Boson CCNA sim - discussion

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Hi lads,

just a word of warning, stay the hell away from boson cisco sims, they are ****ing awfull! Spent $250 of my hard earned cash on a pile of crap. What happend was that I purchased the software and downloaded and installed it. I was getting all excited now, ready to have some cisco fun, I got the tutorial which came with the simulator and started going through it, after a few paragraphs it starts doing practical examples, so I started carrying out the examples and to my shock the majority of the commands DO NOT WORK!!! WASTE OF ****ING MONEY, STAY AWAY FROM BOSON SIMS. I done abit more research and i realised that boson only supports a very very very small handfull of commands, this is a joke or what!!! The pile of crap does not jusity its price and boson are ripping people off left right and center. If you want a good cisco sim, go get dynamips / dynagen, open source and supports ALL commands.

Just a light warning.

Have a good weekend!!

 

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ask BosonMichael for advice he works for them

 

Well, I won't comment about Boson's stuff as I've never used it.

I WILL however, repeat what I and (discounting BM as he works for Boson so can hardly be expected to provide an unbiased viewpoint) others on this forum have said:

USING A CISCO IOS WITH DYNAMIPS IS AGAINST THE LAW.

Dynamips might be open source - The Cisco IOS most certainly is not!

 

I dont recall anyone mentioning using Dynamips with a cisco IOS did you? The point here is that Boson are charging $250 for a pile of **** software that does nothing but the very vey basic and they misguide you! So tempted to contact my card company and do a charge back!

 

Dynamips on its own wont be much use.

Have you contacted Boson with your greivances? Also im pretty sure nearly all sim manufacturers state that they come with the minimal amount of commands needed for practice to whatever level you are going for.

This is why I purchased a CCNA kit (2 routers and a switch) off ebay, so I could move on the CCNP if i wanted to.

 

I have to say I download he netsim software from their site, updated it and then dumped it in to demo mode but couldn't get it to work properly either, it just kept telling me I wasn't entering commands properly when I could enter the same command on the actual hardware I have and it work

I was going to post and ask for advice on the forum but it was down when I was trying it, bought two more switches in the end as it worked out cheaper then buying the software to see if the full version worked (now I know it would probably have been the same as the demo)

Without launching in to an argument over biased/unbiased feedback or something else could someone who does work for Boson and posts on this forum give us all some help/advice, thanks

Since its already been mentioned GNS3/Dynamips is only good for routers dedicated switches are not supported by the software iirc. Not that it matters as you can't legally run the IOS on the software and you can only get the IOS is you have a support contract with Cisco

 

Node

How are you propsing to use dynamips without a cisco ios? I'm presuming you bought boson's product for studying towards your cisco certifications, correct?

Dynamips won't be much use in the certification process when you can't legally use the ios on it.

 

^ what he said

Atleast let MB clear up a few of your queries

Grim

 

To be fair to the product, it does what it says on the tin.
It's not trying to emulate a cisco ios like Dynamips. It's a simulator, it's come a long way since previous versions. It's only real downside is it's lack of support for some of the shorcut commands.
Personally I found that had unseen benefits in that it forced me to learn the complete commands.
The labs are particularly well structured and flow well from one to the other.
As for value for money, $249 compares quite favourably with the cost of a decent CCNA lab. A lot of time goes in to the development of these products and we can't expect them to be giving it away.
If your going further in your studies I believe the CCNP course actually includes with it all the CCNA stuff.

It'll never replace the real thing, but that wasn't what it was designed for.

RouterSim is pretty good and a few dollars cheaper not by much though. The labs are nowhere near as good as the Boson ones though.

Discluding GNS3 and Dynamips due to the IOS issues, Packet Tracer 5.0 is by far the best, although as stated unless you are a Cisco Net Academy student your out of luck. I have heard though that Cisco is not too far away from releasing it as an independant system.

 

uh-oh...

 

yeah, so some ****head has spent his hard earned cash on something he doesn't like, so he has to slag off other members of this forum and advocate piracy. Boo friggedy hoo, maybe he should have got a demo or read reviews before spending his hard earned cash.

 

Ok Node so you weren't impressed with the SIM, because it doesn't support all the commands you expected. I'm not studying the CCNA, nor do i intend to, but i knew this. It's hardly a secret.

I think it's bad form to slag off a product for limitations which are basically common knowledge. especially as one of our regular members works for them and clearly will be alarmed to see his company's products dissed on a forum he frequents regularly.

I was tempted to bin this thread on sight. I'll leave it for now so that BM can respond if he so chooses to.

Any more personal attacks GBL and it's infraction time for you!

*finger hovering over the close thread button*

 

no, im angry because the commands from the tutorial / step by step guide which comes with the sim dont even work!!!! Thats whats pissing me off, so overall the software is a pile of ****....

 

I fully understand where you are coming from Bluerinse but would appreciate the thread being left open so that a Boson employee could give some advice.
I would like to think the software may be worth a serious consideration

 

Have you tried contacting Boson and registering your complaint with them? I don't know if you're having a rant just because you need to let off steam or because you know that a Boson employee or two happens to drop in here from time to time. It seems to me though, that contacting Boson support or sales might be the better way to go. If you're dissatisfied with the product, ask for a refund. That's what most people would do if they purchased a good or service they didn't believe was up to snuff.

 

I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble with the product you purchased. Although I am not responsible for the NetSim side of the house (I develop ExSim content), I can answer your questions, and if there is anything that needs to be resolved, I can direct your queries to those who can assist you.

NetSim for CCNA supports only the commands that are required for you to know for the CCNA. That's by design; it's not designed to include every single command and every single possible outcome. Nor does any Cisco simulator. Take a look at the Cisco simulator products out there - all include only the subset of commands you need to know for the exam.

If you purchase the NetSim for CCNP (which, as BillyR stated earlier, includes the NetSim for CCNA), more commands will be available, but still, they are only the commands you need to know for the exams.

BillyR is absolutely right when he says:

I always recommend getting real routers and switches. However, if you're wanting to create large networks with many routers and switches, it's not easy to afford getting that many real devices. Additionally, the labs are great on their own, even without a simulator product.

Not without illegally using the Cisco IOS with it, it doesn't. According to Cisco's licensing, Cisco's IOS can only be used on the hardware platform for which it was designed.

Could you please tell me which commands do not work, and how you are attempting to issue those commands? Perhaps it is something small you are overlooking. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've tried issuing commands, only to realize that I was in the wrong mode (often by failing to issue a config t! Ack!!). Or perhaps there is something that is misconfigured that I can assist you with. I am willing to go over it with you on Monday when I get back to the office (I'm in the US)... would that be OK? I don't think I have it installed anywhere at home.

If you are interested, I can give you my GMail address and we can IM to figure out the problems, if that would work for you. Alternatively, we can communicate over my work e-mail account.

Again, I am sorry that you are having such a difficult time with our product. I am hopeful that I can turn your opinion around regarding this matter.

 

I thought I had overheard that the shortcut functionality was much improved in the recent version, and I thought I had used it with shortcut commands, but I could be mistaken. I'll take a look when I fire it up in the office on Monday.

I thank you for your praise of our labs.

I don't believe it is Packet Tracer that they are releasing. From what I have heard, it is a new software package called the CCNA Network Simulator. I'm unsure of how much it uses from Packet Tracer. It was due out this month, but they've pushed back the release date (I believe twice) - now it's not due until next year.

 

Wow.

How's that for tech support and customer service!

 

Ok guys, because BM has posted what i consider to be a very fair and reasonable response to the OP's gripe, i have changed the title of the thread to tone it down. I may make further changes, if i see fit.

 

@JonnyMX

It's nothing less than i would have expected from a true professional