how to start cisco lab

I'm not sure about that. Chris started a marvelous thing here with the free lab, and that link takes me to a lab which will cost $41 every month. Also noticed you feature on that site so, your advise sounds more like an advert to me. So I prefer to wait for Chris.

The word "free" is often used interestingly. Free Delivery (with a purchase that the free delivery cost is worked into). Dynamips may be considered "free" if your computer hardware and your time are worth zero and you are OK being bound by the restrictions of the license. People tell me about their "free" internet access that was paid for by a grant from taxpayers.

$41/mo for up to 360 hours of access works out to about US$0.11/hr about the cost of a kilowatt/hr from the electric utility. So in that case you're being asked to pay for the electricity used by the cisco lab, your internet connection and consider your time $0/hr. What a money making commercial enterprise.

"Free" anything in my humble opinion is simply marketing.

I am sure you reserve the right to protect your 'enterprise'. It's interesting how you managed to come up with cost benefit analysis showing the statistics in your favour. Also looking at your post count, I would remain sceptical. Either way, I would prefer to wait for the lab over here.
As far as this conversation (i.e. chain of posts) is concerned, it is over.

Honestly to me $41 seems a bit steep to just get a connection to a lab. Don't get me wrong jmalacko I see nothing wrong with what your doing but from a consumer point of view I would personally take that $41 and just buy hardware to go along with the free simulators I already have.

I'm a little confused on why your bashing free simulators. When someone says they are "free" they mean "free of monetary cost".

GNS3 www.gns3.net/

Does not cost you a single cent. Yes you have to agree to their license but it's a basic GNU licence that more or less says you won't take their code and pawn it off as your own or use it in a commercial endeavor without first getting permission from the authors.

The only thing with GNS3 is that it does not come with free flashes so you have to find those your self.

Personally I like to use packet tracer because it's free and it comes with built-in flash for many models.

While waiting for the Cisco lab to come back on-line you may want to take a look at
lab.ghoudakis.com for your Cisco lab needs. This lab will even run IOS 15.

Something about that site makes me feel like it's not very trustworthy...

Honestly to me $41 seems a bit steep to just get a connection to a lab. Don't get me wrong jmalacko I see nothing wrong with what your doing but from a consumer point of view I would personally take that $41 and just buy hardware to go along with the free simulators I already have.

I'm a little confused on why your bashing free simulators. When someone says they are "free" they mean "free of monetary cost".

GNS3 www.gns3.net/

Does not cost you a single cent. Yes you have to agree to their license but it's a basic GNU licence that more or less says you won't take their code and pawn it off as your own or use it in a commercial endeavr without first getting permission from the authors.

The only thing with GNS3 is that it does not come with free flashes so you have to find those your self.

Personally I like to use packet tracer because it's free and it comes with built-in flash for many models.

That lab is certainly not for everyone and if you value your time at $0, its free to take a look at what's available. Perhaps I see things a bit differently? To my way of thinking; nothing is free of monetary cost. Its obvious we disagree on that point.

I didn't think I was bashing "free" simulators. I use them and think they are useful. Again my perspective here is how I value my time. Some tasks are much more efficient to use a simulator to work on others simply are not and my belief is in some instances it is better spent in a non-simulated environment. Forgive me that I did a poor job of making that clear. Also I'm not clear on what your statement with respect to Cisco IO images was meant to mean; but I chose to believe you do not mean theft is a honorable means of making something free of monetary cost. I wasn't exclusively focused on "free of monetary cost". The point I obviously failed to make is that "free" is a very subjective term and that the simulators that we speak of are not free of license agreement.

The question of whether or not anyone thinks I'm trustworthy from a monetary perspective is irrelevant from my perspective because payment is made via PayPal which guarantees your satisfaction. Though perhaps you don't think PayPal is trustworthy either which would be a different matter.

In short I respect that many have different view points and valuations than my own. As a gesture of good will for the misunderstandings I'm happy to make the lab.ghoudakis.com free of monetary charge to anyone writing in this thread.

As a gesture of good will for the misunderstandings I'm happy to make the lab.ghoudakis.com free of monetary charge to anyone writing in this thread.

Things are starting to get more interesting now!!