Pearson vs. Boson vs. Sybex?

fabisensei

Hey guys im gonna take the CCENT exam and want to buy a book to star studying. I already have the video course from cbt nuggets. Im between the official cisco guide with sim library(pearson), the sybex book that includes both ccent and ccna and the Mcgraw hill Boson guide. I want to know also wich simulator is good for practice because all three include one. thanks guys as always!

thomas_

I passed just using the official Cisco book and the full Pearson simulator. I can't vouch for the other resources or simulators since I've never used them.

satishtech

Dear Thomas , is the pearson simulator better than packet tracer ?
what sort of labs did you do ? complicated configurations with multiple
technologies or just the basic configurations of everything ?

fabisensei

I just ordered the official guide with the full pearson simulaor library since it has 150+ labs and much more because the other ones only have 15 or something like that. Thanks Thomas for the suggestion!

[Deleted User]

I think the Pearson Simulator has a nice and clean interface and the nice feature is that the labs are graded to check if you did them right. The Boson simulator does the same thing. However with the Pearson Simulator, you can't make your own labs but with the Boson sim you can design your own topologies.

thomas_

satishtech wrote: »

Dear Thomas , is the pearson simulator better than packet tracer ?
what sort of labs did you do ? complicated configurations with multiple
technologies or just the basic configurations of everything ?

I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think the simulations track pretty close to the material in the book. I think there are three different types. One is a scenario where you do a basic configuration, there is a command line area on the left and an area on the right that walks you through the configuration and gives you hints. It will also ask you questions and you type what you see in the command line.

Then there are configurations that are a little more in depth and troubleshooting problems where you figure out what's wrong with the network. You can either free style it on your own or follow their guided troubleshooting which is what I did.

I've never used packet tracer, so I can't give any comparison. The Pearson Simulator is very structured. One of the things I wish I had was something where I could just fool around with commands outside of a configuration or troubleshooting scenario.

If you have the Cisco book it should come with the lite version of the Pearson Simulator that you can try out and see if you like it before purchasing the full version. That might help you make an informed choice.

Mooseboost

Have you considered GNS3?

koz24

satishtech wrote: »

Dear Thomas , is the pearson simulator better than packet tracer ?
what sort of labs did you do ? complicated configurations with multiple
technologies or just the basic configurations of everything ?

It's not a fair comparison. The Pearson Simulator is basically 150+ labs that are in exercise format. They walk you through the whole lab step-by-step. Some may want that level of "hand-holding". One advantage is you don't have to waste time setting up various topologies and can just move from one lab to another.