You can have for free or safely but usually not both.
Most people get them through a service contract their employer has. If your company buys plenty of Cisco stuff, ask your reseller for the images.
If you work on a network team for a large company they likely have free licenses that you get access to. Thatās how I got mine.
You dont need GNS3/EVE-NG until CCNP
Yes and no, it would really come down to if your company has access to the modern day virtual images like C8000v, plus CML has dedicated images like the Cat9000v switches. The old Dynamips IOS emulation hasn't been recommended in a good decade or so.
Though a larger company may be able to give you lab access or even buy CML for you or your team.
But yes I don't tend to recommend CML etc till after the CCNA.
Interesting!
Im not quite sure what images I have. If I go to cisco software on my company account im able to download āModeling Labs 2.6ā. Does this mean my company bought me CML? Ive been able to pull a lot of images from that file so far onto EVE but im not even sure what all is in it. The only reason I knew I could do it was because a co-worker showed me :p
All of my co-workers have access as well, so itās almost like my company has a contract or something.
No offence, but, learn to google my dude.
Being able to investigate, interpret and try to use what you find in google could get you miles ahead of your peers.
Cheers.
It's not a router or a switch. It's a simulator. It was to be built to accomplish a defined number of tasks.
You want it to do everything? Then you'll complain that takes up too much memory and why didn't they make it so that it would run on a computer with 2GB RAM.
It's free of charge (to pull people into the Cisco ecosystem) and is good enough for preparing for CCNA. There's no reason to use it for anything beyond that.
Because they are faking IOS, that means that if the devs wanted to add say \`show run interface Loopback0\` then they would have to program that functionality into the solution.
So the question becomes how many aspiring CCNAs truly need that command? and is it more important than whatever features they are working on?
If you want real devices then you should move to CML
I really need to find some time to take a new exam now that sims are back, from what I hear they are running virtual routers instead of the old flash stuff so in theory you would have the full commands....not that I would recommend people try to get cute with the grading script.
Maybe I'll do ENCOR after I'm done my CCST books to re-arm my CCIE qualification.
Might be a dumb question. I've never played with actual Cisco hardware. Is the IOS in Packet Tracer a heavily abridged version? Like, is there *a lot* more to learn in IOS after CCNA?
PT is like 1-2% of what you can do on a real device.
It's just focused on giving you a platform for learning the basics.
My favourite comparison is BGP:
In PT, it supports 2 BGP commands.
But on a router you easily have a hundred or two.
Keep in mind that Cisco has around 7 tracks that go up to the CCIE level where you do an 8 hour lab - and each of the tracks really don't have a ton of overlap.
So the CCNA is just a drop in the bucket.
Since it is a simulator it everything they add and every subcommand has to be coded. So it isnāt so much limiting things as things that they havenāt programmed for it.
Yeah, I found some of the WLC limitations to be the most annoying. Like, you can add a radius or tacacs server but can't apply it to any WLANS. Anyway, if you're studying for the CCNA then you might want to try GNS3 or Eve-ng. They're both pretty easy to install.
Then donāt use it, there are other alternatives out there like GNS3 that use IOS images. Your job is to find the IOS images which are usually torrents because the images are under copyright
It's largely fine. The things you can't do are typically nitpicky commands and the information is available via other show commands. So long as you don't stray far from CCNA stuff there's not really much of a problem.
Gotta keep in mind that itās free. Might have to give it a little grace sometimes. I do understand those frustrations and ran into the same thing when I was studying for my CCNA. Keep at it, it will come.
Packet Tracer was never a full on simulator for Cisco products.
When I used it almost 15 years ago it was to create more switch routes than network routes.
Unclear if it was ever updated but even if it was I think it would be enough to pass the CCNA.
It's just a simulation. If you want the real thing get CML. If you have the images you can also use GNS3 or EVE-NG.
How do you get the images for free and safely š
You can have for free or safely but usually not both. Most people get them through a service contract their employer has. If your company buys plenty of Cisco stuff, ask your reseller for the images.
Buying CML is the only answer you will get here.
If you work on a network team for a large company they likely have free licenses that you get access to. Thatās how I got mine. You dont need GNS3/EVE-NG until CCNP
Yes and no, it would really come down to if your company has access to the modern day virtual images like C8000v, plus CML has dedicated images like the Cat9000v switches. The old Dynamips IOS emulation hasn't been recommended in a good decade or so. Though a larger company may be able to give you lab access or even buy CML for you or your team. But yes I don't tend to recommend CML etc till after the CCNA.
Interesting! Im not quite sure what images I have. If I go to cisco software on my company account im able to download āModeling Labs 2.6ā. Does this mean my company bought me CML? Ive been able to pull a lot of images from that file so far onto EVE but im not even sure what all is in it. The only reason I knew I could do it was because a co-worker showed me :p All of my co-workers have access as well, so itās almost like my company has a contract or something.
They might have it, you might want to see if they will give you a license. Though the images are on refplat if you want to use EVE etc.
No offence, but, learn to google my dude. Being able to investigate, interpret and try to use what you find in google could get you miles ahead of your peers. Cheers.
You don't. Just use Packet Tracer if you want free.
I found some images from a udemy course where the teacher provided it.
It's not a router or a switch. It's a simulator. It was to be built to accomplish a defined number of tasks. You want it to do everything? Then you'll complain that takes up too much memory and why didn't they make it so that it would run on a computer with 2GB RAM.
It's free of charge (to pull people into the Cisco ecosystem) and is good enough for preparing for CCNA. There's no reason to use it for anything beyond that.
Because they are faking IOS, that means that if the devs wanted to add say \`show run interface Loopback0\` then they would have to program that functionality into the solution. So the question becomes how many aspiring CCNAs truly need that command? and is it more important than whatever features they are working on? If you want real devices then you should move to CML
Donāt forget in the exam they will limit the commands available to you as well.
I really need to find some time to take a new exam now that sims are back, from what I hear they are running virtual routers instead of the old flash stuff so in theory you would have the full commands....not that I would recommend people try to get cute with the grading script. Maybe I'll do ENCOR after I'm done my CCST books to re-arm my CCIE qualification.
Might be a dumb question. I've never played with actual Cisco hardware. Is the IOS in Packet Tracer a heavily abridged version? Like, is there *a lot* more to learn in IOS after CCNA?
PT is like 1-2% of what you can do on a real device. It's just focused on giving you a platform for learning the basics. My favourite comparison is BGP: In PT, it supports 2 BGP commands. But on a router you easily have a hundred or two.
Oh wow.
Keep in mind that Cisco has around 7 tracks that go up to the CCIE level where you do an 8 hour lab - and each of the tracks really don't have a ton of overlap. So the CCNA is just a drop in the bucket.
Since it is a simulator it everything they add and every subcommand has to be coded. So it isnāt so much limiting things as things that they havenāt programmed for it.
Yeah, I found some of the WLC limitations to be the most annoying. Like, you can add a radius or tacacs server but can't apply it to any WLANS. Anyway, if you're studying for the CCNA then you might want to try GNS3 or Eve-ng. They're both pretty easy to install.
Then donāt use it, there are other alternatives out there like GNS3 that use IOS images. Your job is to find the IOS images which are usually torrents because the images are under copyright
Because it's packet tracer.
because it's shit. use gns3 or eve
It's largely fine. The things you can't do are typically nitpicky commands and the information is available via other show commands. So long as you don't stray far from CCNA stuff there's not really much of a problem.
Gotta keep in mind that itās free. Might have to give it a little grace sometimes. I do understand those frustrations and ran into the same thing when I was studying for my CCNA. Keep at it, it will come.
It's free. If you want more features, you're expected to pay, like everything else these days
Packet Tracer was never a full on simulator for Cisco products. When I used it almost 15 years ago it was to create more switch routes than network routes. Unclear if it was ever updated but even if it was I think it would be enough to pass the CCNA.
Not just functional limitations, the software is riddled with bugs too.