Using Packet Tracer for labbing

I downloaded Packet Tracer through a Cisco Networking Academy link to hopefully try and do some virtual labbing, but it's asking for a username/email and password, which I don't have. Is this a proprietary program or do you have to have a license to use it?

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JDMurray

It's asking for your Cisco Networking Academy login credentials. Did you sign up for CNA and create your account?

kaiju

If you do not want to log into netacad you need to download PT 7.0. The latest version of PT(7.2..) forces you to login with netacad account. I actually have 7.0 and 7.2 loaded on my laptop because 7.0 can used without a network connection while 7.2 cannot.

GNS3 is a better lab tool CCNP. Cisco has dCloud for labbing. David Bombal has YouTube videos about dCloud.

Cat5

JDMurray said:

It's asking for your Cisco Networking Academy login credentials. Did you sign up for CNA and create your account?

I didn't. It would need to be virtually free for me to use it, since I'm unemployed at the moment. And if it's not free, then packet tracer wouldn't be available to me.

stryder144

You can get a free account for Networking Academy by signing up for their Packet Tracer course. After that, you can sign into the Packet Tracer product.

Cat5

Ok, after some unrelated delays, I have Packet Tracer up and working on my home computer. That said, has anyone used this to prepare for his CCNP tests? I don't have a networking job right now, nor do I have the money for equipment. I'm hoping PT will suffice until I can at least get SWITCH taken and passed.

Infosec_Sam

Cat5 said:

Ok, after some unrelated delays, I have Packet Tracer up and working on my home computer. That said, has anyone used this to prepare for his CCNP tests? I don't have a networking job right now, nor do I have the money for equipment. I'm hoping PT will suffice until I can at least get SWITCH taken and passed.

I used PT to study for CCENT and CCNA, and it was missing a couple of features that physical equipment had (HTTP service and something else). Other than those couple of discrepancies, I'd say it worked just fine. That being said, I'm not sure if there are any CCNP-specific functions that don't work in PT. It looks like you'll run into quite a bit of trouble, according to this 2017 thread on Cisco's forum.