GNS3 or packet Tracer

well i know packet tracer is a simulator with not so real cisco environment , where as Gns3 is an emulator that actually runs an IOS file .. but regarding ICND1 or say CCNA as a whole ... practicing lab on GNS3 is better or u get questions in exams that may be easy for u if u have practiced in a smaller environment of Packet tracer ........... plz advise

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Comments

oli356

I've never had a problem with packet tracer, so for ICND1 I would just use that (this is what I did).. For ICND2 would use GNS3 or a real lab.

j.petrov

I am just beginning to study for the CCENT and was wondering if one was better than the other. I know you can't config a switch on gns3 so I figured packet tracer would be more useful in that sense. Although I did hear that you can use a real cisco switch with GNS simulated routers... Is this true?

oli356

Yes it is true, but you willl need the connectivity on your PC to do so (I can't remember if it's done by serial cables or ethernet cables).
You don't ever need to configure a switch in ICND1 as far as I remember anyway.

I still would just use packet tracer for ICND1.

j.petrov

Thanks oli356, I'm definitely concentrating on the just the ICND1 so if packet tracer is all you used then I'm gonna go with that.

prtech

I used Packet Tracer for CCNA and GNS3 for CCNP ROUTE. If I had to do CCNA all over again, I'd still use Packet Tracer.

oli356

I've never even tried GNS3 properly.. I just tried to boot up 4 routers and 2 PCs on it.. My computers CPU usage went to 100% and kept hanging.. my computer is a gaming one with a reasonably new quad core CPU @ 3.2GHz.. Probably just my unreliable PCs fault and not GNS3.

PT wins here

Doesn't use any resources really!

EDIT: I just went through the IDLE-PC setting again and this time it worked.. Weird.

elderkai

oli356 wrote: »

Yes it is true, but you willl need the connectivity on your PC to do so (I can't remember if it's done by serial cables or ethernet cables).
You don't ever need to configure a switch in ICND1 as far as I remember anyway.

I still would just use packet tracer for ICND1.

You just need to have a NIC for every switch you want to connect and in GNS3, you point the cloud device to the specific NIC. It's simple, really.

j.petrov

Thanks elderkai, I thought this was possible... good to know you just need a nic and not a serial port on the PC. I'm just getting started with the CCENT and need to figure out was is best for labs besides actual Cisco gear.

I just got to the subnetting chapter in the Todd Lammle book and my head is spinning!

NetworkVeteran

oli356 wrote: »

II just tried to boot up 4 routers and 2 PCs on it.. My computers CPU usage went to 100% and kept hanging.. my computer is a gaming one

EDIT: I just went through the IDLE-PC setting again and this type it worked.. Weird.

I regularly run 6-9 emulated routers on a low-resource system without issues.

Setting a good IDLE-PC value is key to limiting CPU usage.