Help me get on the right track with labs please!

Hi all! My name is Brandon. You could say i've played around with learning cisco for the last year... Or in reality been slacking. I really want to get on the right track to achieve this certification but really struggle when it comes to labs. I have the Odom 100-105 book. Its not a fun read but will try and dedicate myself to reading it. I also plan to get back on CBT Nugz. Also, I have 3 2600's, and a 3550 switch on my desk collecting dust.

I was previously the DAS lead for the new Denver VA " i still make visits part time" . I am currently in a data center technician role for a major corporation via contract. I hope, or my thought was being in that data center and working with the equipment will help me. However.. beyond racking and stacking I don't know how to use it... YET.

I'll cut to the chase..

Are there any really easy labs or how-to's to get me into this. Maybe starting at the initial start up. Some of the ones i've tried really dive in and were discouraging. Also any how-to's on GNS3. Its apparently a great tool but i really don't know what i'm looking at.

Ill have a lot of study time on the weekends when we don't have a maintenance window so i want to kick this certs butt!

Thanks,
Brandon.

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Comments

kloppyo

Have you looked at Certskills? There are lots of labs there which are broken down by chapter so you could work through them as you get through the corresponding chapter of the book.

kloppyo

https://blog.certskills.com/ccent/category/chapter100105/chapter11/page/2/

Here is the link

MontagueVandervort

kloppyo wrote: »

Have you looked at Certskills? There are lots of labs there which are broken down by chapter so you could work through them as you get through the corresponding chapter of the book.

Thought I had all the resources but must have skipped this one. Good site, well-organized... thanks for sharing this.

kloppyo

No problem. Can you share some other sites?

MontagueVandervort

Sure, but I only have pay sites, nothing free like this. Just let me know if you're interested anyway.

kloppyo

Paid for is fine. I'm using PT at the moment but recently got some kit ( 3 routers and 3 switches) so keen to get as much lab experience as I can.

MontagueVandervort

Sorry!! ... Haven't been on here much as I've been down for a while with an exercise injury and then a flu (lulz universe kicking my butt)... and had completely forgotten about this! Didn't mean to leave you hanging. Good thing it just suddenly "popped" in my mind!

But what I have is:

Boson - of course this. They have the best labs, in my opinion so far of what I've seen.
Cybrary - free course site, but I think you have to pay for the labs?
Ucertify - $139/course (Their CCENT lab course has 242 labs & uses online simulator).

Then other course sites I have which may/may not have labs:

Pluralsight - $299/yr (=$24.9/mo) or $29/mo
Transcender - $99/mo or $119/1yr
CBTNuggets - $84/month (You get free Transcender with this).

Again, I'm sorry for leaving you hanging. I should have written down the need but since I was here daily at the time, I didn't think it was necessary.