Building a CCNA Lab

The instructors at Free CCNA Workbook have come to the conclusion that it would be a fantastic idea to offer a readily available Cisco lab for workbook users that prefer to use real equipment over GNS3 and the best part about it all is that it’s FREE to use!!!

The lab is built around the Free CCNA Workbook topology and consist of the following hardware/software;

R1 – Cisco 2651XM (48MB Flash/256MB DRAM) running 12.4(15)T14 Adv Enterprise Services.
R2 – Cisco 2651XM (48MB Flash/256MB DRAM) running 12.4(15)T14 Adv Enterprise Services.
R3 – Cisco 2650XM (32MB Flash/128MB DRAM) running 12.4(24d) Adv Enterprise Services.
R4 – Cisco 2650XM (32MB Flash/128MB DRAM) running 12.4(24d) Adv Enterprise Services.
R5 – Cisco 2650XM (32MB Flash/128MB DRAM) running 12.4(24d) Adv Enterprise Services.

SW1 – Cisco 2950G 24 Port 10/100TX w/ 2x Gigabit GBIC-SX modules running the Enhanced Image.
SW2 – Cisco 3550-24 Port 10/100TX w/ 2x Gigabit GBIC-SX modules running the EMI Image.
SW3 – Cisco 3550-24 Port 10/100TX w/ 2x Gigabit GBIC-SX modules running the EMI Image.

The lab’s Frame Relay switch is a pre-configured Cisco 2610 series router with the NM-8A/S module installed in slot1. When using the lab, you will not have access to the command line of the frame relay switch.

To ensure that everyone has the opportunity to use real Cisco hardware when using the Free CCNA Workbook to study, each lab session is limited to total of 3 consecutive hours which gives a total of eight sessions per day. To reserve your lab reservation and ensure that you lock in the session you must register if you have not already done so and submit your reservation for the specific time-slot. Once your reservation has been confirmed you will be sent an email confirmation regarding the reservation which will include additional details about the lab.

There are two types of reservations. A “Free Reservation” which will be represented as blue blocks in the scheduling application and “Paid Reservations” which are represented as orange blocks in the schedule application. A free reservation can be made at any time however someone can still reserve the block(s) of time you’ve freely reserved if they pay for the specific block(s) of time. Paid reservations must be paid for 72 hours in advance. If you have a “Free Reservation” and its less than 72 hours to the start time of that reservation then your reservation time cannot be taken from you by someone willing to pay for the time.

Each user is limited to one free lab reservation and can only schedule one “Free Reservation” at a time however if the user wants to have two consecutive lab sessions than that user can reserve a free lab session and a paid lab sessions following the free session. However someone still has the ability to purchase your free lab session if the start time of that session is greater than 72 hours. To ensure that your session is permanently reserved than you’ll need to purchase two paid sessions at $10.00 USD per session.

Measures have been put into place to ensure that there is a balance between free and paid reservations; paid reservations can only total 12 hours of each day. This ensures that users who want lab time for free can use the lab and those who are willing and able to pay can reserve time that best fits their schedule.

Also note that when using the lab, all commands you execute on the lab devices are logged to a server for audit. To protect the lab devices, some commands have been disabled which will cause lab devices to fail upon boot or become inaccessible via the console port. You MUST read and accept the “Terms of Service” prior to confirming your lab session.

The lab scheduling website is currently being built however I have provided you with a cool picture to show you what the lab currently looks like;