A CCNA or CCNP candidate who wants to be totally prepared for their exams is going to put together a home lab to practice on. With used Cisco routers and switches more affordable and plentiful then ever before, there’s really no excuse to not have one!

With the many different models available, there is some understandable confusion among future CCNAs and CCNPs about which routers to buy and which ones to avoid. You can take almost any set of Cisco routers and put together a home lab; part of the learning process is taking what equipment you have available and putting together your own lab! For those of you preparing to start your home lab or add to your existing one, this article will list the routers I use in my Cisco pods. You certainly don’t have to have all this equipment, but this will give you some good ideas on how to get started.

The most versatile router you can get for your CCNA / CCNP home lab is a 2520. These routers come with four serial ports, one ethernet port, and one BRI interface for ISDN practice. This mix of interfaces means you can actually use it as a frame relay switch while using the ethernet and BRI ports for routing. (There is no problem with using a lab router as both your frame relay switch and a practice router; for a frame relay switch sample configuration, visit my website!)

My pods consist of five routers and two switches, and three of the five routers are 2520s, due to their versatility. A recent ebay search showed these routers selling for $99 – $125, an outstanding value for the practice you’re going to get.

I also use 2501s in my home labs. These have fewer interfaces, but the combination of two serial interfaces and one ethernet interface allows you to get plenty of practice.

A combination that works very well is using three 2520s; one as my dedicated frame relay switch, one as R1, and another as R2. Add a 2501 as R3, and you can have a frame cloud connecting R1, R2, and R3, a direct serial connection between R1 and R3, an Ethernet segment that includes all three routers, and an ISDN connection between R1 and R2 if you have an ISDN simulator. That combination will allow you to get a tremendous amount of practice for the exams, and you can always sell it when you’re done!

2501s are very affordable, with many in the $50 range on ebay. It’s quite possible to get three 2520s and one 2501 for less than $500 total, and you can get most of that money back if you choose to sell it when you’re done.

With four routers to work with, you’re probably going to get tired of moving that console cable around. An access server (actually a Cisco router, not the white boxes we tend to think of when we hear “server”) will help you out with that. An access server allows you to set up a connection with each of your other routers via an octal cable, which prevents you from moving that console cable around continually. For an example of an access server configuration, just visit my website and look in the “Free Training” section.

Access server prices vary quite a bit; don’t panic if you do an ebay search and see them costing thousands of dollars. You do NOT need an expensive access server for your CCNA / CCNP home lab. 2511s are great routers to get for your access server.

One question I get often from CCNA / CCNP candidates is “What routers should I buy that I can still use when I’m ready to study for the CCNP?” The CCIE lab changes regularly and sometimes drastically when it comes to the equipment you’ll need. During my CCIE lab studies, I found that renting time from online rack rental providers was actually the best way to go. Don’t hesitate when putting your CCNA / CCNP home lab together, wondering what will be acceptable for the CCIE lab a year or so from now. None of us know what’s going to be on that equipment list, so get the CCNA and CCNP first – by building your own Cisco home lab!

• Pronunciation
• Speaking and Listening
• Reading and Writing
• Simulated Conversations
• Vocabulary and Grammar that’s Captivating and Enjoyable

Product Description
Learn to Speak is the #1 leading brand of Immersion Learning. The Flexible Immersion System places you into real-world scenarios where you interact with native speakers to learn more quickly. No other brand offers more personalization or tailors your learning objectives to your specific needs. You’ll learn exactly what you need for travel, business, or school, right when you need it…. More >>

Learn to Speak Spanish Deluxe

• Wooden gate expands to fit extra-wide openings up to 8 1/2 feet.
• Gate is 27″ high
• Comes with secure 4-point steel mounting hardware
• Removes easily from hardware mount when not in use
• Gate swings in, out or both ways with swing control hinge.

Product Description
North States Extra Wide Swing Gate Large openings are often difficult to close off. The North States Extra Wide Swing Gate offers parents an affordable choice for closing off a large area for either a child or a pet. The Extra Wide allows children and pets to be confined to an area where mom or dad will have total supervision. It extends up to an amazing 8.5 feet (103 in.) and stands at 27 inches high. However, unlike other North States gates it does not work wi… More >>

North States Extra-Wide Swing Wood Gate – Hardware Mount

Terms, definitions and other information about cheats and their use
Playing with video games is one of the most widespread forms of entertainment nowadays. Children from the age of 5 or 8 and even the older generations can find a video game to their taste that can help them escape to another world for a few hours. You can experience virtual adventures, wonder in the worlds of long forgotten empires, lead space battles, play the last week’s game with your favourite basketball team, control airplanes and submarines with the help of simulators and you can also be a part of the most blood dripping scenes in a matter of minutes.

There are limitless opportunities that are only bounded by the minds of the video game developers. Fortunately, nowadays PC’s are not the only possibilities to enjoy video games but you can also enjoy the benefits of other game systems like Sony PSP, PS2, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo which operate with the help of a digital disk and can be plugged into your TV set providing you with the special experience of playing your game on a huge TV screen.

Not only are there an immense variety of video games on the market but they have also become more and more difficult and time consuming recently. Many game enthusiasts do not have enough patience and time for such games because they are only playing for the sheer enjoyment of the game and for killing some time. It is also often the case that during your playing you get stuck at an unsolvable point of the game with which you end up in losing your interest in the continuation of the game.

But what can be the solution in the above-mentioned cases?
The answer is very simple: cheat or the use of some other kind of help. Many people, in general, consider cheating a sinful act but cheating in a videogame is not considered illegal, at all. Of course when you play online with the multiplayer mode on, it is not ethical to cheat because it spoils the fun of other players. Consequently, cheaters will not only be excluded from the particular game but they will also receive strong resentment from the online players’ community.

But when sitting alone at home in front of one’s favourite video game, after many unsuccessful attempts, who on earth would not like to see the next level of the game? And who would not like to skip the most challenging parts of a game when someone wants to play their favourite games again?

Let’s not worry about certain moral issues and if you feel like it then just try to make use of those cheats or loopholes that are even built in the game. Since game developers has built most of the cheats in the game software for test purposes.

All this sounds nice, but how can you cheat?
Video game cheats has many different forms and many of them are freely available on the Internet. You will find a detailed description of the different cheat types and their use below.

Cheats, cheat codes:
These are the simplest ones of all cheat types. These are sometimes available from the menu options or you can simply type in a certain combination of keyboard or a gamepad buttons and with the help of these secret codes you can reach some hidden features that make the game easier for you. These cheats can give eternal life, invulnerability, the constant restoring of someone’s health, unlimited ammunition, money codes, etc.

Game developers used to hide these features, but nowadays they offer these cheats as extras of video games.

Command line cheats:
In case of some games you can only initiate cheats if you give so-called command line parameters. When you use command line parameter cheats you start the game with a special command. Click on the start menu and find the starting icon of the installed video game. Click on the game’s icon with the right mouse button and select the features option. A new window pops up. You can find the exe. file and its route in the target box. (E.g. “C:Program FilesInstalledgameGame.exe”)

This is the line you have to modify. Write the appropriate shortcut after it. (E.g. “C:Program FilesInstalledgameGame.exe” -console)

You can notice that it is separated with a space and a hyphen. Save the changes by clicking on the OK button.

Important. The reason why the ‘exe file’ in the target box is in quotation marks is that the route contains a space. In this case you always have to place the parameters outside the quotation.

The following examples are bad and won’t work:
“C:Program FilesInstalledgamegame.exe – console” // inside the quotation
“C:Program FilesInstalledgamegame.exe- console ” // no space and inside the quotation
“C:Program FilesInstalledgamegame.exe”-console // outside the quotation, but there is no space

Passwords:
Passwords are used for jumping levels and for other types of cheats and they usually have to be typed in on a special screen such as “Password Entry” screen or “Name Entry” screen or ?Stage password” screen. With the help of these passwords, we can choose from the different levels of the game, open new features or activate new cheat functions.

Unlockables:
These are characters, ranks, stages, items, weapons, costumes, hidden features that usually become available for you if you complete the different missions assigned at the different levels of the game. These tasks are assigned in the following forms: defeat ‘X’ main enemy and then you can play with character ‘Y’, or if you complete stage ‘Z’, you will get object ‘Y’. These are not considered cheats, they simply help you understand the goals of the game. They often give you the opportunity to try out new things that would be only available for you if you played the whole game again and again.

Easter-eggs:
They mean those extras that are independent of the story of the game and the discovery of such items do not give you any advantage in the progress of the game, these are only built-in just for fun. It is extremely complicated to find them and they require an unusual way of thinking. These can be, for example, the pictures of the game writers, jokes or funny objects.

Glitch:
They are meant to bring about a certain trick or anomaly in the game that can produce an effect that was not intended by the creators of the game. With the help of these you can double certain objects or you can opt for some characters that are originally not offered by the game.

Hints/tips:
These give you hints or tips on how to accomplish certain tasks in a video game, which facilitate playing. For example, what movements are needed to defeat the main enemy, or general hits and tips and they are not considered cheats.

Secrets:
Tricks belonging to this category do not seem so obvious during the game. They can be hidden objects, weapons, tricky exits, the weak points of your main enemies and with the help of them you can easily go on to the next level or get more money depending on the game’s profile. Usually not found in the normal way, while you playing with the game.

(Continued in Part 2.)