200-101 Exam & Real Equipment

bluejellorabbit

Has anyone here passed the 200-101 exam without using real equipment to prepare?

bk8infinite8

Yes packet tracer is sufficient but there is no substitution for working on real equipment.

bluejellorabbit

Thanks for the reply. I've got the Cisco press text, CBTnuggets, and the Boson exam, which is what I used for CCENT. I was hoping it'll be enough for the 2nd exam. I've not used packet tracer, but I'll look into it.

If I do anything beyond CCNA, I'll definitely build a home lab. Haven't had the extra money for that yet, though.

stunnedsoup

I passed the ICND2 w/out real equipment. Relied on Pearson Network Sim. Looking back on it a wished I would have used actual equipment. I'm actually about to order a couple switches in a bit (getting gear after the exam...backwards, I know ). Want to get hand-on with this stuff now.

Best of luck!

Mooseboost

Have you looked into GNS3? Honestly for the CCNA, PT is enough. GNS3, in my opinion, gives a better feel. VIRL is another option, which is offered from Cisco. The benefit of GNS3 over VIRL though is that GNS3 is free while VIRL isn't.

Physical equipment also provides tangible experience though. For me, that is worth it. My whole point with using physical equipment was that I didn't want to land a job, then on my first day not know how to rack or cable a router. Also with a real lab you run into some crazy issues like a bad cable(either physically bad or connected wrong) or port - so it has the potential to provide some real-world troubleshooting. I remember accidentally making a switching loop and having to find out what the heck was going on and why the stuff wasn't working. After that I documented my labs better. So for me, it was worth the hands-on experience. For the exam though, virtualization is more than enough.

Honestly, if you are good at remembering the commands and the when/where of using them - you will be good.