Free Cisco Lab

Packet Tracer is a routing and switching simulator distributed by Cisco free of charge. It is capable of simulating reasonably complicated routing and switching scenarios and is perfect for students studying for their CCNA.

Although it does not provide all the BGP commands for the CCNP as GNS3 or Dynamips It has one very useful function over these applications, it supports level 2 and 3 switching simulation with devices like the 2950 and 3560 as well as generic device that allows the user to create devices with other interfaces such as the NM-1FFE and NM-1FGE. It supports a fairly broad range of commands allowing the user to create very advanced switching scenarios. I myself have completed several switching lab with Ether Channel, VTP, MLS, and more that I will be including soon. While you cannot implement some features like HSRP, Packet Tracer is by far the best switch emulator outside of buying actual hardware. Additionally you do not have to obtain Cisco IOS’s in order to use Packet Tracer.

Packet Tracer can also be used for the CCNA Voice and Wireless Practice labs as it also includes the Cisco 7960 IP phone and wireless routing devices.
The current version of Packet Tracer is 5.3.1 and can be found on a number of websites for the Windows and Linux GNU platforms. It requires the following system requirements:

• Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 or Ubuntu 7.10, Fedora 7.
• Intel Pentium 300 MHz or better.
• 96 Mb. of ram or better.
• 250 Mb. of storage or better.
• 800X600 monitor or better.

These are minimum system requirements and will run much better on current computer configurations.

In conclusion if you are studying for your CCNA, CCNA Voice, CCNA Wireless, Packet Tracer is all you need and the price is right. If you are studying for the CCNP the Dynamips or GNS3 application will be the better choice although Packet Tracer can provide an eraser interface for most of the switching labs. And finally if you are working on that CCIE simulators can only do so much I would recommend getting your hands on some real hardware similar to that used on the exam, because it will be cheap in comparison with a retake of that exam.

Download: Packet Tracer 6.0.1 by Cisco (53.28MB) Description: Great Network Simulator from Cisco Downloads: 2851

Check out these other assume training resources:

6 Responses to “Switching Lab Simulation With Packet Tracer”

1. Naomi Lucas Says:
   January 4th, 2011 at 3:59 am

   Glad i found this post.. thanks!!

2. flash hard drives Says:
   January 7th, 2011 at 6:49 am

   Thank you for another interesting post about Switching Lab Simulation With Packet Tracer. Where else could people get this kind of info in such a concise way of writing? I have a meeting next week, and I am on the look out for such information.

3. Rebecca Lucas Says:
   January 12th, 2011 at 2:59 am

   I like this post.

4. Cindy Smith Says:
   January 12th, 2011 at 1:24 pm

   I think this is an excellent post.. thanks

5. kundan Tripathi Says:
   August 10th, 2011 at 10:55 pm

   Fantastic !!

6. faci1982 Says:
   December 12th, 2011 at 1:13 pm

   fantastic

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Security Question:

What is 10 + 13 ?

Please leave these two fields as-is:

IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-)

CAPTCHA Code *