networksims.com - cheap sim
redwarrior
Member Posts: 285
in CCNP
I took the plunge and shelled out $58 for the premium network sim 1 year package from this website not expecting much, but hoping it would be a nice additional resource for my study and I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised so far, so I thought I'd post my experiences on here in case anyone else is on a tight budget and looking for additional study materials.
This is a flash-based sim, so like you might expect, it doesn't have the full feature set of the IOS and only the commands directly relating to the sim objective are available. However, the interface is easy to use and I haven't found many bugs at all. The sims seem to be a lot shorter than with other programs, which can be kind of nice when you want something to give you a break from reading, but you don't want to go to the trouble of configuring a lab. The amount of sims included with the premium package is pretty staggaring...everything from CCNA to CCIE and VoIP and all the CCNP exams. So far, I've only tried the QoS sims for ONT and I've found them to be quite helpful in solidifying some of the concepts I've been trying to drill into my brain. Although the sheer number of sims included is huge, I have found that many of the sims within a single section do seem to be very similar and almost repetitive, but this could be good if you're trying to really get material to stick.
Practice exams are also included, but I have yet to try them. I believe they only have a windows version, so MAC and Linux users are out...it also does not run in a VM.
Documentation can be a bit sketchy at times, such as a command left out in an example, but for me that's fine since it seems a little less like I'm being spoon-fed if I have to look things up from time to time.
So, overall, I would say that this definitely would not replace a home lab setup, rack time, or the Boson netsim, but it does seem to be a great value for the price and so far as been a good addition to my studies. I think the place I see it most helpful would be when you need a break between chapters when you're reading and you'd like to put some of what you've read into practice without setting up an entire lab. This way, you can do a sim or two quickly and then get back to reading. I would recommend this to others.
This is a flash-based sim, so like you might expect, it doesn't have the full feature set of the IOS and only the commands directly relating to the sim objective are available. However, the interface is easy to use and I haven't found many bugs at all. The sims seem to be a lot shorter than with other programs, which can be kind of nice when you want something to give you a break from reading, but you don't want to go to the trouble of configuring a lab. The amount of sims included with the premium package is pretty staggaring...everything from CCNA to CCIE and VoIP and all the CCNP exams. So far, I've only tried the QoS sims for ONT and I've found them to be quite helpful in solidifying some of the concepts I've been trying to drill into my brain. Although the sheer number of sims included is huge, I have found that many of the sims within a single section do seem to be very similar and almost repetitive, but this could be good if you're trying to really get material to stick.
Practice exams are also included, but I have yet to try them. I believe they only have a windows version, so MAC and Linux users are out...it also does not run in a VM.
Documentation can be a bit sketchy at times, such as a command left out in an example, but for me that's fine since it seems a little less like I'm being spoon-fed if I have to look things up from time to time.So, overall, I would say that this definitely would not replace a home lab setup, rack time, or the Boson netsim, but it does seem to be a great value for the price and so far as been a good addition to my studies. I think the place I see it most helpful would be when you need a break between chapters when you're reading and you'd like to put some of what you've read into practice without setting up an entire lab. This way, you can do a sim or two quickly and then get back to reading. I would recommend this to others.
CCNP Progress
ONT, ISCW, BCMSN - DONE
BSCI - In Progress
http://www.redwarriornet.com/ <--My Cisco Blog
Comments
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montanablue2
Member Posts: 12 ■□□□□□□□□□
I'm in agreement. I've been using it too. One note to make of it is that it does not support debug commands. If you want something that provides a lot of show or debug command output this isn't the tool for you.