Product Description

Nothing compares to this product's Cisco simulation technology! It gives you the hands-on practice with routers and switches that is critical for your success on the CCNA exam (640-801), without incurring the prohibitive hardware costs. Using the latest drag-and-drop technology, the CCNA Virtual Lab, Platinum Edition allows you to create a simulated lab of up to four switches, three routers, and six hosts. You can follow the 84 lab exercises provided or experiment with the hundreds of configuration commands built into the simulator. An extensive help system guides you through complex tasks. Can be used in conjunction with Sybex's best-selling CCNA Study Guide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #646078 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: CD-ROM
• 144 pages

From the Back Cover
Get Hands-on Experience, Sharpen Your Skills, and Advance Your Career with the CCNA Virtual Lab Platinum Edition

If you’re serious about passing the CCNA exam (640-801), you need hands-on experience with routers and switches. The CCNA Virtual Lab Platinum Edition from Sybex gives you everything you need, and more! You can practice with this "equipment" on your own, use it in conjunction with suggested labs that cover CCNA exam objectives, or design your own custom labs. An affordable alternative to products and courses costing hundreds, even thousands, of dollars, the CCNA Virtual Lab Platinum Edition allows you to work at your own pace, on your own time, so you get the most out of your exam preparation efforts.

• Work in a pre-designed network or make your own with the drag-and-drop capabilities of the Network Visualizer™. Add network devices and connect them to create a network that can be saved for further practice.
• Access configuration consoles for network devices, including 2600 series Cisco routers and 1900 or 2950 series Cisco switches. Practice with all of the Cisco IOS commands you'll need to be familiar with for the CCNA exam.
• View the configurations, including IP addresses, for all network devices in the Net Configs window.

• Logging into a router
• Starting and saving router configurations
• Setting passwords, hostname, banners, interface descriptions, IP address, and clock rate
• Using static routes and default routes
• Implementing dynamic routing with RIP and IGRP
• Routing with EIGRP and OSPF
• Backing up, upgrading or restoring your router IOS
• Resolving IP names
• Using Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
• Configuring PPP with authentication
• Configuring Frame Relay

About the Author
Todd Lammle has over fifteen years of experience with LANs and WANs. He is president of GlobalNet Systems, a network integration firm based in Colorado. He is the author of Sybex's best-selling CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide.

Bill Tedder is President of Interactive Designs Group, Inc. and has expertise in the development of interactive learning applications.

Customer Reviews

Not all it's cracked up to be
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.

good, but there is a better one
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.

No NAT...
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!