Boson Netsim Tshoot Review

I seen this product and decided to give it a go. You get 3 exams each with around 8 questions and question 9 is the troubleshooting portion. You launch questions 9 and it has 12 trouble tickets each with 3 question a piece. So lets get started.

Installation was the usual purchase, download and verification. I installed it on windows 7 inside VMware on a MacBook Pro with no problems. For the review I will only go over 1 of the exams I took. The first 8 questions were about the covered exam topics as far as what the console errors mean, some NTP, and a few drag and drops that should be pretty easy for most engineers. Now onto the SIMs

When you launch the T/S portion the topology is very similar to the current Tshoot Topology that you have access to on cisco's website. You have several Vlans and a frame switch for layer 2. OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, are thrown in there for layer 3 all make there appearances for layer 3. IPV6, as well as Nat, HSRP, are well represented.

So when I 1st got to the sims I was upset that a lot of commands that I have become use to aren't' represented like using the | commands to get to what you really need. Traceroute seems to be hit or miss depending on the device and sim. Also I did get a lot of errors when I 1st purchased the test. Through a lot of the updates those seem to have been Ironed out. The trouble ticket themselves are very good. You get the report of what the problem should be and you use your knowledge of Routing and switching and IOS to find the problem. What I find the best about this setup is getting down a good T/S methods. I have only taken one of the exams, but I assault each ticket the same way. I start with the PC. Check setting and move on. If the trace route is working I go as far as I can or work my way back from the last device that has connectivity. I do the basic checking of layer 1 move up to 2 and onto 3. Using the top down method here really doesn't work since we have no access to the higher levels so I find bottom up the be the way to go. Also no real layer 1 issues found in my tickets so far, but that could change in other exams.


Over all would I purchase this? Yes I do recommend it cause it gets you familiar with how to take on each problem. A structured approach is the best way to solve this beast. With that knowledge ingrained in your head you should be able to do pretty well on the exam even possible answer some questions correctly without true knowledge of the real problem.