The single biggest cost for gear for a CCNP lab will be the cost of a layer 3 switch – assuming you really need one. Of the four CCNP exams, only the BCMSN exam requires a lot of LAN switch features.

Is Cisco gear high-priced but worth the investment because of quality support and advanced features -- or just plain high-priced? Cisco Systems Inc. is the dominant LAN switch vendor, both in the ...

You need at least a pair of “switches”, and you really need more. But there are multiple options for what you buy to do switching with for the lab, and those choices impact the topology you end up ...

I'm looking into getting a managed switch to learn how to setup VLANs. Ultimately I want to setup separate VLANs to segregate devices in the future home. Right now I only have a handful of unmanaged ...

I'm dealing with layer 3 switching for the first time, as part of moving into a new office. A larger organization has given us some space in their building and is giving us access to their corporate ...