Load sharing in distributed systems improves systems performance. Research in the field has been focused on steady state performance for load sharing algorithms. However, transient characteristics of such algorithms may be important in a distributed system in which workload for some node is changing. Simulation is the only means to analyze such characteristics. This paper presents a simulation-based analysis of the transient characteristics of four load sharing algorithms ; forward probing, reverse probing, symmetric probing, and multi-threshold symmetric probing algorithms. Discrete event system models for execution of the algorithms in a distributed system has been developed in a SIMSCRIOT II.5 environment. Simulation results indicate that the MSYM algorithm shows the shortest response time in the transient period.