Word of advice to people starting CCNA study...

mattipler

DO NOT BUY BOSON NETSIM!!! WHAT A LOAD OF COMPLETE BOLLOCKS!!! USELESS IS THE WORD I'D USE AND ABOUT AS STABLE AS OZZY OSBORNE! BUY KIT OFF EBAY AND MAKE YOUR OWN HOME LAB. BOSON IS SHITE AND A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME!!!!!

networker050184

Sounds like somebody is having a little trouble with boson! The real stuff is the best by far so if you can definatley get your hands on the real stuff!

KGhaleon

Boson isn't that bad, though it's better to get some cheap routers and switches. I'd load up Boson and make a bunch of labs, save them, then play with them in my free time. It's probably more stable with current versions...dunno. I got mine free a year or so back.

mattipler

Just a little trouble... I won't go into it but I spent about 1 and a half hours designing a reasonably complicated topology in the Net Designer and then clicked save and it linked all the cabling completely randomly! My resulting language was colourful to say the least.

Mine is quite a few versions old but beyond topologies containing 3-4 devices maximum it's useless. I'd say if your using it to get your INTRO it's probably quite useful but for ICND... well, I'll say no more.

elvant

Yes, Boson and other simulator may not emulate the real thing good enough. If you depends purely on simulator and never play around with the real gear, you will be confused by the respond you get from the simulator if you do not know what is the limitation of the simulator, for example, you learn a new command from books, then you launch your netsim and try it out, but you keep getting error message. After a few "googling excercises", you found out that netsim do not support this feature.
If you keep using netsim for your hands-on, you would have an unsecure feeling of the result you get from the sim, "Is this happens to the real router too?" "Is the function not supported?" finally you would end up finding every bugs on the sim rather than really practice your skill.

I try Dynamips after experience with the netsim, although cant compare to real router, but is the closest thing you can get. I still using netsim for the ISDN section (Dynamips not supported).

If you do not want to use real router and switch, Dynammips + netsim is your best alternative, i believe.

bearfan

Thanks for the advice -

Isn't your test this coming Thursday? Good luck -

mattipler

Yeah bearfan this thursday it is. Cheers mate. Spent all morning and day revising so I'm just about to go to a BBQ for a couple of beers and maybe the odd Glenn Morange (spelt wrong)... as sure as **** is brown I'll be back on the revision first thing tomorrow morning!

KGhaleon

Good to hear, keep up the good work.
While posting here, please cut down on the colorful language though.

KG

mattipler

Sorry Dad

APA

Good luck for the exam on Thursday Matt!!!

mattipler

Cheers mate, I'll let you know how I go on either way!