Customer Reviews

Cisco CCNA Network Simulator (CCNA Self-Study, 640-801)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I read the other reviews on Amazon before purchasing this product. I saw some were good and some were bad. I thought, well, people have different opinions and I may like it. No. There are too many mistakes. Others have commented on VLAN issues with the 2950's. I had the same problem. Any more than 3 vlans and it just wouldn't work. It was very frustrating in that I wasted ALOT of time thinking it my configs at first. Then there is some kind of bug with pings. When you ping from one specific PC to another across your virtual network the entire application shuts down. This will consistently happen so you must remember which PC's you can and can't ping to and from safely and make sure to save everything before every ping. You will put in configurations then 5 minutes later do a "sh run" and they will mysteriously be gone. Or take a network statement out from under OSPF but it just will NOT remove it. Lastly there is the user friendly-ness. I rate this as a zero. It is the most cumbersome application I have ever used. It would have helped had I been able to open the user guide but that did nothing when I clicked on it. I lost many a network because I didn't save the topologies and configs correctly. So I called Boson for help. You have to leave your name and number and they will call back within 48 hours. That was 2 weeks ago. I have not heard from them.

I sent the company some feedback last week and have heard nothing from them. Product does not apply ACL's properly to interfaces and has problems recording matches to outbound ACL's. Also there are problems with alternate vlans on 2950 switches. Numerous bugs running verion 5.07 with latest patch. Was a very disappointing purchase.

Dennis Byford, CCNP

Reviewer Certification: MCSE NT 4.0, CCNA

ISBN: 1-58720-131-3

Through my recent CCNA certification process I found that the most difficult part of getting certified is acquiring hands-on experience. Inexperienced Network Administrators are rarely given significant access to production routing and switching equipment. (Gaining experience for OS certifications does not run the same level of risk of negatively impacting an entire enterprise). Couple this with the expense of buying actual "practice" equipment and one can see the value in a good, cost-effective simulator program.

The Cisco CCNA Network Simulator by Boson Software Inc. (Published by Cisco Press) appreciably meets one's need for hands-on experience. There are six lab modules to choose from: Stand Alone Labs, Sequential Labs, Scenario Labs, CCNA INTRO Labs (640-821), CCNA ICND (640-811) Labs, and Your Labs. Companion materials are a click away to help instruct and clarify. (Be aware that the lab numbers and chapter numbers don't necessarily match. For example, Stand Alone Lab 1's support material is Chapter 7 of Cisco CCNA Certification Library.) Students can check their progress with the Lab Grader feature.

Before the student can reap the full benefits of the product, he/she should be prepared to invest time - and perhaps some frustration -- in getting to know how this product works. Though not overly complex, there is a definite learning curve. The process starts with printing the User Guide (which does have some typos). It would have been nice to have this provided with the simulator media. (It would also be nice to have the option of printing all chapters, but Cisco CCNA Certification Library is available via other means in its entirety.) The labs can be printed out individually or in batches.

With the various lab categories and types, students can develop a strategy for where they're at in the education and training process. Beginners will probably want to start with the Sequential Labs. (Read the caution on page 50 of the User Guide as care must be taken to "save" after each lab or face the necessity of repeating "quite a few steps depending on what area you are working on.") The other labs are much more flexible and allow the student to focus on areas of weakness.

As a bonus, the Simulator has uses beyond test preparation. Intermediate administrators and instructors will find the "Network Designer" ("NetMap") module to be a useful tool. The Network Designer, which can accommodate up to 200 devices per simulated network, can be used to test IP changes prior to implementing them in production. Those that have devices above the 4500 Router and 2900 Switches will have to be a little creative with the simulator in the quest of paralleling the production environment -- but this is doable.

Students can go to Help and Check for Updates. The Readme contains errata that can be invaluable in clarifying issues and correcting mistakes that could wreak havoc on certification test scores. Above all, Cisco CCNA Network Simulator will definitely give the student the hands-on experience that is difficult to find but is essential to success in obtaining certification.

First off, don't buy this thinking there are any practice exams bundled with it. That would prove too cost effective for you to receive a complete package for one price. In any case, the application is buggy. Many errors were generated in the middle of labs causing the app to dump out and close without warning. Needless to say, it was very annoying and a tremendous cost, opportunity wise.

Additionally, the Boson Nazi's are so paranoid about you 'sharing' this product, it is impossible to install it on any other machine other than the one you initially pick without jumping through more hoops than it is worth. All I wanted to do was have it on my PC at work (since work has endorsed this activity) and be able to study at home. No luck, buy two copies I guess.

When the program did work, it had the look and feel of a router/switch which is the only reason this review gets 2 stars instead of one. My advice, study the books and use the limited versions that come with them (any of them; Sybex, Cisco Press, etc). They are all I ended up using.

I purchased this product a few days ago. I opened the box, removed the cellophane from the CD, and discovered that the Boson EULA is absurdly restrictive.

For example, I am going to be visiting my family for 3 weeks for Christmas, and would like to bring my new $150 Cisco Simulator with me, to use temporarily at my families house. Unfortunately, I already installed, and activated it on my regular PC. Since the Boson registration program only allows the program to be installed on 1 PC, I am out of luck.

What happens if my PC breaks and I buy a new one? Or if I want to put it on my laptop for when I travel? Apparently, I will have to buy a new copy. What happens when/if I reinstall Windows, as most people do periodically? Will Boson make me buy a new copy for that?

It is overly restrictive licenses like this that causes piracy in the first place. I purchase all of my software. Yet I am being punished by Boson because some people are less honest than me.

So David Rajala, why cant I bring the software I purchased for $150 with me on a 3 week trip and use it while I am away? Dont you find it a little ridiculous to force your loyal customers to spend another $150 on a product they already bought from you in good faith?

By the time I discovered this absurd EULA, I had already removed the wrapper from the CD, so there was no way it could be returned. Dave Rajala, if you are going to have such a restrictive EULA, maybe you should put it in bold letters on the box, so people like me dont fall into your trap.

By the way, this is a great product, and an incredible learning tool, that is destroyed by its EULA.

It is a good tool for exam practice, but doesn't seem too useful for practical network mapping, simulation, or planning. There's just too much that's incomplete. Commands are missing including some advanced routing protocol support, there's no support for larger switches, and some of the diagnostics are pretty kludgy. There is a CCNP version of the software that supposedly addresses these, but I haven't tried it. It may seem fairly expensive, but it is still a lot cheaper than buying an assortment of cisco gear to run through the exercises.

One of the greatest problems a budding CCNA has is getting hands-on exposure to different Cisco devices. It can cost many thousands of dollars to get access to all the right gear. I've certainly spent a lot of money and time spelunking Cisco gear on eBay.

I wish I had access to this simulator sooner! It has around 105 labs versus 84 for a near competitor. You can interact with the simulated devices and routers using exactly the same tools you use in real life.

Save a bundle of time and grief. This has to be one of the best investments you can make in gaining your CCNA

I bought and used this product to prepare for my CCNA exam, and found it to be a wonderful investment (I passed with a 933 on my first try). I did most of the labs and created some of my own. I used this simulator while reading through the Cisco Press Certification library, testing myself in areas as I read. I had no problems installing the product and have had no problems running it. My only "gripe" is that it doesn't support as many features as I would like (for example etherchannel configuration). But for these features I will have to wait for Netsim for CCNP, still in beta. But I thought it was a very life-like product. For example, I learned to get up and get a drink of water or something while waiting for RIP or IGRP to converge, and I got to see OSPF and EIGRP converge very quickly. Overall, this product will prepare you and give you confidence for the simulator sections of the exams, and if used properly, the troubleshooting sections where you may need to be able to read output of a "show" or "debug" command and figure out what is going on.

This product has got the right idea of simulating Cisco products so a person can use software instead of purchasing the actual Cisco equipment to practice for the CCNA exam. However, this product has a number of major flaws in the software and it has been obsoleted since Cisco announced the new version of their CCNA exam last June. You best wait for an updated version that has better quality software and supports the current Cisco products (Routers and Switches) at a more current IOS version.

If you're trying to pass the CCNA exam (either the single exam or the two-part exam) I would recommend that you buy the Exam Certification Library from Cisco Press (which includes a "Lite" version of the CCNA Network Simulator) and bypass this offering. Then make sure that you get some time on real equipment, if at all possible. The bottom line on the full blown version is that it's not worth the $$$. I wish I'd read the reviews on this product before I bought it. It's true what others have said about the deficiencies of this product. If you're interested in really mastering things like Spanning tree protocol you'll not get that good feeling from this product. STP doesn't work outright! I'm a veteran of certification testing. In all, I've taken 15 tests covering various technologies from various vendors. I took the INTRO test (relying on the books in the Exam Certification Library and the NetSIM) and passed it easily. However, for the first time in my life, I failed a test when I took the ICND exam. I went through the simulator exercises twice before the exam. I read the book cover-to-cover twice before the exam. It's not that I'm a bad test taker. Before the ICND I was 14 for 14. The simulator simply didn't prepare me for the exam. Period.