i am starting to investigate this as i want to emulate a network with switches and routers , to help me pass ICND1 CCNET , i see routersim by todd lammale i believe and something by a company called boson, and a free ware one gns3 which doesn't seem to work on my pc,,not really sure which is the best, want one that runs SDM if possible, and if you guys can make any recommendations on the ones I listed or ones i don't know about it certainly would be appreciated..Victor
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whats best router simulator software.. 1
- Thread starter victor39
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Netsimk (Netsimk.com) is very good and free. Right now it's missing a couple features but is a great place to start. GNS3 is a front end to Dynamips, an Emulator. Problem with that is you need the actual IOS files, plus it can eat up system resources.
CiscoGuy33
Instructor
victor39,
Do you want a simulator or an emulator ?
Dynagen is a front-end for use with the Dynamips Cisco router emulator but you will need the IOSs -
As for simulators, Boson is one of the best but it is lots of $$$$, however you can get a free trial here -
One of the best that is offered by the Cisco Network Academies is Packet Tracer 4.1: Network Simulation Software, you can look around for it, might find it with Google, it is given to the students free but not sold to the public!
Hope this helps!
E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
Do you want a simulator or an emulator ?
Dynagen is a front-end for use with the Dynamips Cisco router emulator but you will need the IOSs -
As for simulators, Boson is one of the best but it is lots of $$$$, however you can get a free trial here -
One of the best that is offered by the Cisco Network Academies is Packet Tracer 4.1: Network Simulation Software, you can look around for it, might find it with Google, it is given to the students free but not sold to the public!
Hope this helps!
E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
CiscoGuy33
Instructor
Burt,
You are SOOOOOO right!!!
victor39 - Burt is right, pick up a few routers and switches on Ebay for a home lab.
Check this link to a blog by CCIE and Cisco Press author Wendell Odom where he discusses in detail what is needed for a home CCNA lab with 3 different price ranges -
E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
You are SOOOOOO right!!!
victor39 - Burt is right, pick up a few routers and switches on Ebay for a home lab.
Check this link to a blog by CCIE and Cisco Press author Wendell Odom where he discusses in detail what is needed for a home CCNA lab with 3 different price ranges -
E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
Hey Burt, Cisco,
We should make a website... Cisco with a FAQs section and some cool Cisco tutorials and such... Would be a nice little hobby.. I can do some XHTML/CSS if you guys are interested.. Give me time to finish the CCNA.. A year or so I guess... LoL J/K... Hopefully next week!
Later Guys,
Billy
~Shoot me an email and let me know what you think...
We should make a website... Cisco with a FAQs section and some cool Cisco tutorials and such... Would be a nice little hobby.. I can do some XHTML/CSS if you guys are interested.. Give me time to finish the CCNA.. A year or so I guess... LoL J/K... Hopefully next week!
Later Guys,
Billy
~Shoot me an email and let me know what you think...
By the way.. to answer the thread.. I agree completely with the real hardware... Build the lab..
As far as sim/em.. GNS3 is the way to go but you need a copy of a supported IOS... Have to do some research but google IOSHunter...
Boson is really nice but expensive..
Packet Tracer is also nice but less functional than Boson... Limited Frame Relay, No route redistribution, et al. These should be corrected in version 5.
Not a big fan of Semsim but they have a free trial as well..
Never tried the one listed in the previous post..
My advice is to buy the hardware.. Anthonypanda, ebay, cablesandkits, ciscolab et.. There are many good sites out there...
Good luck,
~Billy
As far as sim/em.. GNS3 is the way to go but you need a copy of a supported IOS... Have to do some research but google IOSHunter...
Boson is really nice but expensive..
Packet Tracer is also nice but less functional than Boson... Limited Frame Relay, No route redistribution, et al. These should be corrected in version 5.
Not a big fan of Semsim but they have a free trial as well..
Never tried the one listed in the previous post..
My advice is to buy the hardware.. Anthonypanda, ebay, cablesandkits, ciscolab et.. There are many good sites out there...
Good luck,
~Billy
I want to opine about the Boson Simulator, vent actually.
I just purchased the $500 dollar CCNP NetSim package.
From the first, simplest lab, I've had nothing but problems.
First lab, basic login and password configurations, failed the "Grade" function.
The "Grade" function failed to recognize that I had configured passwords.
Lab 2, RIP configuration. NetSim was unable to create proper routing tables. There is not a lot of complexity to RIP. Boson tech support verified my findings and determined that it is a bug. It will supposedly be fixed, when I don't know.
The Network Designer program that comes with the NetSim package has not worked correctly from my first through third attempts to build a test lab.
Routers added with multiple interfaces failed to actually build with the interfaces that I specified.
EIGRP route topology tables were inaccurate.
Links between routers mysteriously moved to different devices on their own.
I'm not happy with the Boson CCNP package. It's possible that the CCNA package is less buggy. I'd be interested to hear if others are having as many problems as I have with either the CCNA or the CCNP package.
I'm requesting my money back, $500 dollars is a lot of money that I believe would be better spent on the actual equipment.
Boson, Caveat Emptor, better to just by the routers that you need I think.
I just purchased the $500 dollar CCNP NetSim package.
From the first, simplest lab, I've had nothing but problems.
First lab, basic login and password configurations, failed the "Grade" function.
The "Grade" function failed to recognize that I had configured passwords.
Lab 2, RIP configuration. NetSim was unable to create proper routing tables. There is not a lot of complexity to RIP. Boson tech support verified my findings and determined that it is a bug. It will supposedly be fixed, when I don't know.
The Network Designer program that comes with the NetSim package has not worked correctly from my first through third attempts to build a test lab.
Routers added with multiple interfaces failed to actually build with the interfaces that I specified.
EIGRP route topology tables were inaccurate.
Links between routers mysteriously moved to different devices on their own.
I'm not happy with the Boson CCNP package. It's possible that the CCNA package is less buggy. I'd be interested to hear if others are having as many problems as I have with either the CCNA or the CCNP package.
I'm requesting my money back, $500 dollars is a lot of money that I believe would be better spent on the actual equipment.
Boson, Caveat Emptor, better to just by the routers that you need I think.
CiscoGuy33
Instructor
green6,
Nice post but I don't understand why people don't start a NEW post instead of piggy-backing on a 4 month old post when they have something new - at least your vent is about sims
I agree that $500 is a lot to pay for a sim - sims are great for EXTRA practice but ESPECIALLY at the CCNP level you want PRACTICE WITH REAL EQUIPMENT!!!!!
I wonder how many sims that Boson would sell if it was $125 vs $500, I think they feel that since it is CCNP - PRO Cert, less people - we better get what we can!!!
E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
Nice post but I don't understand why people don't start a NEW post instead of piggy-backing on a 4 month old post when they have something new - at least your vent is about sims
I agree that $500 is a lot to pay for a sim - sims are great for EXTRA practice but ESPECIALLY at the CCNP level you want PRACTICE WITH REAL EQUIPMENT!!!!!
I wonder how many sims that Boson would sell if it was $125 vs $500, I think they feel that since it is CCNP - PRO Cert, less people - we better get what we can!!!
E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
Hi CiscoGuy33,
Yeah, agreed, I didn't check the date on the post prior to adding my 2 cents.
In a period of frustration with the Boson Sim I did a Google search to see if there were other people having similar problems. Tek-Tips came up and as I've been a member of Tek-tips for years I decided to post here.
Anyway, real equipment would be substantially better for preparing for the cert tests but, and I suspect I'm not the only one, my current situation doesn't allow for having a full-on lab with real equipment.
A decent Simulator could be the next best thing so I decided to test out some different products.
For the money the Boson CCNP package is a complete waste.
I don't mind a few bugs here and there, all software has problems, but, at a minimum some of the Labs that they offer in the package should actually work as advertised; they don't. Not one Lab or NetDesign (CCNP Package) that I attempted functioned as per the documentation.
Thumbs down on Boson.
Next product up for testing is Dynamips/Dynagen. Which I learned about right here at Tek-Tips in this very thread. Score.![[surprise]](/data/assets/smilies/surprise.gif "[surprise] [surprise]")
So far I'm quite impressed although I'm still on the steep side of the learning curve and haven't been able to give it a full test-drive.
Pros - Free, runs real IOS, great community support.
Cons - Runs real IOS (which means you need the IOS), more complicated to setup (probably not the best product for beginners), uses a lot of resources on the host computer.
Maybe another Forum dedicated to simulators would be justified.
I'd love to hear the simulator experiences of others and post my experiences as well.
Green6
Yeah, agreed, I didn't check the date on the post prior to adding my 2 cents.
In a period of frustration with the Boson Sim I did a Google search to see if there were other people having similar problems. Tek-Tips came up and as I've been a member of Tek-tips for years I decided to post here.
Anyway, real equipment would be substantially better for preparing for the cert tests but, and I suspect I'm not the only one, my current situation doesn't allow for having a full-on lab with real equipment.
A decent Simulator could be the next best thing so I decided to test out some different products.
For the money the Boson CCNP package is a complete waste.
I don't mind a few bugs here and there, all software has problems, but, at a minimum some of the Labs that they offer in the package should actually work as advertised; they don't. Not one Lab or NetDesign (CCNP Package) that I attempted functioned as per the documentation.
Thumbs down on Boson.
Next product up for testing is Dynamips/Dynagen. Which I learned about right here at Tek-Tips in this very thread. Score.
So far I'm quite impressed although I'm still on the steep side of the learning curve and haven't been able to give it a full test-drive.
Pros - Free, runs real IOS, great community support.
Cons - Runs real IOS (which means you need the IOS), more complicated to setup (probably not the best product for beginners), uses a lot of resources on the host computer.
Maybe another Forum dedicated to simulators would be justified.
I'd love to hear the simulator experiences of others and post my experiences as well.
Green6
CiscoGuy33
Instructor
green6,
You said -"Cons - Runs real IOS (which means you need the IOS), more complicated to setup (probably not the best product for beginners)" didn't you say you were working on CCNP ?????? I hardly would put ANYONE working on CCNP in the "beginners" catagory
As for resources on the host computer - I saw on Ebay that you can get older Dell P4s for $50 to $60 - you could get a couple of "dedicated" machines just for your emulators - but I still think ESPECIALLY AT THE PRO CERT LEVEL - YOU BETTER GET SOME HANDS ON WITH REAL EQUIPMENT - if you don't think so just go read the posts by the "paper" CCNP and his 2950 in the Cisco switch forum here at Tek Tips - he should be the Cisco posterboy for why you don't want to be a "paper" CCNP
Good luck!!
E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
You said -"Cons - Runs real IOS (which means you need the IOS), more complicated to setup (probably not the best product for beginners)" didn't you say you were working on CCNP ?????? I hardly would put ANYONE working on CCNP in the "beginners" catagory
As for resources on the host computer - I saw on Ebay that you can get older Dell P4s for $50 to $60 - you could get a couple of "dedicated" machines just for your emulators - but I still think ESPECIALLY AT THE PRO CERT LEVEL - YOU BETTER GET SOME HANDS ON WITH REAL EQUIPMENT - if you don't think so just go read the posts by the "paper" CCNP and his 2950 in the Cisco switch forum here at Tek Tips - he should be the Cisco posterboy for why you don't want to be a "paper" CCNP
Good luck!!
E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +
felixtudoran
Technical User
I would stay away from Boson. It's waste of money unless you keep a ghost image of your OS. I bought the CCNA 7.0 version about an year ago and had to re-install my OS a couple of times then I found out it wouldn't activate anymore so I got in touch with the Boson team and told me I had to purchase a new license. They don't tell you about this limitation upfront but it's hidden somewhere in the user's agreement (who bothers to read that lecture anyway).
Linux+
Linux+
Thanks Cisco Guy,
I hope that with a little luck and a lot of study I should be able get my CCNP cert.
Yes, I am working on my CCNP and do not consider myself a beginner. I've spent most of my time hands-on in networking and am finally getting around to upping my certs.
My advice was for the original poster who it appears is just beginning his certification process. (Although the original post is four months old now so maybe he's a CCNP by now.)
I hear you about the paper certs, not much help in the real world. I've seen my share of paper networkers who don't know squat about how to put a real network together. Get's your foot in the door but then you have to prove yourself on the job.
So, onto Simulators. I've just finished installing the GUI front-end, GNS3, for the Dynamips package.
The more I fiddle around with Dynamips the more I like it. I can build custom labs to be saved for future testing. There is an ASA Firewall program included. It's got Frame Relay capabilities.
I like your idea of getting some cheap, dedicated servers to run the Dynamips program on.
As the virtual routers run real a IOS image it is just the same as if I were configuring a real router.
There is even an option to link the virtual routers to the real physical interface of the host computer allowing you to transmit packets onto a real network.
And on top of all those functions it can do packet captures which can be exported into Wireshark.
Cool stuff. I'm substantially happier with the Dynamips Simulator than I am with the Boson package.
Oh, and did I mention it's FREE!
I'm very impressed with Dynamips and will most likely donate to the cause once I get my money back from Boson.
If anyone else is using Dynamips I'd like to hear about your experiences, tips, tricks, etc.
Green6
I hope that with a little luck and a lot of study I should be able get my CCNP cert.
Yes, I am working on my CCNP and do not consider myself a beginner. I've spent most of my time hands-on in networking and am finally getting around to upping my certs.
My advice was for the original poster who it appears is just beginning his certification process. (Although the original post is four months old now so maybe he's a CCNP by now.)
I hear you about the paper certs, not much help in the real world. I've seen my share of paper networkers who don't know squat about how to put a real network together. Get's your foot in the door but then you have to prove yourself on the job.
So, onto Simulators. I've just finished installing the GUI front-end, GNS3, for the Dynamips package.
The more I fiddle around with Dynamips the more I like it. I can build custom labs to be saved for future testing. There is an ASA Firewall program included. It's got Frame Relay capabilities.
I like your idea of getting some cheap, dedicated servers to run the Dynamips program on.
As the virtual routers run real a IOS image it is just the same as if I were configuring a real router.
There is even an option to link the virtual routers to the real physical interface of the host computer allowing you to transmit packets onto a real network.
And on top of all those functions it can do packet captures which can be exported into Wireshark.
Cool stuff. I'm substantially happier with the Dynamips Simulator than I am with the Boson package.
Oh, and did I mention it's FREE!
I'm very impressed with Dynamips and will most likely donate to the cause once I get my money back from Boson.
If anyone else is using Dynamips I'd like to hear about your experiences, tips, tricks, etc.
Green6
Anyway, real equipment would be substantially better for preparing for the cert tests but, and I suspect I'm not the only one, my current situation doesn't allow for having a full-on lab with real equipment."
Why not? Not money, is it? Room? If so, please explain further---perhaps those of us that were in the same situation have found a decent solution to this.
A better FREE sim is from Cisco---Packet Tracer. The newest runs Enterprise IOS and 1800/2800's! I think you may have to be a Cisco Academy aluminum (lol), but I would recommend the Cisco Academy, especially to someone in your situation---you would have hands on with REAL equipment, and access to Packet Tracer, not to mention access to a very invaluable community forum!
Burt
Why not? Not money, is it? Room? If so, please explain further---perhaps those of us that were in the same situation have found a decent solution to this.
A better FREE sim is from Cisco---Packet Tracer. The newest runs Enterprise IOS and 1800/2800's! I think you may have to be a Cisco Academy aluminum (lol), but I would recommend the Cisco Academy, especially to someone in your situation---you would have hands on with REAL equipment, and access to Packet Tracer, not to mention access to a very invaluable community forum!
Burt
Hi Burt,
It's not the money for equipment, actually I have some equipment; I'm just low on space.
I currently live in a relatively small apartment in Bangkok with a wife, one kid, and one on the way. There is just no place for me to set up a decent lab.
I have plenty of room at my home in the US, plus I have equipment ready to go, but I don't expect to be back home for awhile.
So, I think having a virtual lab is the next best option.
I'll check out the Cisco Packet tracer. If it requires previous Cisco Academy participation I'm out of luck.
So far I'm quite happy with the Dynamips/Dynagen/GNS3 package.
I'm using it to practice material for the CCNP BSCI test. I'll be working through each chapter of the Authorized Self-Study Guide.
My first labs were related to EIGRP. Everything worked fine with the exception of authentication; EIGRP authentication didn't work in the simulator. All the commands worked but the routers still didn't recognize the MD5 keys as being valid.
Other than that all other commands worked just like a normal router: auto-summary/no auto-summary, summarized routes on interfaces, topology tables with appropriate metric calculatons (something the Boson package didn't do), multiple equal cost paths, stub-routing with the various options, debugging EIGRP packets, etc.
I was also able to do a packet capture for review in Wireshark. Very cool, although I wasn't able to get the capture to update in real-time. I had to stop the capture then load the file.
Next up is OSPF.
Jimi
It's not the money for equipment, actually I have some equipment; I'm just low on space.
I currently live in a relatively small apartment in Bangkok with a wife, one kid, and one on the way. There is just no place for me to set up a decent lab.
I have plenty of room at my home in the US, plus I have equipment ready to go, but I don't expect to be back home for awhile.
So, I think having a virtual lab is the next best option.
I'll check out the Cisco Packet tracer. If it requires previous Cisco Academy participation I'm out of luck.
So far I'm quite happy with the Dynamips/Dynagen/GNS3 package.
I'm using it to practice material for the CCNP BSCI test. I'll be working through each chapter of the Authorized Self-Study Guide.
My first labs were related to EIGRP. Everything worked fine with the exception of authentication; EIGRP authentication didn't work in the simulator. All the commands worked but the routers still didn't recognize the MD5 keys as being valid.
Other than that all other commands worked just like a normal router: auto-summary/no auto-summary, summarized routes on interfaces, topology tables with appropriate metric calculatons (something the Boson package didn't do), multiple equal cost paths, stub-routing with the various options, debugging EIGRP packets, etc.
I was also able to do a packet capture for review in Wireshark. Very cool, although I wasn't able to get the capture to update in real-time. I had to stop the capture then load the file.
Next up is OSPF.
Jimi
green6,
Check out the website! Lot's of good info there! There is also some good info on this page...
Buirt,
Packet Tracer is a long way from CCNP level.. Version 5 finally covered most of the CCNA stuff.. When I was working on my CCNA I couldn't do route redistribution and a ton of other stuff with version 4... Also, version 5 does not support Private VLANs even though it shows 3560 switches... I got happy and thought that I had found a workaround for the switch side of the CCNP exam but not quite... Missing MUCH functionality! GNS3 is not much better on the switch side of the house at the moment.. I would recommend saving the switching exam for last as the price of the equipment will drop for sure and hopefully GNS3 will overcome the ASICS emulation issue..
B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI
Check out the website! Lot's of good info there! There is also some good info on this page...
Buirt,
Packet Tracer is a long way from CCNP level.. Version 5 finally covered most of the CCNA stuff.. When I was working on my CCNA I couldn't do route redistribution and a ton of other stuff with version 4... Also, version 5 does not support Private VLANs even though it shows 3560 switches... I got happy and thought that I had found a workaround for the switch side of the CCNP exam but not quite... Missing MUCH functionality! GNS3 is not much better on the switch side of the house at the moment.. I would recommend saving the switching exam for last as the price of the equipment will drop for sure and hopefully GNS3 will overcome the ASICS emulation issue..
B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI
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