Week 1 - Introduction to Cisco Packet tracer

What is my blog going to cover?
In this blog I am going to discuss in detail all features and uses of Cisco packet tracer along with the benefits and disadvantages of the program. Hopefully this blog can teach you something new and help you get the hang of and use packet tracer.
What is packet tracer ?





Packet Tracer is a cross-platform visual simulation tool designed by Cisco Systems that allows users to create network typologies and imitate modern computer networks. The software allows users to simulate the configuration of Cisco routers and switches using a simulated command line interface. It is very useful when studying networking which I am doing as a module for part of my college degree in Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ). Packet tracer is very complicated looking but as soon as you start to use the program it becomes very clear that in fact the program is actually quite easy to use.

 I am just going to quickly cover the beneficial and advantage side of using this program in college or in the work place for education and networking purposes.
Advantage of Packet Tracer in a learning environment.
Firstly I am going to cover the advantages of the program in a learning environment like a school or university. The first advantage is the user interface of the program is very simple and easy to navigate. 20 minutes of messing around with the program and you will automatically have a good feeling for how it works already. This is good because it means even children at a young age like 10 or 12 could get the hang of it and the younger you start the better you become and with the world moving so fast in the technology department this is only a benefit to future opportunities for the children.
Secondly the program is very useful in an educational sense with it being provided for free by Cisco along with a free course to attend which covers all the basics of the program in a manual on their website. With the program being updated constantly it is clear that Cisco are trying to provide a service to the people to help them to learn about networking and have no problem doing it for free for them.
Lastly I find the program is highly informative with all the information being available at your finger tips and it really gives you a good visual representation of networks that we all might never see as many of the connections are wiring are hidden away from the eye as sometimes they can be become eye sores. The visual representations can really help students to understand how their networks act and how different errors and problems and shows where packets are lost through the simulation mode function in the program.
Overall.

Overall I think that the program is very useful and informative and is a very useful program ti have access to in college or school when studying networking and overall I think the service that Cisco are providing is very vital to student of networking background and I think the continued support of the company show they have enough people using it and enough interest in it.

Packet Tracer Home screen
Above is a picture of the homepage of packet tracer. At the end of these blog post I hope to have helped you to understand how to use this program and also how to make visual representations of networks using the program. It seems very complicated but trust me it really is not as hard as you now think it is.
Located at the top of the screen are these buttons. These buttons are fairly self explanatory and the icons are very similar to many other programs such as new file, save , save as , undo , forward, zoom and copy. One the mouse is held over these buttons they give you the name of what they are.
Summary.
Take two things from this first post if anything and that is 1. This program is very easy to use and although it looks very complicated now it isn’t and 2. The top bar is basically the same as many other programs and is a good place to start with your knowledge of the homepage.
Next post.
In the post I will give a breakdown of how to connect two systems using switches. Thank you for reading and hopefully this is helping you.

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