Lab and Real World Help!

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to share something that has been bothering me a bit lately. I am an aspiring CCNA candidate, I'm looking to go for my exams next month or maybe April.. but I've read about people CCNA certified but still don't know how to implement their skills or whatever they learnt in real world.

I wouldn't want my case to be like that. I wanna be good at what I do, I wanna be that guy that knows the way around how to cause fire at work... I am sure you guys know what I mean.
I am thinking of setting up a lab at home so I can practice everyday. Do you think this is a good idea ? And yes, if it is, please advise me on what equipment I need to buy. I am thinking of going the Voice track after completing CCNA and CCNP. What do you guys think ?

And trust me, I don't know anything about these routers.. I've never seen a real Cisco router but thanks to GNS3 - I can do a lot remotely.

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Comments

networker050184

Getting a lab together is a great idea. For some ideas check out the sticky threads in the CCNA forum. Plenty of lab info there.

olaHalo

You can buy prebuilt homelab racks on ebay. Usuallu built by other people who passed their exams already

the_hutch

A lab is an excellent idea. Still, I think a common problem that people run into is that the complexity of your lab is never going to be anything near what you are going to see in most rack rooms at the enterprise level. They've got the fundamentals down, but the scale is intimidating. Even after CCNA, there is still going to be somewhat of a learning curve depending on your environment. But that shouldn't be any reason to doubt your knowledge of the fundamentals.

danstar

prebuild homelab racks? how's that ?

olaHalo wrote: »

You can buy prebuilt homelab racks on ebay. Usuallu built by other people who passed their exams already

danstar

Thank you @the_hutch

biggene

danstar wrote: »

prebuild homelab racks? how's that ?

It is basically a kit someone else already built and used for their testing and is now wanting to sell off the kit.

Something like these listings on ebay

Used-Cisco-CCNA-CCNP-CCIE-Complete-Lab-Kit

Best-Cisco-CCNA-CCNP-V2-home-lab-kit-for-CCNA-and-CCNP

CCENT-ICND-CCNA-HOME-LAB-KIT

danstar

This is not bad at all.. but then don't you think GNS3 is enough for CCNA and NP ?

biggene

From what I have read on the forums here, it is better to have actual physical hardware to work with. You won't get anywhere near the scale you would in most IT closets, but being able to physically touch everything and actually have to plug it in yourself would seem to help tremendously when you are on the job.

earweed

real equipment should be a requirement. I know a BUNCH of people who were already working in a network shop who thought GNS3 or packet tracer would suffice and most, if not all, failed first attempts.
Be careful of buying pre-made kits as people try to sell off outdated equipment that way. Be sure that you research whether the gear will run fairly recent IOS's

danstar

@biggene, thanks a lot. I think working with real equipments will help a lot... but it's just that I reside in India and I can't buy these things off ebay... I'll keep trying though.. I just want cheap equipments and not outdat equipment like earweed just mentioned @earweed, I see a bunch of pre-build labs on ebay but buying those is not for me right now, as I need to know about these routers.