able to do stacking or need to do both in a mixed environment.

You will also want to insure students know the different types of fiber, coax,
etc. type connectors and how to set things up once providers have brought
connectivity in through for them to finish the setup.

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p1esk
You don’t need actual hardware. Use software simulators.

I got ccna 15 years ago, so can’t recommend particular models, but the core
cert should still be about understanding L2 (switching) and L3 (routing)
protocols. Pretty much any managed cisco devices should support more features
than you need to know.

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jason_slack
Good point. I do feel however at this age there isn’t a substitute for
touching the hardware. Lugging it around. Setting it up. Tearing it down. Etc
etc.

My CCNA was at least 15 years ago. I can’t remember exactly. I remember I did
that and CEH at the same time.

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runjake
Hardware is the way to go unless you're wanting to do complex routing labs,
then I prefer virtualization, in general.

Per my other comment, the subreddits I listed are by far way more informative
than what you'll get from the HN audience. That's not meant to be a slam, it's
just that the subreddits are a more targeted audience.

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runjake
You’ll want to head on over to /r/ccna and /r/networking on Reddit. They had
great advice and different CCNA lab scenarios to work from. CCNA study
generally isn’t HN’s strong suit.

