| Author |
Help a newbie? 'cause the sims are killing me
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| Kitsune 2004-02-18, 9:00 am |
| I just finished failing the CCNA for the second time. (by less than 20 points!) The sim questions are just kicking me in the most unpleasant of places.
I did all my study with the cisco press books. The software that came with it (Simline) seems just about worthless. It runs too slow to use practically anyway on my old machine.
Basically what I am asking is, what's a good way to practice for these sims if you can't get to a live lab? (I am sure this question -never- get's asked...  ) | |
| Joe Dali 2004-02-18, 9:18 am |
| Open a dos prompt, and start typing the commands needed to setup RIP, IGRP, OSPF, access-list.
The examples are everywhere, memorize them. Be able to type every RIP network setup command without blinking.
Sure you will see nothing happening at a dos prompt, but it makes you feel like you are at a terminal when you are typing.
I did this all day the day I failed with the commands to do the access-list for telnet and it helped me memorize the commands.
Either you know the commands or you dont. Doesnt matter if you are sitting at a dos prompt or a telnet session on a 2500. Its the same black screen, its the repitition of typing the commands that you need to reinforce
The sequence of commands is what you need to know, and recognize the IP addressing schemes in the scenario. Get the examples, understand what they are, and type them in, anywhere. Memorize the above and thats all you need.
Or, buy Boson or a used 2500 off Ebay ... | |
| Kitsune 2004-02-18, 9:39 am |
| The commands are indeed in need or repitition. But my big problem is figuring out what is wrong in the first place...
During the test I just threw commands out left and right, but I couldn't figure out why (for example) router A didn't exchange routing information with router B when the had a functional link and the same routing protocol and area number! (Insert frustrated scream here.)
Oh, and to correct the presvious post: the software I have is Bosom Netslim. | |
| Joe Dali 2004-02-18, 9:45 am |
| You need to look at the config and figure it out ... thats why you are a CCNA because you can do it on the job. I messed up on the OSPF one as well. I did not practice OSPF and got burned like a fried chikken.
Its 3 or 4 commands. Its not that hard, you just need to do a
no router ospf 1,
then type in router ospf 1
then network 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
Thats pretty much it.
Do the NetSim labs on OSPF, understand them, practice. Thats what I am doing, and I hope to pass on 2nd try. You know what they are looking for, they want you to configure a basic setup, 3 or 4 commands thats it. Its not a mystery at all. | |
| worrywarm 2004-02-18, 11:31 am |
| does the simulator in the test support abbrev.? like sh run or has to be show running-config? | |
| Joe Dali 2004-02-18, 11:34 am |
| Hmmm, I think its best to type out the whole commands, I did ... | |
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| Kitsune 2004-02-18, 8:15 pm |
| Thanks smrkdown for the site!
I have also been spending some time on FreeLabs.com, which has been great! (http://www.free-labs.com/) But, it's all config. The only problems I get to diagnose, are the one I create.
Beware: Rant against Netslim follows
The version of netslim is awful: takes about 30 seconds or more for -each- command to process, including "configure terminal". There are only about 5 labs functional with it. And those are are "set up ethernet ips and hdlc on serial 0" type labs. Try and use them for anything else and half the commands return "The command you entered requires an upgrade". (No thanks. $160 is too steep for a program that takes me 30 minutes to configure a single router for basic ip connectivity.) | |
| Joe Dali 2004-02-18, 9:05 pm |
| I got to see the full version of NetSim in my friend's class and it rocks. | |
| christian7 2004-02-18, 9:11 pm |
| Have you tried RouterSim? I bought RouterSim 3.0 before I bought my routers and it is the best simmulator I've seen, it has the abvr. commands like en for enable, sh for show ect. You can download a trial version from http://www.routersim.com I think it's the closest to real routers. Good luck.
Oh, and it comes with 65 lab simmulations for you to try out. | |
| Joe Dali 2004-02-18, 9:17 pm |
| I dunno, I still think ALL of the sims are buggy and not prefessionally created. They just seem clunky and not very well programmed. They seem like they are all made by hobby programemrs with CCNPs. Boson is way cool, but I imagine it could be 100 times better with better UI, no delays, preconfigured IP addresses that you can dynamically load when you are too lazy to type them all in (this would be great).
For the $250 for Boson you can buy a router and a switch. What more do you need for CCNA? I could use a hot woman actually. | |
| christian7 2004-02-18, 9:25 pm |
| Joe Dali
you do have a point, I got my two 2524 routers and one 1900 switch for $250. I would go with the real thing, now that I learned the big difference between sims and the real thing. | |
| Joe Dali 2004-02-18, 10:55 pm |
| Yah I love having a 3640 packed with everything and a 1912 ...  ...Its loud in my bedroom, but way worth it.
Its nice to test access lists on the fly between 3 different subnets ...
I'm reading Odom at the moment while watching the bachlorette ... God, I need a life. LOL.
Take note CCNA kiddies, Wendell says to remember that EIGRP is a balanced hybrid protocol and uses the DUAL algorithm. Sorry for the useless info, my memorization moment ... :] | |
| Kitsune 2004-02-19, 3:49 am |
| ...and that EIGRP requires the same AS number for all routers unlike OSPF which can use any process ID.
Thanks for all the recomendations. I think I will look into the real thing. A single switch and a single router seems to be all I need. huh?
Does the CCNA ever stop mugging you??? lol | |
| Joe Dali 2004-02-19, 8:10 am |
| 2+1 if you can afford it ... |
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