At what point is Packet Tracer insufficient?

Scorp6

I currently have my CCNA and am beginning to prep for CCNP. I'm curious at what point packet tracer will not be robust enough to cover the material. At that point gns3 will be used of course but I love that I can program switches with packet tracer. Hopefully it's just a couple topics that packet tracer lacks on but I'm curious as what point the virtualization lacks the functionality. Thanks everyone!

Edit: I just realized this would be much better served in the CCNP forum. My apologies.

VinnyCisco

After CCNA. That is just my opinion. Packet Tracer lacks commands used in the CCNP ROUTE track. Also functionality is lacking, such as not being able to form iBGP neighbors. Only eBGP is supported. Same with switch. Lacks commands and functionality. Right now I am in the ROUTE studies, and I am using GNS3 exclusively. It has helped me well. Once I move into SWITCH and TSHOOT, I will be going to real gear.

Jon_Cisco

Packet Tracer is sufficient for CCNA study but it does not include everything. You need to figure out the things that are missing and either just read about them or use something else to test.

I personally would not attempt to use packet tracer for CCNP. I just think when your getting that advanced you need something better then an entry level simulator to really learn it. Why restrict yourself to a partial list of options meant for beginners at that point in your education.

Good Luck!

Scorp6

Awesome. Thanks to both of you. I do have gns3 and I am really hoping switch support comes soon to it.

theodoxa

For CCNP: SWITCH (most topics), you can use: Free Cisco Catalyst Switch Lab

Only downside is that you might have to spend 30 minutes looking through the Console logs to determine what some idiot set the console/enable passwords to - The site explicitly tells people to use "cisco" for all passwords and "wr erase" + "reload" when they're done, but so many people don't listen.