Diff. between boson 5.27 and 6.0

EJizzel

I'm a Techexams newbee/virgin and I need some help. I recently started to study for the CCNA and got my hands on an old version of Boson 5.27. I went onto the boson website and noticed that version 6.0 is out. Any difference between the two. Also is there any differnce between the boson version cisco press has released and the version directly from boson themselfs.

Thanks to all in advance

marlon23

If you mean CiscoPress Boson Netsim Learning Edition, it is worst edition of this simulator I ever had. (I post a topic few lines down about these books from ciscopress and netsim included)

Boson is quite good simulator, but If you mean it for real, you need real gear. You can use boson for only BASICS, but for CCNA you need more than boson can provide (debugging commands for instance..). So dont waste your money on boson, and buy some routers.

EJizzel

I was thinking about a simulator since I work nights I can just load it into my laptop and work from there. Another reason is that i dont really have the $$ for routers right now(I got boson 5.27 for free), the space at home or have much time when I'm home. I have more time at work to really study and work on a simulator.

marlon23

Check your emloyer's licence for cisco's IOS. If you are able to optain IOS image legally, you can use dynamips to run IOS in your windows/unix OS and emulate network, but it can hit your laptop hard on performance

Anyway swithes are still problem, ask somebody in your local NetAcademy if they can you give access (for some $$) to their lab.
You can learn basics in NetSim and then went to their lab and do some practice on topics which cannot do in sim - just a few hours if you learn everything at home/work - but write your notes, and save outputs from consoles.

More cheaper way is to find somebody who has a lab, and can give you online access (maybe just for electricity pay, or for free) but I dont have one I have a good relationship with my NetAcademy instructor so I am able to get there when I want.

EJizzel

Thanks for the advice. Im thinking about using the simulator at the beginning then when time and $$ permits just getting a lab setup. Once I get to know the basics and build my confidence up with the simulators, I'll move up to the real thing. Any difference between boson 5.27 and 6.0. : I have the Todd Lammle book but not the platinum edition with the sybex simulator. I can probaly get my hands on boson 6.0 though.

Danman32

I wonder what Cisco's stance is in using their IOS under the dynamips for non-commercial training purposes. It can't be worse than using eval versions of MS servers. Especially when Cisco doesn't provide a decent SIM for training. After all, they have the technology, since it is in their tests!