Rating: 
Summary: Great Practice, and how to back up your own copy of the disk
Review: I would recommend this to anyone who does not have access to real Routers. It was a great help to me and I know it can help you too. If you need to back up your copy, you have to convert it to an iso.img first,I recommend using blindread with the nibble option. This was the only program that would work. Then use cdrwin to burn the image back to cdrom. This works because I have done it , and the only reason I am telling everyone how to do it is because you are allowed buy Law to have one backup copy.
Rating: 
Summary: If you don't have access to a router, this is for you!
Review: I'm new to the IT world, and I've still never laid hands on a router, so I had to do a great deal of reading to pass the CCNA exam. Using the e-trainer supplemented my reading and familiarized me with IOS commands in a manner that just reading about them didn't. I really like the Network Visualizer feature. I passed the CCNA today, and one of my highest scores was on the IOS portion - that is due mainly to the e-trainer. After reading several books, I recommend this path to folks with limited experience who are pursuing the CCNA*: (1.) Myhre's book (CCNA Certification: Routing Basics...); (2a.) Lammle's study guide; (2b.) the e-trainer router simulator; (3.) Lammle's CCNA Exam Notes <* Note that this is in reference to CCNA1: 640-407. This test will be retired at the end of July 2000, so the new CCNA (640-507) may change this.> The e-trainer isn't perfect as I ran into some commands that weren't accepted, etc., but it does the job. I can comfortably give the e-trainer 5 stars. It's been invaluable to me as a person who doesn't have access to any network equipment.
Rating:
Summary: Good product / Great price
Review: If you are studying for the CCNA, this product is good. This router simulator gives you the basic concept and feel that a book cannot give. The even better thought for this product is that it is much cheaper than buying a lab to study on. There are a few features that can be worked on but keep in mind that this is the 1st edition. Overall, this product is good.
Rating:
Summary: A good tool for learning to configure routers
Review: If you don't happen to have access to a Cisco router (who does?) but do have access to a PC, this tool can simulate about 80% of router configuration prompts, and 100% of the ones that Cisco tests on. Router configuration and routing table organization is roughly half of the CCNA exam, so this can help greatly in preparing for thoses parts of the test.
Rating:
Summary: This will be useful til your job interview
Review: If you don't have access or can't play with the router at work, you will need this. There are about ten labs and questions to those labs. You can type in commands not specified in those lab(e.g the ones from Todd Lammle book or ExamCram book) even though not all the commands work. Especially, those for WAN because it is such a little tiny software that you can't expect advanced commands to work.This will be a lot helpful to you in practicing the commands rather than memorizing all the commands. I passed my CCNA on July 16 and I studied Todd Lammle book, ExamCram, THIS VIRTUAL LAB and nothing else. Even though this version of Virtual Lab came out before the old exam expires, it will still work for new exam(Of course, it is better to buy new version if the vendor comes up with one). With this lab, you can create access-lists and apply them to interfaces, can give all the basic(but important for the exam) commands, ping, telnet, trace the route, enable secret and password(including service-encryption command), and can create sub-interfaces for frame relay. Some of the commands like those for ISDN will be accepted when you type in but will do nothing. I read some reviews and saw that trace command doesn't work. The reason might be that there is no route known to the other router, back to the original router or some other different reasons. For me, it worked. Sometimes things won't work when you type in. That's what I felt when I did that for the first time. Later, I found out that I haven't set up things that are necessary for those commands to work. Good luck on your exam!
Rating: 
Summary: Good idea, but old information.
Review: In trying to follow along with the trainer, a professional CBT on the subject, and the book, I ran into problems with the trainer being set up with Version 5.x commands and the current versions are 11.x so, many of the commands just do not work. It's a great idea if they would just update the software. They should add some sample traffic and do a better job of providing a real-world simulation. It's a good alternative to 'no-hands-on', but it could be better.
Rating:
Summary: At least takes you a little away from being paper something
Review: No doubt you need hands-on to prepare for Exam 640-407. Practicing with the Command Line Interface is almost a totally different thing than reading about them in books. For all those who don't have the luxury of access to real routers, this lab is the closest you can get to the real thing.There are bugs and flaws in design. But if you want the real thing, you'll have to plunk down $2400 used or $4800 brand new. Unless you can be completely sure about your commitment to a CCNP pursuit, that's hardly justifiable. After all, commands are not very heavy in 640-407, and this book prepares you well for those that do show up. To prepare for 640-507, you may want to consider RouterSim 2.0, which is supposed to include more on switches, WAN setup, etc. These are what I found not working in this lab: 1. Router hostnames behave erratically when you use telnet and cdp. 2. Access lists just don't work for me. 3. The IGRP administrative distance is wrong and probably just copied over from RIP because only one type of routes can be shown at a time, even if you enable both. MCSE, MCP+I, CNA, CCNA
Rating: 
Summary: Not for Tinkering...
Review: OK, so maybe if you've never worked in the computer industry before this might be usefull. The context sensitive help dosen't work, most of the commands don't work, and the cute little '^' doesn't show up when you make a syntax error. I bought this product to learn how to configure a router. That's not what it's for. It seems to be designed for the singular goal of learning some of the commands tested on the CCNA. I haven't tried anything that's not in the study guide by Lammle, and most if it does not work. You can do basic interface config, and you can set some of the passwords. Most of the show commands work, that's about it. The equipment is setup in a fixed network that can not be modified. I appreciate the difficulty of setting a simulator like this up, but for seventy bucks, it should have been a whole lot better. Save your money and find a lab that will let you play with the real thing for a few hours. The frustration level from typing in commands directly from the book and getting a meaningless generic error message is quite hard to describe. But it did inspire me to write my first product review ever.
Rating:
Summary: NOT WORTH THE MONEY
Review: Purchased software to help study for exam. Built in labs do not work. Commands don't work, tried to add bandwidth 56 to Serial 0 port and it added bandwidth to all interfaces. Then tried to add clock rate 56000 to Serial 0 and got an error message stating you could only enter this command on a DCE interface. I thought that is what Serial 0 was. Called to get tech support from Sybex and they said my trouble had been referred to the developer. This was 5 months ago and still have heard nothing from Sybex or the developer. I send them 1 email every week and still nothing. ...
Rating:
Summary: VERY over-rated
Review: Soooo many commands aren't supported. Pretty buggy, too. Now, the study guide by Lammle was excellent(good enough to help me pass), but the sim is pretty cheesy.
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