Cisco Virtual Network Simulators

aaronj

Do you guys know of a good simulator that I could buy? Buying my own routers and switches atm isn't very feasible for me atm and I heard good things about these simulators for CCNA studies.

tech-airman

aaronj wrote:

Do you guys know of a good simulator that I could buy? Buying my own routers and switches atm isn't very feasible for me atm and I heard good things about these simulators for CCNA studies.

aaronj,

Do you have a Cisco Networking Academy near you?

elvant

For me, Dynagen/Dynamips is the best simulator, routersim will be second best, then Boson. Each has pros and cons.

Dynagen use real router IOS but lack switch emulation.
Boson and routersim lack some functions, routersim do well in device layout especially when you hook up a dozen or more devices together. routersim still list down the every available function when you do 'show' even though not all of them are supported in the sim. Boson just dont show the functions that are not supported. (based on v5)

Using Boson and Routersim might give you a false sense on how the device suppose to respond because they only simulate a portion of a real device. Keep that in mind.

My lab strategy, Dynagen (router) + routersim (switch)

aaronj

tech-airman wrote:

aaronj wrote:

Do you guys know of a good simulator that I could buy? Buying my own routers and switches atm isn't very feasible for me atm and I heard good things about these simulators for CCNA studies.

aaronj,

Do you have a Cisco Networking Academy near you?

I'm looking now to see if I have one in town, I believe the community college has this.