There is a lot of network simulation software available online and we can choice any one of them to practice our networking skills. Network simulation software not only used for practicing also we use it to build a demo design and to show how the network will work. Most of the network simulators are building by the different companies who used to develop network devices. Among all those companies Cisco is one of the most leading companies here.
Why I am introducing this software! Let’s know the reasons:
- Can provide almost every kind of devices on a soft form.
- Can give us the freedom to create and delete without costing so much money.
- Configuration is similar to real life configuration.
- Most of the software gives us the freedom to just drag and drop facilities.
Well we may get some other facilities on different software. But the above are kind of common facilities in network simulating software.
Let’s know about some common network simulation software.
- Graphical Network System 3 (GNS3)
- Packet Tracer
- PRTG
- Concept Draw PRD – Design
- Network simulator 2
Let me describe a little about these above software. First these all have the common use as network simulators so we can create, delete and configure different networking devices here.
Now Graphical Network system 3 (GNS3) is one of the popular software among the new generation students and network administrators because it is easy to create and edit. Also we can see the packet transfer on its graphical mode. Another feature of this software is that it can create connections with virtual machines through virtual interface which can give us a far better experience of a full grade enterprise network.
Packet tracer is the most popular software in networking sector, because this is developed by Cisco itself. Not only is that the major reason to become the most popular software in networking field. It also provides graphical interface for adding different modules to the main device. It gives you the full freedom to configure as you would do on a real device. Another reason of its popularity is that every CCNA or any Cisco course holder has to use this software at least once in his life.
Paessler Router Traffic Grapher (PRTG) is a network monitoring software. But it also use to monitor the network using graphical interface. Also we can see the activity of the network using log. So that we can find issues within the network performance and make its performance better.
Concept Draw PDR is software used by different organizations to show the flow of the network and make a clear concept of the network. Here we can design the infrastructure and the traffic flow of the network. This gives a network administrator a grasp view of the network. The infrastructure is self explanatory that a new network administrator can easily understand the physical and logical infrastructure of the network.
Network simulator 2 (NS2) is a very useful tool for network administrators. It can simulate live traffic of a network and it can give a summary of the TCP traffic, routing and protocol based transactions of a network to network administrator. This simulation software can help a network administrator to get a very basic traffic summary and the logs to get a better performance from the network.
