Dynamips vs. Boson

I've been reading through all the previous posts concerning Lab simulators and it's obvious that Dynamips is preferred over Boson. I have not used either yet, and I need some advise. Looks like the only drawback of the Dynamips is you have to come up with your own IOS's. Got my CCNA over two years ago, but I have yet to get a networking job (partly cause I haven't put myself out there enough and partly cause there arn't any entry level jobs in the Knoxville area).

Since I don't have access to the IOS's, am I better off with the Boson?
What are some of the major drawbacks of Boson?

Thanks,
Stephen

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Comments

darkuser

boson is a simulation .....

probubly a scripted series of events and responces.
that are tailored to each fixed senario.

dynamips is an emulator actually running a copy of ios.

so the enviornment is "real"

sweetoctober

I am a rokkie to this forum and noticed that all the advice of what simulator to use for CCNP was given 2 years ago. Can someone pls through light on which one is best suited considering the changes in the exams and general reviews. Thanks

ehnde

sweetoctober wrote: »

I am a rokkie to this forum and noticed that all the advice of what simulator to use for CCNP was given 2 years ago. Can someone pls through light on which one is best suited considering the changes in the exams and general reviews. Thanks

You put as a title for your post "Dynamips vs GNS3" but this is a bit of a misnomer. GNS3 is a front end for dynamips. Your biggest concern in making sure that GNS3/dynamips is relevant to current exam material is to make sure you have current copies of the IOS with the right features to enable you to lab out exam objectives.

sweetoctober

ehnde, I do understand ur pt. However i have seen guyz arguing that GNS3 eats up more resources than Dynamips and for someone who has never used them, i just kept wondering. I used mostly packet tracer and boson for my ccna. Thx 4 d insight anyway...

tiersten

GNS3 is just a GUI for Dynamips and PEMU.

miller811

for CCNP in my opinion you should purchase a L3 switch and also 2 L2 switches...

Now you are set for switching.

For routing, go with dynamips or GNS3, if you are a windows guy.

BOSON as stated is canned for the most part and will not do everything the real switches will do, or the real IOS via dynamips or GNS3.