CCNP home lab serial connections: T1 is the way to go!

As I'm building my home lab for the ROUTE exam, I find the DB60 DTE-DCE cables increasingly problematic, because:

• they cost money,
• they are bulky,
• they are as flexible as a flagpole.

After playing around with different back-to-back connections, eBay provided the ultimate solution: WIC-1DSU-T1 cards.

They are cheaper than WIC-1T and WIC-2T cards, and use regular UTP cables (not with ethernet pinout, mind you!) for connection. Everything I need for a neat, organized rack. Only downside: they need modular routers, and can't be used with the built-in interfaces of my 1005, 1605R and 2500 series boxes.

The command to remember:

service-module t1 clock source {line | internal}

Default is line, so set one end of the link to internal.