jgladwell wrote: I am reading through here and the general consensus is that Sybex and Meyers' books are good ones to look for. I used Sybex for A+ and was pleased. I am the kind of guy that I have to know "why" to really understand what I'm reading. I prefer to learn by reading a little AND doing, instead of reading something and only barely getting practice. what kind of equipment do you recommend for a lab for Network+? I have two routers, Cisco 1750 and 2500, and 3 or 4 PCs that I can network through my house to practice on.