virtual network simulator?

My team uses ESX for this very purpose (among others).

I've done it ( and still do ) on VMWare Workstation, on Microsoft Virtual PC ( although I wouldn't want to repeat the experience ), on Parallels ( which at the time, wasn't great at the networks thing - it might have improved ) and on VirtualBox.

VMWare I would say was the best though.

(NB This isn't a "perfect" emulation of a machine … There are differences between this and a _real_ machine. )

I do this on my Network Forensics course here at the College using VMWare workstation. Works very nicely although there are a couple of configuration tweaks you have to make depending on whether you want to isolate the virtual LAN from the rest of the world or give it Internet connectivity.

Basically you need to get the virtual network settings configured properly, then you're set to go.

Create and configure your servers and your workstations, then fire them up. Everything from DHCP, to security logging, to network traffic works pretty much the same. The only limitation is that you probably don't want to run more than four machines unless you have loads of RAM (500MB per virtual machine is a minimum I would say).

Thanks, very helpful. I will try out the VMWare, seems to be plenty of Docs on that.

Any further comments welcomed!

I've used VMware with pfSense to interface with the routers/switches. We've also used the CCNA Network Simulator. Both worked very well and both were ran through vmWare.

As everyone else have suggested; VMWare Workstation (not free) is pretty good. Also VirtualBox (free) for desktops and VSphere (free) for a complete environment - that is, if you have sufficient hardware to run that last one.

inetsim may fulfill your needs. I just found out about it after reading "Malware Analyst's Cookbook and DVD".

It's a linux app, but the book walks you through the setup.

Mark