Customer Reviews

CCNA Virtual Lab, Platinum Edition (640-801)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

As a Cisco Academy student I bought this with the intent to supplement the lab activities and to do labs when lab time was not available. As another reviewer noted, the first thing it asks is if you want to upgrade. I am finishing the second half of the CCNA 1&2 book and this was a help with some of the early labs. As we got further I noted commands missing and not enough hardware can be set up to do the labs. I found the access-list command not working which blew away any ACL labs and practice. It just isn't worth the money for a serious student. I am upgraging to Router Sims NetVis 4.0 (actually the same engine this one uses, this is a scaled down version that Sybex resells). It has all the Cisco Academy semester 2 labs and looks like it covers all the commands. Appears to be a much more comprehensive simulator for about 80 bucks more. See the comparison at their web page.

This will give you a feel for router configs, but has too many limitations to be more than just a toy. If you are serious about CCNA lab and practice, you will find this lacking very quickly.

This is the first product of this kind that I searched for and purchased. One good thing is that you can load already built networks and configure them. And it was ok that you could drag, drop, and build your own. After working with it for a while I discovered it had a maximum number of routers, switches, and hosts you can use. You can have a maximum of 3 routers, 4 switches, and 6 hosts. However, when I got deeper into my studies I needed to work with more equipment but you are limited here. I searched around again for a better package and realized that I could upgrade at routersim to the network visualizer program. I wish I would have purchased that first. There are no limits to the equipment you can use to create a network, plus, that program seems to support a lot more commands that match the new cisco curriculum.

Took this test this morning. I went through EVERY lab in this simulator and read through the Sybex book a total of three times before taking my test. I was confident in my answers until I got to the simulation questions. ALL...not one...ALL of my simulations were on NAT. Out of all 11 chapters in this simulator, not one of them went over configuring NAT. Not only was I surprised...I was a little upset because of the money spent to be confident in nothing. I went through the website for the upgrade to RouterSim 4.1 thinking maybe that's what I should have done before I took the test..and that too has NO labs for NAT.

Please don't get me wrong. I learned a lot from these simulators and am not completely upset about the purchase, I just assumed that the labs covered by this simulator went over basically EVERY situation the test covers. My fault for assuming...fool my once right? So...just a heads up for whom ever plans on using this tool for a test they will be taking soon...use this in conjunction with another simulator..and pay attention to NAT....it was a pretty HUGE portion of my test!

This product offers nothing of value over the Gold edition except for drag and drop. Creating my first network, I was shocked that I was limited in adding only two switches and three routers. Not much playing around or building with that limitation!

Todd Lammle, the Gene Simmons of Cisco training material, forces you to upgrade for any additional functionality on this already extremily over priced, very basic program.

Do yourself a favor and save your money and buy the used Gold version.

This has to be one of the worst hundred bucks I've ever spent. Thank goodness my employer reimbursed me for it. Things that suck:

1) you're limited to soo few network devices not a huge deal but why? It's kinda lame

2) The amount of supported commands and features are far too small. I was able to do basic routing protocols, but even with those the commands were very limited. I was unable to do NAT which really disturbed me. Everything I WANT to do, I cant do because this software doesn't support the features. This is decent at best for the first half of the CCNA course where you only cover the basic basic routing protocols, anywhere past that this is completely useless.

3) There's more but this software isn't worth my time to spell it all out.

Dont waste your money on this, seriously I'm very disappointed.

If you have noticed the CCNA exam has been updated from the 640-607 to the 640-801 and who better than Sybex and Todd Lammle to put together the Virtual Lab for you to study with.

Based on the hugely successful Router Sim, the virtual lab has everything you need to pass the exam(s) on the first try. Giving you over 80 labs to work on again and again, and if that is not enough then you can always create you own, which makes this an endless training tool.

The labs cover everything from basic configuration to WAN install to VLAN configuration. If you need even more labs, than you have the option to upgrade this package to the full Router Sim, although there is a small fee for this.

Making a perfect companion to the CCNA Study guide you have all you need to make the grade. About the only thing that this doesn't have a discount voucher for the exam and I can that being added in the next update.

Overall Lammle has taken the best training tool and made it even better; this is well worth the price of admission.

I paid 120 dollars for a product that looks very pretty. But when I install it and try to use all the features, it asks me to upgrade! I use other ccna products and they offer more features for around the same price and don't charge for UPGRADES! Customer Support was not too helpful because they do not offer refunds...

I have had this product for 3 years, and every so often I reinstall Windows (and typically forget to uninstall this program). The program comes with 2 installs, and if you forget to uninstall it, you are out of luck: last week I emailed Wiley customer support (any Sybex-related questions go through them), and received this answer to my question of whether I could get my 2 licenses reset:

"Since the product is out of print now and no longer supported they have taken access away from us resetting license."

I was referred to the latest CCNA Titanium Edition instead. So I basically paid $150 to rent this software for 3 years. I do understand the platinum edition (for CCNA exam 640-801) was retired in 2007 is no longer in print, but I still could have used it for practice. Instead they want me to "rent" the newest version.

Many reviewers have given this Virtual Lab harsh reviews because it isn't quite the router simulator they were hoping for. However, the product DOES deliver what it promises: it is a router sim developed to cover the topics on the CCNA exam, and that's it...It does not say anywhere that it is a COMPLETE router simulation solution....So, if you're looking for an additional study tool, give this one a try...

This product is frustrating! It has a number of bugs and wasted my study time as I had to keep fixing my labs. It also crashes heaps. I'm happy I didn't pay for it and work did. It's ok for a basic tool, but I would keep looking. I'm at the point now where I'm looking to buy another product. I don't recommend it!