With a simulator, there are always missing commands and programming errors, and it can never really be as complete as the real IOS. However, because an emulator runs the IOS, you get every feature ...

Cisco has a free product called Network Assistant. Its a Java-based GUI for doing configuration of switches, and some routers. I'm not sure if it supports the 2800 or not.

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a necessary tool for every network administrator. You can easily configure it with just a few commands. SNMP is still the most popular way to monitor ...