CCNA lab

I have just started my studying for the CCNA exams and currently I'm looking to put the lab I will need to practice for the netsims problems I will encounter in the ICND1 and ICND2. Has anyone used the Crisco CCNA 640-802 Network Simulator? It clams to cover all the topics for both exams I was wondering if this is the case.

I'm also looking into building a hardware lab and wanted to get a good lab book first one that had exercises covering as many of the areas I will be tested on as possible. Can anyone suggest a good book or online site for lab [FONT=&quot]materia?

Thanks very much for your time and help.
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Bl8ckr0uter

Remen wrote: »

I have just started my studying for the CCNA exams and currently I'm looking to put the lab I will need to practice for the netsims problems I will encounter in the ICND1 and ICND2. Has anyone used the Crisco CCNA 640-802 Network Simulator? It clams to cover all the topics for both exams I was wondering if this is the case.

I'm also looking into building a hardware lab and wanted to get a good lab book first one that had exercises covering as many of the areas I will be tested on as possible. Can anyone suggest a good book or online site for lab [FONT=&quot]materia?

Thanks very much for your time and help.
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I have and am using packet tracker, combined with real equipment. I use PT at work (so I don't have to carry my things back and forth) and real equipment at home. The Lamelle book has "lab" exercises in it although I do not recommend it personally.

captobvious

CCNA Lab Workbook

1number9

make sure you are comfortable natting and know a little about IPv6. I took mine today. Barely failed and these are why. Good Luck

xxdrexx

Remen wrote: »

Has anyone used the Crisco CCNA 640-802 Network Simulator? It clams to cover all the topics for both exams I was wondering if this is the case.

I'm also looking into building a hardware lab and wanted to get a good lab book first one that had exercises covering as many of the areas I will be tested on as possible. Can anyone suggest a good book or online site for lab [FONT=&quot]materia?
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I just took the 640-802 test today (and passed woohoo!). I used the Cisco Press CCNA Network Simulator as well as some real hardware. The simulator is pretty good, but it has some limitations:

It doesn't support some features of IOS.
The window will ONLY do 1024x768, you can't resize it. Lame.
Many of the exercises are somewhat redundant, as if four or five people were working on the material at the same time and each slight variation has its own lab. Not necessarily a bad thing if you're trying to drill things into memory, though.
You can't make your own topologies. You're stuck with the lab scenarios.

That said, the labs do a good job showing you some variations on how things are implemented. Also the configuration exercise and troubleshooting examples are really good. I worked my way through 90% of the material in the Network Simulator and I found it to be pretty helpful.

If you can afford to get real equipment, by all means do it. I wasn't able to find a decent lab book that covers things for CCNA, so a lot of times I would do some lab work in the simulator, then try and implement those same concepts on my real equipment. The differences in IOS and equipment make that kind of thing pretty interesting.

Also there is an open source tool called GNS3 that lets you run "virtual" routers just like you'd run a virtual machine in VMWare. You'd still probably want some kind of lab manual though.