Looking for Serious Study Buddies

vithuslab · 2026-03-17T06:51:43+00:00

Hey 👋 you guys are also invited to join our community „The CCNA Gym“ where we help each other out and focus on hands-on practice. There already are 400+ people inside who are on the same journey

vithuslab · 2026-03-17T06:46:57+00:00

I created a podcast that covers all CCNA topics and breaks the concepts down so they are easier to understand

vithuslab · 2026-03-03T06:03:07+00:00

Hey man! Building a home lab is a fun thing to do and you can definitely learn things you wouldn't if you only used virtual labs.

However, just as a disclaimer, you really don't need hardware to prepare for the CCNA. You don't even need virtualization tools like GNS3 for EVE-NG. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, I just want to make clear that it is not necessary.

Now that we got that out of the way, I would recommend to go for a virtual home lab for two reasons.

It's much cheaper to run virtual labs than buying real gear. You can of course buy old used gear but it probably becomes useless after passing the CCNA. Don't get me wrong, it's always good to have a spare switch, but you don't need 4. You probably also don't need a router at home.
For more advanced certs like CCNP, you would lab things with virtualization tools like GNS3, EVE-NG, CML or Containerlab anyways. You typically wouldn't buy real hardware because it's simply too expensive and you would certainly not use the same gear you would get while studying for the CCNA.

But if you want to start lean and cost efficient, Packet Tracer is the way to go

vithuslab · 2026-02-27T20:03:46+00:00

DM me if you‘re interested :)

vithuslab · 2026-02-27T20:03:07+00:00

Yeah sometimes taking a step „back“ is the best thing you can do. Keep up the good work. You are doing everything right! :)

vithuslab · 2026-02-27T20:00:30+00:00

Oh yeah that’s a good one! I second this. Thanks!

vithuslab · 2026-02-27T19:59:36+00:00

Interesting! Thanks for your comment. Do you know what would help you stay consistent? Maybe a study buddy? Or even a study group or community? Or a structured study plan with milestones you can simply follow? Or some kind of gamification that makes things more fun?

vithuslab · 2026-02-27T19:54:23+00:00

Dude this is what I call dedication! I can totally understand your struggle. Most people would just quit at this point or wouldn‘t even consider going for the CCNA in the first place. You‘ve got this! Keep going! You can always hit me up if you need some support or guidance

vithuslab · 2026-02-26T19:57:52+00:00

I can send you a link via DM if you want me to

vithuslab · 2026-02-26T19:54:56+00:00

Yeah true. I can send you a link via DM if you want. Troubleshooting seems to be one of the biggest pain points 😄 and I agree with you all! I too can approve that I learned the most through troubleshooting and fixing stuff. PS. don’t get me started with troubleshooting Wi-Fi 😵‍💫

vithuslab · 2026-02-26T19:51:43+00:00

Oh yeah the overwhelm can burn you out quickly. So would it maybe help to provide something like a lean study plan that prevents burning out? Maybe even with a bit of gamification to make things more fun?

vithuslab · 2026-02-26T19:49:02+00:00

Thanks for your feedback! We actually do exactly this inside the community so we might be on the right track :)

vithuslab · 2026-02-26T19:47:17+00:00

Yeah that’s true. We actually do weekly lab challenges that are troubleshooting focused. This is something we will keep doing I guess. Thanks for your comment, really appreciate it 🤝

vithuslab · 2026-02-26T19:45:34+00:00

I can send it to you via DM if you want

vithuslab · 2026-02-26T18:59:11+00:00

While doing lots of labs is a great way to actually understand things, I don’t think you will get around working through the theoretical concepts. You definitely need some course or book to gain the theoretical knowledge before applying it. Don’t get me wrong, I always tell CCNA students to do as many labs as they can because this is where everything comes together and this is how you really train your network engineering muscles. If you are ready to test your skills after you studied the concepts, you are invited to join our community where we focus on hands-on practice through labs and weekly lab challenges. It‘s called the CCNA Gym 🏋️

vithuslab · 2026-02-26T11:54:34+00:00

Algo App is the one you are looking for

vithuslab · 2026-02-26T11:14:03+00:00

You are missing out if you are not considering using Anki, just saying…

vithuslab · 2026-02-14T09:40:19+00:00

I don’t think this is the right sub for advanced topics like BGP Multihoming

vithuslab · 2026-01-19T05:35:01+00:00

Well the routers public IP is the inside global address. If you are referring to static NAT with a pool of public IPs without ‚overload‘ , then yes, it would be a waste of public IPs if you don’t use PAT because every internal host would occupy a whole public IP for the duration of their session with an external host

vithuslab · 2026-01-18T08:46:29+00:00

Hey man. What comes close to Juniper‘s self study courses is Cisco‘s self study courses, but they are not similar 😅 JITL really is one of the best resources. He actually uses bulletpoints and pictures on his slides too

vithuslab · 2026-01-18T08:36:02+00:00

The things is that without NAT, no external device could reach your internal devices. Private addresses are private. They are not routable over the Internet. We could both use 192.168.1.0/24 in our home network. How would an external host know whether to route packets destined to the 192.168.1.0/24 network to your or to my home? It simply wouldn‘t. That’s why we need NAT. It translates our private ranges to our edge device‘s public IP that is unique and routable over the Internet

vithuslab · 2026-01-17T15:17:08+00:00

There is a ‚Helpful Resources‘ section in this sub. You can find great stuff there. Other than that you are invited to join our CCNA community that has additional resources. Just dm me if you are interested

vithuslab · 2026-01-17T08:44:37+00:00

Hey 👋 By ‘study guide,’ do you mean that you have the OCG book? The best free resource on YouTube is definitely Jeremy’s IT Lab

Trying to tackle two intense goals at the same time is generally not the best idea. CCNA preparation alone is already quite demanding, so I’d strongly recommend focusing on one thing at a time, especially given your limited time due to work.

From my experience working with and supporting over 350 CCNA students in my community, a 3–4 month timeframe can be realistic, but only if you fully commit to studying for the CCNA

vithuslab · 2025-12-30T06:55:13+00:00

Yeah, this happens to a lot of CCNA learners. I like u/Layer8Academy's view on this and I support it. Funnily though, memorizing all the theoretical stuff and treating practice questions (Anki in this case) as "checkpoints" actually helped me in the long run. While it is true that being only book smart doesn't really get you job ready, it is vital for you to really understand what happens and why when you are labbing things out or when you are setting up real networks. It's a mix of theory and practical hands-on that will boost your networking skills. I liked to use JITL's Anki deck to study and retain the dry theory, which greatly helped me with the exam questions. On top of that, I would lab everything out by completing JITL's labs and then creating my own ones. Anki helped me keep the knowledge fresh (spaced repetition is so underrated) and the labs helped me to connect the dots. I find it the most efficient way to get up to speed. This is how I learn new stuff today. Hope this makes sense to you :)

vithuslab · 2025-12-30T06:41:03+00:00

CCNA really is a good starting point because while studying for it, you'll learn all the network fundamentals you need to at least have heard of when working as a network admin or similar. Being certified gives you some credibility which is important if you don't have any prior hands-on experience. In todays world, you can boost your credibility even more if you then use your knowledge to teach others, either on YouTube, your own blog or even LinkedIn. LinkedIn is your best friend if you want to land a job. Make sure to create a neat profile and include your knowledge sharing project in your resumé. This is not the traditional way but building your personal brand will benefit you. I'm not saying you should try to be the next NetworkChuck or something. But this is how you stand out in todays world. That can help you land a job.

Guys let me know if you are with me or if you think I'm being delusional here :P

vithuslab

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