Router Simulator

[Bob George]

Raymond Cantwell wrote:

> I was wondering if anybody new where i could get a Cisco router 
> simulator that ran under Linux. I have one for my wifes M$ box but, 
> need one for my linux box so i can use it outside of the house. 

I'm not sure about simulators, but you can make your Linux box into a 
live router using Zebra. Zebra uses a very Cisco-like interface. Me and 
some pals hooked up our home systems via Zebra to create the OpenWISP 
(Worldwide Internet Simulation Project) -- a grandiose name for our 
little distributed routing lab. I had my Linux box and five routers, 
another guy had a Cisco router and another only a Linux box. We were 
able to set up some sophisticated BGP routing scenarios that helped me 
ace that portion of the CCNP exams.

If you have a handful of Linux boxen, or even VMware, Zebra can help add 
complexity to your routing scenarios. What's more, it's the "real 
thing", so you wind up with more of an idea of the "real world" than 
with many simulators. BGP wasn't really interesting until we had 7 or 8 
routers and a few ASen going. You can easily miss the finer points of 
route redistribution with only 2 or 3 routers.

I mentioned my free router pod (http://lab.ttlexceeded.com:8201) in a 
separate message to Derek in this thread.

- Bob