My new equipment arrived before the weekend, but I didn’t notice until Christmas because my girlfriend wrapped it up again and put it as a present under the tree. She’s devious at that.
So what is it? Something I wanted for a long time: an access server. It consists of a 2611XM router, a NM-16A module, two octal cables and a console cable. The whole setup allows me to connect out-of-band to 16 other Cisco devices, so I will not have to plug console cables around ever again. How? Well, I could make a blog post about this, but it’s already explained quite perfectly here by David Davis.
I’ve been negotiating a long time for this (since mid-November), and was able to go under a third of the eBay listed prices for the separate components, so I’m very happy. I can now continue my studies.
Speaking of studies: my next study will be CCDA. I’m facing some uncertainties in my life right now and CCDA seems a more realistic short-term goal compared to CCIE. Not that I have abandoned the quest for Internetwork Expert, but the months to come may not give me enough time to properly study such a big project. Either way, CCDA continues the path, and I’ll be using my home lab to further refine my current CCNP skills. Still moving forward.
Reggle 
How’s the 2611XM on memory and flash? You might be better served putting that NM-16a into one your 2611’s and using the 2611XM for routing. The XM’s can run a much higher version of IOS than the non-XM’s can.
I’m seriously considering that. The XM has double the RAM and flash of the other ones (16/64 instead of 8/32). But it currently holds a 15 MB IOS, so I need to check first if I can still use the NM-16A with a smaller IOS as access server.
The hardware page on cisco.com says that the NM-16a works with IOS 11.3 and up. I can’t imagine you wouldn’t be able to find a compatible IOS that’ll fit in your router.
And which ever way you go with it, nice pickup! I would love one of those modules.
Alan, you may want to check out Cisco 2511 as well. I did a quick search on NM-16A and they’re around $150. I am sure you can find 2511 for $150 or less. I got mine for $150.
I’m probably not going to buy a NM-16a or a 2511/2512 any time soon since I’ve been using GNS3 for most things lately. But at some point I do want a full CCIE Security lab so I’m just going to hold out for a NM-32a. 🙂