Cisco Modeling Labs
The official Cisco images — the ones the CCNA and CCNP programmes are built on. CML brings its own web console, served through the same proxy as everything else.
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Cisco CML and GNS3 are installed, licensed and cabled on our servers. You open a tab, you click Start, you have a console. Nothing to install, nothing to size, no image to hunt down — and not one virtual machine exposed: everything goes through a single address, over TLS.
The thing itself
A console, in a tab.
There is nothing more to say about it, and nothing more for you to do.
The nodes run on our servers, not on your laptop. That is precisely what you are renting: the machine, the licence and the images, already in place and already cabled.
The console opens in the tab: the terminal on one side, the node's port on the other, an encrypted bridge between them. The status dot does not come from the node but from that link — it turns red the moment the link drops, rather than leaving you typing into nothing.
Two finishes: the house dark theme, or the green phosphor of the old consoles. Ctrl + Alt + T switches between them, and the choice is kept on your account — it follows you from the college machine to the one at home.
Your projects stay attached to your account: close the tab, come back tomorrow, the topology and the configurations are still there.
R1# show ip interface brief Interface IP-Address OK? Status GigabitEthernet0/0 10.0.0.2 YES up GigabitEthernet0/1 10.0.1.1 YES up Loopback0 10.10.160.3 YES up R1# ping 10.10.190.10 Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos, timeout is 2 seconds: !!!!! Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), 1/2/4 ms R1#
The topology
Next to the console, the map of the lab draws itself, in the symbols of the trade: the cylinder with four arrows for a router, the isometric box for a switch.
Around each node, a ring says what it is doing — green it runs, dashed orange it is booting, grey it is stopped. The drawing refreshes every five seconds, and a click on a node opens its console. You read the state of a whole lab without opening a single terminal.
None of it is an image: the symbols are vector, crisp at any zoom, and they take their colours from the theme.
No internal address ever appears in the browser: not the virtual machines, not the hypervisor, not the network underneath. The student sees one address and their consoles.
What holds it together
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The platforms
Two platforms, one sign-in.
The same account opens both. Pick the one your programme expects, or the one your employer expects.
GNS3
For everything outside the Cisco catalogue: QEMU machines, containers, virtual appliances. Its nodes expose a plain console port, which the bridge carries into the browser.
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The other vendors
Licence-free network operating systems are added inside GNS3 rather than as a third platform: a mixed lab, where a Cisco router talks to a router that is not one.
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The order of magnitude
What the machine holds.
The figures below are computed from the server that carries the lab, not borrowed from a brochure.
200nodes running at once, all students together
20 to 30students in parallel, on labs of 8 to 10 nodes
7 daysof full trial, with no card
6 hthe longest a single session may run, even an active one
The path
From sign-up to the first lab passed.
Five steps: a few minutes to start, then everyone at their own pace.
- You
The account
An address and a password: the seven-day trial starts straight away, no card needed.
- You
The path
260 labs in blocks, from the first router to the firewall, or certification prep: CCNA, NSE 4, PCNSA, JNCIA, HCIA…
- You
Configuration
In each vendor's real command line, on a computer, tablet or phone, online or offline.
- The lab
Validation
Every task checks itself. The coach reads your topology and explains what is wrong.
- The lab
Progress
Your work is saved lab by lab; mock exams show what to review before the real one.
Pricing
Three ways in.
The trial asks for no card. The subscription is cancelled from your account, and access runs to the end of the period you have already paid for.
Trial
0 € 7 days
- Access to CML and GNS3
- 6 concurrent nodes
- One trial per account, no card
- Your projects are kept afterwards
Monthly
10 € a month
- Access to CML and GNS3
- 10 concurrent nodes
- Unlimited topologies
- No commitment, cancel at any time
Yearly
100 € a year
- Access to CML and GNS3
- 20 concurrent nodes
- Unlimited topologies
- Priority support
The service is electronic, so it is invoiced under the EU OSS VAT scheme; the invoice goes out automatically once payment clears, and access is opened only by the payment provider's signed confirmation — never by the browser coming back. Schools and training centres: ask for a group offer.
The quizzes and mock exams are original practice questions written by Response8 from the vendors' public exam blueprints: they are not official exam questions, and Response8 is not affiliated with any vendor. Cisco, CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, Fortinet, NSE, Palo Alto Networks, PCNSA, PCNSE, Juniper, JNCIA, Check Point, CompTIA, Network+, Security+, HPE Aruba Networking, Huawei, HCIA, Arista, MikroTik and CWNP are trademarks of their respective owners.
The rules
What the platform does not do.
A shared lab has rules. Ours are stated up front rather than discovered along the way.
1×
One active session at a time. You may keep several projects, but only one runs. That is what keeps the machine fast for everybody.
quota
A capped number of nodes depending on the plan: 6 on the trial, 10 monthly, 20 yearly. The cap is checked before the lab starts, never while it runs.
1 h 45
An email before the stop. Fifteen minutes ahead you are warned; simply returning to the lab puts the counter back to zero.
2 h
Stopped after two idle hours. A forgotten lab switches itself off. Your topology and your configurations stay — only the running stops.
6 h
Six hours at most for one session, even one you are working in. Restarting is a single click: it is a guardrail against the lab that runs all weekend.
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Server capacity is finite. Past two hundred running nodes a start is refused. You will see a clear message, never a lab that fails in silence.
Questions
What people ask before signing up.
Do I have to install anything?
No. A current browser is enough: the consoles and the topology are shown in the tab. No heavy client, no VPN, no image to download.
What machine do I need?
The one you already have. The nodes run on our servers, not on your laptop — that is precisely what you are renting.
What if I leave a lab running?
You get an email after an hour and three quarters of inactivity, and the lab stops at two hours. Nothing is lost: the topology and the configurations are kept, only the running stops.
What happens to my projects if I stop paying?
They stay. Starting new labs is blocked, nothing is deleted. You pick up where you left off when you subscribe again.
Can I cancel?
At any time, from your account. Access continues to the end of the period you have already paid for; nothing is charged after that.
Is the trial really complete?
Yes: the same platforms and the same features, with a quota of 6 nodes instead of 10. One trial per account, for the life of that account.
I am training a group of students.
An admin console follows the running sessions, the nodes in use and the accounts; quotas are set per student. Write to us with the number of participants and the period you have in mind.
Before opening
What has to be in place before the first payment.
- The portal the labs run on, on its own subdomain: labs.response8.tech
- The company number BE 0000.000.000 and the VAT number BE 0000.000.000
- The terms and conditions of sale: to be written
- The privacy policy (GDPR), with the retention periods: to be written
- The statement on the right of withdrawal: to be written
Because access is immediate, subscribing carries an express waiver of the fourteen-day right of withdrawal — provided the terms say so, and that they are online before the first payment. A Belgian accountant and lawyer should read the whole thing over.
A group to train, or a certification to prepare?
Group accounts, per-class quotas and session monitoring are arranged in conversation. Tell us the number of participants and the period you have in mind.