Calling all CCNA / CCNP's! Lab setup help needed

[NeilMcduck]

I've decided to get my CCNA certifcation out of personal interest, but who knows--it might lead to a CCNP and career change down the road...

Anyway, the extent of my networking knowledge thus far has been setting up my home network to work with primus voip and bittorrent :razz:

Needless to say I'm a complete newb at all this and have decided to set up my own lab to give me some real life experience and ace the test. I've been searching ebay for the past couple of weeks, but I'm finding the number of different pre-packaged labs and router/switch combinations a little overwhelming.

What would you recommend as a solid lab setup that will help me pass the CCNA/CCNP, and more importantly give me a solid background and understanding of networking principles?

Ebay seems to have a lot of 2500 routers and 1900 switches which I gather are now obsolete by industry standards--are they still worth $600+ as training tools?

My budget is $700ish, but I don't want to get ripped off by spending it on an ebay kit worth only $200...

Here's an example of one I'm considering:

3 - Cisco 2610 Routers, 64/16 RAM, 12.3 IOS, 1 Ethernet Port (built-in)
6 - Cisco WIC-1T Serial Module (2 installed in each router)
2 - Cisco 1912 Switches
10- FREE Ethernet Cables
3- FREE DCE/DTE Crossover Cables
5- AC Power Cords
1- Console cable kit

It's listed as buy it now for 800 US, but the seller is taking best offers so I could probably get it a bit cheaper...

Thanks!

[direct-x]

My CCNA lab books came with IOS simulation software, so you don't actually need the hardware to play around and such.

This was four years ago though.

[NeilMcduck]

hmm..good point. Maybe I should play around with the simulations to see if i'm into it before investing in a lab...

[Dark]

Yup for CCNA (eventhough the exam changed last year or two years ago to include simulation questions) you don't need a lab. You'd better off with the simulation tools.

[crow]

Even though simulation works, nothing beats working with the real equippment. If you have the cash either you can pay for used equippment or take course with real labs. BTW, a lot of commands doesn't work on simulator software (such as access list control and some others).