I received my CCNA certification nearly ten years ago. When I was studying for it, I did not have a job that allowed me access to Cisco routers and there were no real virtual router applications available, so I bought two routers off of eBay including a token ring router. Without those routers to practice on, certification would have been a lot more difficult, if not impossible. My solution was expensive and I was left with two routers I had no use for after the test. Is there a better solution?

Yes. Today's CCNA candidates have many online and offline virtual router labs available for use. Virtual routers offer students the ability to experiment with the IOS without having to worry about shutting down a network, or spending a fortune. Let's take a look at some of the products available.

Sem Sim Router Simulator

Sem Sim offers an inexpensive simulator designed specifically for exams 640-801, 640-607, 640-811, and 641-821. Sem Sim's virtual router offers a Cisco IOS simulator with support for over 200 IOS commands. Additionally, Sem Sim's router simulator offers users more than 30 tutorials designed to help you pass the certification exams. Sem Sim also offers 6 different practical router simulation scenarios to help gauge your knowledge and proficiency in with routing concepts. A test mode is available that provides a skill assessment, and a detailed study plan to speed up sudy times and improve test scores. Additionally, Sem Sim gives you 70 plus flash card based CCNA practice questions that help build your knowledge of the IOS commands.

V-Lab

V-Lab offers a free online router lab simulation tool. The tool is not as full featured as some others but it is free. Additionally you will need to schedule lab time, so access is not always available. V- Lab does however offer several great resources for learning including several very well documented scenarios. V-Lab is certainly worth a try just to get a feel for working in the IOS and learning some basic commands.

Sybex CCNA Virtual Lab, Titanium Edition

If you want a more structured lab experience, Sybex's CCNA Virtual Lab, Titanium Edition is your tool. The book and software combination provides users with a tool that can create a simulated lab of up to four switches, three routers, and six hosts. The book contains a very thorough list of exercises to follow or you can just experiment with the lab. The virtual lab offers access configuration consoles for network devices, including Cisco routers 2621,1900, 2950, and 3550 Cisco switches, and boasts an impressive 470 Cisco commands. There is also a great tool for testing your newly acquired skills called Net Assessment. Net Assessment, a tool for generating and evaluating problem-solving scenarios can create scenarios for you to troubleshoot.

NetSim® - Network Simulation Software

Boson offers a router simulator, NetSim. NetSim offers two different certification-focused versions NetSim for CCNA 7.0 Preview and NetSim for CCNP 7.0. NetSim for CCNA 7.0 Preview offers users a Network Designer tool that supports 47 different router and switch types and as many as 200 devices per network. NetSim's Virtual Packet Technology provides software-created packets that are routed and switched through the simulated network. With NetSim you can populate the WAN slots in the virtual routers with a broad range of Network Modules. It also allows you to configure your own ISDN and Frame Relay switch mappings and supports IPv6 addressing. You will also find CCNA-specific lab exercises that cover the skill set you will need to prepare for the CCNA exam.

CertExams.com - Network Simulator with Designer

CertExams.com offers free router lab software. The Network Simulator with Designer provides users with a drag and drop feature for inserting devices and connectors into their virtual network. Simulations for Cisco IOS routers (2501/2503) or switches (1900, 2950) are included in the package. Additionally the Network Simulator offers support for short form commands so you can type short form commands in the IOS simulator just as you can in the actual router and/or switch. Laboratory exercises are included for many CCNA test functions.

MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA

The 600 pound gorilla in the Virtual Router market is MIMIC. MIMIC's Virtual Lab software is used by many companies for testing and planning difficult network environments. It is even said Cisco uses it for development. MIMIC offers several products and we will look at the product geared towards CCNA certification preparation, MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA.

MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA comes in two versions: MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA and MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA Plus. Both products share the following features:

• Ability to build a network of 7 devices
• Simulation of various Cisco Routers (2620, 3640 and 7206)
• Simulation of various Cisco Switches (2950, 3550 (2) and 6500)
• A Robust set of IOS Commands
• The ability to simulate LAN, WAN, ISDN and serial links
• Reconfigure the lab any way you like
• Support for the following protocols
  • Telnet
  • Cisco IOS
  • SNMPv1
  • SNMPv2
  • SNMPv3
  • TFTP
  • SYSLOG

There is also a wealth of tutorials included in both version to help you get certified.

The plus version is a fully networked virtual lab and also offers the following features:

Fully connected to your network

SNMP support

SYSLOG Support

You can Telnet in to any device from any remote machine.

You can discover and manage the lab devices using Cisco Network Management applications such as CiscoWorks, CiscoWorks 2000, CiscoView and CEMF (CDM, GSR Manager).

All the changes done using IOS are visible via management applications.

Each of these tools can help you get certified. Whether you choose a free tool or the 600 pound gorilla, you will need practice with the IOS to get certified and a virtual lab is much cheaper than buying several routers. Almost all of these tools have free demos available, so give each one a spin and choose the tool that is right for you.

It should be no surprise that a company in a sunny area such as Florida first came up with the idea for solar-powered wireless routers long before a company in Seattle or the Northeast would, but Solis Energy plans to market the new devices. Environmentalists may harp on the "green" feature of the product but for those who want to be wireless or where wires do not exist the products have a distinct advantage over current technologies which need to be directly wired to a network, the solar routers are wireless eliminating the need for extra chords.

State governments and municipalities look towards the new technology as a way to reduce greenhouse gases, but the Solis routers may also help to restore communications after an earthquake or similar natural disaster. The panels which power the router are similar to other solar powered devices. Photosensitive panels are placed over batteries. The panels generate an electric charge which powers that batteries and the batteries in turn power the device. The array of panels used to power does store more power than the router will require while the device is basking in the sunlight, but as sunlight is not available all the time, the remaining panels are used to store electricity to power the routers until solar energy can once again be used as a power source.

Solis has not made the costs for the new unit available to the public. A spokesperson for the company says having one of their technicians install these into an area will be significantly less than having an electrician come out to install a solar panel in a house. (Houses, typically, are already wired to the electric grid.) It may be a while before the average consumer sees these devices on the market and in many areas, it simply may not be practical to install them. It is more likely they will make their way into the hands of state and local governments first until the price drops low enough for the average consumer to afford one. Does anyone wonder if someone in Holland is working on wind powered wireless devices?