FREE CCNA Simulations - www.9tut.com

The website www.9tut.com was recommended to us in College - especially for its treatment of  the Router Simulations, Simlets and Testlets that are likely to come up in the CCNA exam. It has a few other very useful features as well. However what it calls the CCNA Lab Sim section is what is likely to interest most students
http://www.9tut.com/category/ccna-lab-sim

This section comprises
CCNA VTP SIM Question
CCNA Access List SIM
CCNA Access List SIM 2
CCNA NAT SIM Question 1
CCNA NAT SIM Question 2
CCNA EIGRP Lab Question
CCNA Configuration Question
 (including interface addressing, passwords and routing protocol)
CCNA Implimentation SIM
(dragging device icons - Switch or Router-, cables and IP addresses  to the appropriate position on the given graphic)
CCNA Drag and Drop SIM
(Complete the network topology shown in the graphic by dragging the labels with the appropriate router types, interface types, and IP addresses to the graphic)

Note that the simulations are not live - you can only read them - but they are still very useful. Of course you can practise them on CISCO Packet Tracer if you have it - or do the Packet Tracer exercises by Dr Jalal Raissi that I mentioned in my previous post:http://www.itucator.com/ttt/PTSimlets.htm

Apart from the Simulations, 9tut.com has hundreds of questions divided up into dozens of categories.
EXAM TIP (1)
This comes from my use of the how2pass.com exam preparation package (which has "live" simulations similar to those in the CCNA exam) but it should also apply to 9tut.com. I noticed that how2passs.com had a limited number of exam questions under the categories "WLAN - Wireless" and "Security" - a total of about 20 each so I reviewed these shortly before taking the CCNA. About 4 came up so it was a productive last minute review session! 

9tut.com has a category for "Wireless" questions - only 12 of themhttp://www.9tut.com/ccna-wireless
AND a category for "Security Questions" - only 11
http://www.9tut.com/ccna-security-questions

Unlike how2pass.com 9tut.com has a separate category for "IPv6 Questions" - only 8 of them
http://www.9tut.com/ccna-ipv6
You are bound to get a few IPv6 questions in the exam and there seems to be a limited database of possible questions at present, although it is bound to get larger as IPv6 addressing becomes more prominent in the real world.

Questions in these 3 categories - Wireless, Security and IPv6 addressing - can earn you valuable marks and also can be completed at great speed - IF you are familiar with a few basic terms and concepts. If you aren't, it's very difficult to bluff!

Exam Tip (2)
Also pay attention to the Drag and Drop questions. There are five sections on the 9tut.com website that deal with such questions - about 27 questions and answers in all. You are sure to get a couple of these in the exam. Just as important, by studying the answers you will be reviewing important parts of the course and doing it from a different angle to studying texts or even doing Packet Tracer simulations. FOR EXAMPLE I thought I knew the basic configuration commands for Switch and Router off by heart. However when I first came across question 2 in the CCNA-Drag and Drop 1 section
http://www.9tut.com/ccna-drag-and-drop-questions
i was a little put out by the wording.

FREE CCNA Simulations - "CCNA Exam Questions Explained"

There is a very useful Blog called "CCNA Exam Questions Explained" that contains several Router Simulations, Simlets and Testlets in text format i.e. you can see a screenshot of the exam scenario and read the steps you need to take to solve the problem but you can't actually do it live.
http://testinside.blogspot.ie/

HOWEVER they seem to be have a connection with the CISCO Packet Tracer Simulations developed by Dr. Jalal Raissi at www.itucator.com/ttt/PTSimlets.htm
(see my previous post). Thus if you haven't the time or patience to work through Dr Raissa's Simlets (or don't have Packet Tracer), you can find a quick cheat sheet and answer at the Testinside Blog. The following Testinside answers correspond to Dr Raissa's work

EIGRP - SIM (New)
http://testinside.blogspot.ie/2008/10/eigrp-sim-new.html

Router Simulation - ACL SIM
http://testinside.blogspot.ie/2007/04/ccna-acl-sim.html

CCNA 640-802 NAT SIM
http://testinside.blogspot.ie/2007/11/ccna-640-802-nat-sim.html

RIP v2 SIM (New)
http://testinside.blogspot.ie/2008/08/rip-v2-sim-new.html

Topology Based Lab
 http://testinside.blogspot.ie/2007/11/topology-based-lab.html

Topology Question 2
 http://testinside.blogspot.ie/2007/12/hotspot-2-topology-question.html
(This a Frame Relay question - useful for reviewing that topic)

VTP SIM
 http://testinside.blogspot.ie/2007/04/vtp-sim.html
(I think this counts as a "Testlet" rather than a Simlet. There are answers to 9 possible questions; you  are likely to get 5 in the CCNA exam.)

There does not seem to be a  Testinside "cheat sheet" corresponding to Dr Raissa's "Basic Security Simlet" re the setting of passwords on Routers and Switches i.e. Enable passwords, Console and Telnet passwords and the Switchport-port-security commands. However the instructions given with this particular Packet Tracer activity are largely self-explanatory. See the first Packet Tracer in
www.itucator.com/ttt/PTSimlets.htm                

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!