General discussion

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #2073761

    need advice on creating a personal netwo

    Locked

    by luciusism ·

    Hello, I’m going for my MCSE and want to get hands on training by creating my own home network. I was wondering if anyone whose done this before can offer tips for the least expensive way to do this? I know I’ll need to buy the computers, network cards, cabling software… but don’t want to pay thousands for something I’m going to expirement with!

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

All Comments

  • Author
    Replies
    • #3894188

      need advice on creating a personal netwo

      by jesalyer ·

      In reply to need advice on creating a personal netwo

      Netgear has an inexpensive starter kit that goes for between $50 and $90 depending on what the local market can bear. It includes a 10Mb hub (5 slots), a pair of Netgear NIC cards, and two Cat5 cables.

      All in all, a pretty good starter kit.

      jeff s
      spanish helpdesk specialist

    • #3894187

      need advice on creating a personal netwo

      by curlergirl ·

      In reply to need advice on creating a personal netwo

      For basic NT server and workstation, you can easily get away with an older system like a Pentium 166 or 200 with a minimum of 64MB of RAM and a 2GB hard drive. However, if you’re going for your MCSE you may need to do something like study Exchange or IIS or SQL server – you could still probably get away with the basic Pentium level machine, since you’re not really running any production off it. Just beef up the RAM and hard drive space – i.e., for Exchange and NT you’ll probably need something more like a 4GB hard drive and more RAM would also help – maybe at least up to 128MB. As long as you’re not going to really try to run more than one or two workstations off it, you should be OK. This is all pretty economical considering today’s basic workstation is a PIII 400 or 500 with 128MB anyway!! Good luck and Hope this helps!

    • #3894157

      need advice on creating a personal netwo

      by avachon ·

      In reply to need advice on creating a personal netwo

      Hi, I agree with previous posts that you do not need extremely expensive computers. I suggest you check out the auction sites for good deals (know your price points). For example, ubid sells all makes and models and I’ve seen excellent machines going for well under $1,000 (high mhz, PII or PIII, some with xeon processors, large hard drives,etc. These are merchant machines so you are less likely to be ripped off by unknown sources). Also, egghead.com (onSale auctions). Items change daily (be careful of s/h costs). 3com makes an office connect package (1 hub, 2nics 10/100 cabling and drivers). This manufacturer makes very reliable equipment and you can add hubs, nics for scalability (pricier though than net gear for example, but check web prices). For evaluation copies of microsoft OS’s (and others)look at http://www.mcsetutor.com and click on free stuff. You’ll find heavily discounted stuff to help people defray training costs. Hope this helps. Good luck.

    • #3894133

      need advice on creating a personal netwo

      by mckaytech ·

      In reply to need advice on creating a personal netwo

      I set up my training network for about $500 for both hardware and software. The server is a P233/MMX with 128meg of RAM for which I scrounged all the parts. I’m too embarrassed to say what was in the workstation. Throw in a couple of <$15 NIC cards, a cheap hub and some Cat5 cables and you're there. As mentioned elsewhere, you can get free/cheap evaluation copies of most software - I paid $36 for a 120-day evaluation version of BackOffice and it included NT Server (Enterprise), SQL, SMS, Exchange, etc. and that got me through the exams. Best wishes! paul Paul M. Wright, Jr. MCSE, CNE McKay Technologies

    • #3894061

      need advice on creating a personal netwo

      by ron navon ·

      In reply to need advice on creating a personal netwo

      Dear Sir,

      1) You can save the money of Hub by connecting of machines by cross cable, ofcourse if you want to use just two computers.
      2) If you use two computer you can install in one of your Machine that more powerfull in CPU, Harddiskspace and memory NT Server and NT Workstation in to different partion.
      Best Regards.
      Ron Farzan

    • #3893687

      need advice on creating a personal netwo

      by lance2@techsupport ·

      In reply to need advice on creating a personal netwo

      Find a small shop that does trade-in and upgrades. They’ll have stuff they scrap because it can’t be sold (old VGA monitors, small drives, used network cards, keyboards and mice, slow CDROMs, damaged cases)
      If you are pursuing the NT4 track, you can get by with some old 486 PCs. They work fine as Domain Controllers even with a 500MB drive, they are cheap, (RAM costs). For Win2K, you need P133s or better (I got a used P233 for $100). NT4 server runs happily on a 486 with 32 MB RAM (64 is better). For SQL7, you’ll need a Pentium. To run IIS, Proxy or Exchange you need to find a 2GB drive, the rest you can run on 1GB drives.
      The Microsoft Official Curriculum includes 120 day versions of the software and labs you need. Many sell their booksonce done.
      I got my MCSE+I with three 486’s and an overclocked P133 using the MOC. Hardware cost less than $1500 including a small hub and cables. It would be less now.

    • #3893406

      need advice on creating a personal netwo

      by d.c. ·

      In reply to need advice on creating a personal netwo

      Check out these sites for some pricing and how to’s: http://gtweb.net/custom.html
      http://www.homepclan.com/crcable.htm

      Also, to create a crossover cable (this will only save you 12 bucks or so): http://www.kan.org/networking/crossover.html

      Good luck

    • #3768569

      need advice on creating a personal netwo

      by tilsonkephas ·

      In reply to need advice on creating a personal netwo

      Hello

      I think the CAT5 cable and 3COM Fast Ethernet LINK XL PCI card is even better. Although you are experimenting, the outcome will be a success at the same time you will have a decent network.

      Good luck.
      Tilson

Viewing 7 reply threads