Cisco Blog

One thing I've wondered, and I hope someone has an answer... How does GNS3 stack up to DYNAMIPS? Should I continue with DYNAMIPS or move to GNS3 ?

I believe GNS3 is more or less a graphical front end for DYNAMIPS

been working with Dynamips long time ago, its great tool, GNS3 as Shaun said is not nothing but graphical front end for Dynamips, rather than using a text file to creat your lab, you can use GNS3 to do the same job.

In hacki forum, for the last 18 months i managed to creat lots of labs, including Internetwork Expert CCIE R&S Lab, Internetwork Expert CCIE SP Lab, CCNA Labs, CCNP, Labs, and finally i managed to creat the big one =====> CCIE Voice :)

With this CCIE Voice Lab, you can practice over 70% of the CCIE Lab requirements.

In this Lab, i used: VMware, VMware for CCME, IPCC and Unity, IP Blue Phone and Cisco IP Communicator.

Thanks for this great blog, thanks to Jeremy "you are the man :)"

PS: Jeremy, cant we post here?

Mutasem

Can you post the URL to your forum page which has all these Labs?

Or even better, direct links to the config files?

GSN3 user new version 3.4 I have installed GSN3 and Configure it with IOS image image also but while opening console it gives me a screen telnet to localhost ...... and goes off.
I am using it with Windows Xp please any one can suggest me what i should do to get the sconsole of the router in GSN3

Shaun, are you using a 2600 image? You'll have to unzip/unrar those first before you can use those.

Jeremy I know this is completely off topic but i could not find a way to ask you so i ill just post here and let you or a mod delete. I saw your write up on a "ideal ccna lab" what do you consider ideal for ccnp lab. I have read things like you must have atleast a 3560 or 3660 to test certain things and 1841 routers for some specific testing. Can you please let me know.
Thanks

@Shaun

Try using putty instead the cmd of win XP.

Go to Edit>Preferences and in terminal command put this in: start C:\putty -telnet %h %p (copy putty to c:\)

Heh

You guys are mis-reading who the posts originate from.

The persons name appears UNDER their post, not above!

:)

Hi there!
it's really a pleasure for me to see the name of the great man Jeremy ciora [If this is the right Guy?], who have made great contribution for the networking industry out there....after saying this i come up with one problem...i tried to install the topology "ie.routing.and.switching.topology.4.01" which i download it from the web site. i have used also the idlepc configuration to manage my pc processor capability...so if there is someone that can hep me to configure "gns3" for CCIE R&S lab format....Thank you in advance

Hello,
Can any one please tell me, how to optimize the GNS3. When i add four routers, my CPU usage reaches 100%. I have dual core 1.86 with 1GB ram.
Thanks

how to install the GNS3 on Windows Vista Home Edition....

Thanks A lot
Clarky

Guys I am having problem setting up GNS to work on my window Vista, can someone tell me how this can be done?

Guyz i heard about the Gns3 n i downloaded it for my ccna labs but i'm unable to see dat working in any order of my interest so please can sum1 guide me to help me out of this trouble if any1 can plz feel free to mail me there ok

when i telnet to router in GNS3 using vista sp1 i get the error message: windows cannot find the file specified.

please help at the earliest.

So, I just got GNS3 and VPCS working on Vista tonight. I thought I would try to share, since there look to be some recent posts from some with similar issues. Forgive the long post. ;)

After much searching, I found a link (http://www.sadikhov.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php?t120427.html). The thread is closed, so I couldn't post this there.

On it guessnz said, "Yeah. Technically, Vista has no compatibility issue with GNS3. It's just that they somehow removed built-in telnet client so that, without reconfiguring the default telnet client path and parameters, GNS3 users will not be able to connect to the routers. So the only thing that needs to be done is set the telnet path and you're good to go."

So that made me check to see if I had telnet installed - It looks like telnet is not installed by default on Vista - at least on 32-bit Home Premium version. So you will have to install it yourself. Do this by going to "Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features\".

On the menu to the left, click on "Turn Windows features on of off". Put a check in the box next to Telnet Client, and click OK.

If you're going to use VPCS, make sure you copy the cygwin1.dll from the VPCS distribution into the dynamips folder (where ever you may have installed it). Personally, I renamed the original file to cygwin1-orig.dll prior to moving anything so I could roll back if needed.

I also set everything to bind to 127.0.0.1 (not sure if that matters) and then started VPCS followed by GNS3. I set up a simple switching lab and was able to set up inter-vlan routing.

I hope this helps others that were experiencing my pain.

--Quick Review of GNS3--

This is a great study tool. It runs the actual Cisco IOS - unlike most "Simulators". So, there is full support (depending on how powerful your computer is).

The only thing that is missing (kind of) is a Catalyst Switching capabilty. The GNS3 devs say there is a lot of chips involved in the Cat hardware. It would be nice to see Cisco help out with some type of plugin or something - especially since most who use GNS3 are going for some type of Cisco Certs.

There is a work-around for the missing switching - some of the routers support a switch card. Its a little different, but works.

----
Quick shout to JD:
gigity! ;)

So, I just got GNS3 and VPCS working on Vista tonight. I thought I would try to share, since there look to be some recent posts from some with similar issues. Forgive the long post. ;)

After much searching, I found a link (http://www.sadikhov.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php?t120427.html). The thread is closed, so I couldn't post this there.

On it guessnz said, "Yeah. Technically, Vista has no compatibility issue with GNS3. It's just that they somehow removed built-in telnet client so that, without reconfiguring the default telnet client path and parameters, GNS3 users will not be able to connect to the routers. So the only thing that needs to be done is set the telnet path and you're good to go."

So that made me check to see if I had telnet installed - It looks like telnet is not installed by default on Vista - at least on 32-bit Home Premium version. So you will have to install it yourself. Do this by going to "Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features\".

On the menu to the left, click on "Turn Windows features on of off". Put a check in the box next to Telnet Client, and click OK.

If you're going to use VPCS, make sure you copy the cygwin1.dll from the VPCS distribution into the dynamips folder (where ever you may have installed it). Personally, I renamed the original file to cygwin1-orig.dll prior to moving anything so I could roll back if needed.

I also set everything to bind to 127.0.0.1 (not sure if that matters) and then started VPCS followed by GNS3. I set up a simple switching lab and was able to set up inter-vlan routing.

I hope this helps others that were experiencing my pain.

--Quick Review of GNS3--

This is a great study tool. It runs the actual Cisco IOS - unlike most "Simulators". So, there is full support (depending on how powerful your computer is).

The only thing that is missing (kind of) is a Catalyst Switching capabilty. The GNS3 devs say there is a lot of chips involved in the Cat hardware. It would be nice to see Cisco help out with some type of plugin or something - especially since most who use GNS3 are going for some type of Cisco Certs.

There is a work-around for the missing switching - some of the routers support a switch card. Its a little different, but works.

----
Quick shout to JD:
gigity! ;)

HI all,

Plz send GSN3 user new version 3.4 link for download. thnaks in advance

Nice from all answers above but one situation might not solve another.
After enabling all telnet client as well as server, I installed GNS3 in it's new folder from D drive. I RAN GNS3 as administrator, after I've added the ios from preferences I tried to test if it will pass, unfortunately vista (premium) pop a message saying:
dynamips-wxp.exe has stopped working
in details it showed:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: dynamips-wxp.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4711d9b9
Fault Module Name: NPPTools.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a7a6
Exception Code: c0000135
Exception Offset: 00009cac
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 9d13
Additional Information 2: 1abee00edb3fc1158f9ad6f44f0f6be8
Additional Information 3: 9d13
Additional Information 4: 1abee00edb3fc1158f9ad6f44f0f6be8

Then obviously from the test button it showed Failed to start Dynamips
If anyone got an idea, It will be grateful to have it forwarded and thanks in advance

Gracias por tu ayuda someguy, la verdad que me ayudo tu post!!!

Rohan, I got the same problem and it was oslved once I copied npptools.dll to c:\windows\system.
You can download it from here:
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?npptools