How2Pass CCNA Simulations and Labs

The www.how2pass.com website has the best CCNA Labs and exam Simulations  that I have come across. It is a Pay website but worth it.

There are 8 interactive Hands-On Labs i.e.

Hands-on Lab # 1: Connecting to a Router in CCNA/ICND Exam Simulations

Hands-on Lab # 2: Exploring Router Command Modes

Hands-on Lab # 3: Gathering Basic Router Information

Hands-on Lab # 4: Setting Passwords

Hands-on Lab # 5: Basic Router Configurations

Hands-on Lab # 6: Configuring RIP Routing

Hands-on Lab # 7: Configuring NAT Overloading/PAT

Hands-on Lab # 8: Basic switch configuration and VTP

There are also 18 Router Simulations/Simlets/Testlets  i.e.

Troubleshoot OSPF - Router Simulation

Configure OSPF - Router Simulation
OSPF Testlet

Switch Simlet - Identify VLAN and STP features
Troubleshoot EIGRP - Router Simulation

Access Control List - Router Simulation

Testlet 1 - Identify the Path a Packet Takes in a Network

Testlet 2 - Identify the Path a Packet Takes in a Network

Testlet 3 - Identify the Path a Packet Takes in a Network

Complete Topology and Configure Passwords - Router Simulation
Static and RIP Routing - Testlet
Testlet - Identify STP Features

Use of Various SHOW Commands - Simlet
Complete Network Topology - Simlet
Frame Relay - Testlet
Basic Router Configurations - Router Simulation
DHCP - Testlet
Troubleshoot Ping - Access List - Simlet

Note: The NAT Sim and VTP Sim are available in Hands-On Labs section, LAB# 7, 8.

Apart from the Simulations and Labs there are a total of about 920 questions and Answers (many with detailed explanations), devided into 11 sections and a a final random test on all exam topics.

Any Issues/Problems with How2Pass.com?

(a) Test # 07 deals with "Wireless LAN (WLAN)" and has 22 questions and Test # 08 has 12 questions on "Security Threats". No problem here as I got about 4 questions out of these 32 in my third (successful) CCNA exam. Obviously there is a fairly small database of possible questions. HOWEVER I also got a number of questions on IPV6. There also seems to be a small database of possible questions on this topic but How2Pass divides these between two large databases i.e. Test # 04 on "Implement IP Addressing and IP Services" (116 questions) and Test # 12 a miscellaneous series of 93 "Recently Added/Modified Questions".  There is scope for a separate test on IPOv6 questions alone. (Moreover while the number of possible IPv6 questions may be limited, they are more complex than the WLAN and Security questions).

(b) You are sure to get a few "Drag and Drop" type questions in the exam. How2Pass does have these but again they are divided between various Tests according to subject matter. It would be useful to have these questions in a separate category also. Like the three categories mentioned in (a) above, the database of possible Drag and Drop questions seems to be fairly small.

FREE Equivalent of www.how2pass.com ??

The how2pass.com test engine costs $49.99 for 60 days. For those who don't have the cash OR a credit card, many of my other posts contain details of sites where you can get  free CCNA questions, Answers and the TEXTS of Router Simulations, Simlets and Testlets. The main one that was recommended to us in College is www.9tut.com . I found that the Simulations in 9tut were very relevant to the (3) CCNA exams that I did.
See in particular my post

http://ccnaexam4dummies.blogspot.ie/2012/07/free-ccna-router-simulations-www9tutcom.html

Note that the 9tut.com site has separate sections on WLAN, Security, IPv6 and Drag and Drop questions! There are in fact 27 of the latter divided into 5 parts. However the section on IPv6 has only 8 questions which is not enough.

What is a CCNA Router Simulation? a Simlet? a Testlet?

You will probably get one of each of these in the CCNA exam. According to the How2Pass.com exam guide (Members Area):

Type of Questions

• Router/Switch Simulations
  • Assign appropriate IP addresses to the router interfaces, as per given subnetting requirements, enable RIPv2.
  • Troubleshoot existing EIGRP network, when a newly added router does not communicate with existing routers.
  • Configure passwords for Console, Telnet (vty lines) and Privileged EXEC mode.
  • Configure NAT on a router to provide Internet access to a group of hosts on the internal LAN. A hands-on lab for this sim has already been added.
  • Configure and apply an Access Control List to satisfy given requirements.
  • Configure basic switch configuration, default gateway, and VTP.
• Simlet
  • You have to use the information given in a network topology and the available show commands in user EXEC mode on a router/switch, and answer 3 to 5 multiple-choice questions.
• Testlet
  • It is slightly different in format from the Simlet. You are provided with a scenario statement and/or a command output and/or a network topology only. You have to answer multiple questions about this scenario. No command prompt is provided.

FREE CCNA Network Simulations - Dr Jalal Raissi

I found the network simulations developed by Dr. Jalal Raissi of DeVry University, Georgia to be very useful - especially as he uses Cisco Packet Tracer which is the simulator used in my college course.  I assume you can get it from Cisco and in any case the text of Dr Raissi's simulations are also available so you can read them if you can't replicate them. His website is
www.itucator.com/ttt/PTSimlets.htm

There are seven simulations and they are definitely the kind of things you are likely to get in the exam i.e.

CCNA 640-802 Basic Security Simlet
CCNA 640-802 EIGRP Simlet
CCNA 640-802 Extended ACL Simlet
CCNA 640-802 NAT Smlet
CCNA 640-802 RIPv2 Simlet
CCNA 640-802 Topology Simlet
CCNA 640-802 VTP Simlet

The introduction says five network simulations not seven. This may be out of date but I found I could not open one or two of them.  However the text of all seven is available at another website "CCNA Exam Questions Explained" run by Testinside.
http://testinside.blogspot.ie/

CCNA Exam Pay Site How2pass.com

A couple of pay sites were recommended to us but the only one that seems to have the Router Simulations is www.how2pass.com 

You purchase a 60 day service for $49 and if you need to extend it you can get another 60 days for $31 - provided you apply before the expiry of your initial subscription.

They have a total of 920 questions but the chief attraction from my point of view were (and I quote from the site) the 

CCNA Hands-on LabsStep by step instructions, hints, and lets you input the commands to complete the given configuration problem. It can auto-play any/all steps or you may complete the configuration yourself.

 CCNA Challenge LabsExam-like Challenge questions, allow you to configure/troubleshoot the given router. These are the vital ones for those of us who are really afraid of the simulations in the CCNA exam. 


The whole thing is divided into 13 parts with Part 11 being the Labs/Simulations, Part 12 being recently added questions (93 of them) and Part 13 being a random test of all topics under exam-type conditions. Apart from the last part, the correct answer is provided for all questions and there is usually an explanation - often quite detailed.


And NO they are not paying me for this advert! In fact I would be interested to know about  other websites where you can work through the simulations in the same way.

VERY Useful Website www.9tut.com

The best FREE website I found for Router Simulations etc is www.9tut.com

This presents all of the Router Simulations, Simlets and Testlets that you are likely to get in the exam. What it gives you is a screenshot of the exam scenario and a text-based explanation of the answer. While this is great you don't actually get the opportunity to DO the simulation as in the exam - you just read about it.

The most relevant questions for the current exam seem to be the two about Access Lists (especially for the main Router Simulation), the EIGRP question (for the Simlet) and the VTP question for the Testlet. The site has also two NAT (network address translation) questions and although they didn't come up in my exams, NAT is closely related to Access Lists and could be a likely candidate in the near future.

www.9tut.com also advises you to Practise Real CCNA Labs with Packet Tracer Simulator. This is the simulator we used in college and my downfall was not making enough use of it. It came as part of our Cisco CCNA Discovery course but you can probably get it direct from Cisco. 

CCNA Exam for Dummies

I passed the CCNA recently on my third attempt. My first try saw me get 770 points approx, next 810 and finally just over 900. I have a pretty good idea now where I went wrong initially and hopefully my experience can be of help to others. My main problem was with the Router Simulation questions and to a lesser extent  the  Simlet and the Testlet questions. There seems to be one of each type in every exam ( a total of 3) and you must do well on these in order to pass.

On my first attempt I spent so much time on the Router Simulation (about Access Lists) that I hadn't time to finish the exam. Second time round I made the opposite mistake, rushed this question and made a silly mistake that cost me the exam (I came within about 1% of passing and had several minutes to spare at the end but what good is that?). Third time was lucky - except luck had nothing to do with it!

In this Blog I will  concentrate mainly on the Simulation type questions but pass on other tips as well. I will be referring you to FREE sites and one or two pay-sites that I found very useful. Later hopefully I will produce some original material myself but to begin with, I'd like to highlight the sites that helped me to succeed.

Incidentally I am an (early) retired Government worker. I had intended to do a different -and much easier- IT course but it wasn't available and the CCNA seemed to be the closest I could get. Computers are NOT my strong point and if I can pass, then almost anyone can!