CCNA image

[mammador]

I'm planning on doing a CCNA soon, but is the only place to get an image file from Cisco itself?

 

[Ghiedo27]

I'm assuming you mean an IOS image for GNS3? Then yes, official way to own a copy is to buy it from cisco. Unfortunately, that's expensive. Really expensive. And a large chunk of that expense is due to service agreements that come with it. Regarding why they haven't made copies to study with yet:

A customer buys mostly unauthorized used gear, running un-paid for IOS images, plus a few legit routers/IOS's with a maintenance contract. When the unauthorized gear breaks, the maintenance contract on the small number of legit devices is used used to get TAC help, IOS upgrades, and even in some cases, replacement hardware.

So apparently, as long as you aren't using a mixture of unofficial and official IOS copies to get extra support from Cisco, it doesn't seem like you're breaking the spirit of their licensing agreements to use an ios copy from, say, a cheap router on ebay (copy flash tftp etc).

 

[jlfirehawk]

TAC has always been like that as long as you have a support contract for any device they will allow you to open a case for another device even when that support contract was purchased for another device all together.

 

[Ghiedo27]

It's probably easier to support people under a support contract without putting them in a position where they will lie to you about what's going on. I bet they still want to limit how easy it is for people to do.

 

[mammador]

I'm assuming you mean an IOS image for GNS3? Then yes, official way to own a copy is to buy it from cisco. Unfortunately, that's expensive. Really expensive. And a large chunk of that expense is due to service agreements that come with it. Regarding why they haven't made copies to study with yet:
So apparently, as long as you aren't using a mixture of unofficial and official IOS copies to get extra support from Cisco, it doesn't seem like you're breaking the spirit of their licensing agreements to use an ios copy from, say, a cheap router on ebay (copy flash tftp etc).

How much is the image? I can't really afford second hand gear at the moment.

 

[xSauronx]

shame they dont give packet tracer away unless you are in the cisco academy as a teacher or student or some such. not really the same as working on actual gear but its close enough to give a beginner a very good idea of how some things work and how to do a number of tasks

 

[Ghiedo27]

How much is the image? I can't really afford second hand gear at the moment.

Unfortunately, you can't just buy an IOS image. you have to buy a support package for a product that gives you access to updated images among other things. And that's much, much more expensive than ebay routers. I haven't found an exact price tag, but I've seen $1,000 thrown around as an approximation.

Pretty much Cisco makes it a pita to get a hold of a copy to learn with. So unless you're already working at a place where beg and borrow are options you're down to steal. :|

The upside is that you don't really need to spend time on a simulator to pass. Practice tests were, at least for me, way more helpful than the time I spent playing around with routing protocols over frame relay and such. So if it comes down to $35 on an ebay router or $35 on the Cisco press books I would go with the books.