184 - 238 CCNA 2: Routers and Routing Basics v3.1 Instructor Guide – Appendix B
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B.2.3 NETLAB
Figure 1: NETLAB
Many educators are interested in remote access to shared lab equipment to give students
more access to hands-on experiences. Remote access technologies can be used in courses
such as the CCNA, CCNP, and sponsored curriculum to help lower student-to-equipment
ratios in distance-learning situations. These technologies are currently fully implemented only
for the CCNA courses. This course will examine this issue in more depth and suggest how
instructors and Academies can use these technologies or implement their own versions of
them.
Cisco Networking Academy now offers the NDG NETLAB solution. This web-based appliance
allows Cisco Networking Academies to host live router topologies and curriculum over the
Internet. The NETLAB automation and sharing capabilities allow Cisco Networking Academies
to maximize the use of their equipment and save money in the process. The networking
hardware is identical to the lab bundle used in Cisco Networking Academies worldwide. This
will allow students to maintain a consistent topology to practice the configuration commands
covered in the Academy curriculum and labs.
The use of NETLAB in the Cisco Networking Academy will allow students to log in, create, and
edit configuration files. Students can also program one or more of the devices. Students can
work in teams to configure an entire topology or schedule individual time to practice new
commands. Since the NETLAB environment equipment is similar to the equipment used by
Cisco Networking Academy programs, students can practice configuration tasks just as they
would with their Networking Academy equipment. Since the NETLAB equipment can be
accessed from any PC with a browser that is connected to the Internet, students can perform
these configuration tasks outside of the Academy.