Routing Simulator Suggestions

Hello.
I have been banging away studying for the BSCI exam and making good progress however I am now to the point where I would like to start practicing some configurations and play around with things and I have come to an impasse. For my CCNA I made use of a router SIM that was included with one of my textbooks and that worked just fine. The problem that I am facing now is that it is not sufficient for the BSCI exam. I did some poking around and found the latest version of the boson software for 500 dollars. I am a little short of funds (about 499 dollars) and I was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions or alternative router sims to try? Your assistance and input is appreciated.

Nick

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Comments

BubbaJ

Google for "cisco rack rental".

Webmaster

Check out the "I don’t have any equipment should I buy a Simulator?" section in our CCNA FAQ.

mikej412

Google for Dynamips. Dynamips is really an emulator that runs the real 7200 IOS image on Linux or Windows PCs. There is also a thread here in the CCNP forum.... once you figure it out, its great!

Dynamips is putting in support for a switch, in addition to emulating the 7200 router. Dynagen makes the configuration of Dynamips easierit and works on the Linux and XP. But you need a real 7200 IOS image to use it.

And as BubbaJ already said -- rack rental is always an option. Not as good for spontaneous study as real hardware or a working simulator -- but still a good option.

darkuser

i recommend a real router
simulators suck ...... running an emulated ios

get 2 2501's and a serial x-over for a nice start.

keenon

mikej412 wrote:

Google for Dynamips. Dynamips is really an emulator that runs the real 7200 IOS image on Linux or Windows PCs. There is also a thread here in the CCNP forum.... once you figure it out, its great!

Dynamips is putting in support for a switch, in addition to emulating the 7200 router. Dynagen makes the configuration of Dynamips easierit and works on the Linux and XP. But you need a real 7200 IOS image to use it.

And as BubbaJ already said -- rack rental is always an option. Not as good for spontaneous study as real hardware or a working simulator -- but still a good option.

i'm not fond of router sims but this has caught my interest.

does it run better on linux or the same on windows platform? i have worked on 7200s but you all know playing with the configs at work isn't a fabulous idea

PCHoldmann

I have been using Dynamips for a few days, and it works quite well from what I have seen. It is not limited in the commands it supports (Because it is a real IOS image) but you are limited to serial and ethernet interfaces (not a problem for most stuff, but I need to do some ISDN.

I also had some problems getting it to play nice with my network card, but have not really tried to fix that.

Peter

mikej412

keenon wrote:

does it run better on linux or the same on windows platform?

Supposedly it runs better on Linux -- but I did load the windows version on XP and haven't had any problems. I've done the Dynagen samples and the Dynamips command line.

Ching01

Wow this tool caught my attention, can someone tell me wheer can I get a 7200 IOS image. I am searching on the net and can't find it.