MicroNugget: How to Build a CCNA Home Lab

In this video, Jeremy Cioara teaches you how to build a home lab for demonstrating and practicing basic network administration. In five minutes, Jeremy Cioara goes through his recommendations and explains which routers and switches to invest in, as well as the console cables, ethernet cables, and serial cables.

This video helps anyone preparing for the routing and switching portion of the CCNA by providing insight to the functions, commands and hardware components involved. Before you practice at home, get advice on which router to buy. Here, CBT Nuggets’ Jeremy Cioara explains his six favorite routers and the cost-benefit of each one. With so many different modules coming pre-loaded these days, you’ll want to learn which are necessary and which are superfluous. Whether you’re looking for single routers for a one-and-done home network solution, or you’re building a mini-lab where you can practice entry-level network administration, this video explains what technology to invest in.

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[cbtnuggets]

Thanks for the question! Jeremy mentioned in his live chat today the 871W is still a great router to use for the new CCNA exam.

[cbtnuggets]

Thanks fort the feedback and for everything you do for our country!

[cbtnuggets]

Kristan, We are always taking suggestions. I will pass yours along to our team. Thanks!

[cbtnuggets]

Nick, thanks for your response. Because the of how specific this question is, we recommend you forward this question to our Forum and start a discussion there. We apologize for the delay in our response. Have a great day.

[michaelgerbert]

Hey Jeremy,  
Thanks for the video and everything you guys do! It's been SUPER helpful for me in my IT journey :) I passed my CCENT earlier this year and just waiting for PTO to kick in at my new job to schedule ICND2 (and I may have already watched and practiced through the CCNA Security videos).
So, I took Jeremy's advice in this video and found a Cisco 2621(xm), 3550, and 2950 to practice with. My goal was not just to set up a home lab but to integrate these as my home network and connection to the internet. Then I took my current cisco/Linksys wireless router (with DD-WRT) and set up as a WAP. I intentionally tried to make my setup a little over complicated, and figured I would hit a bunch of bumps along the way, but it would force me to learn and get a better feel for how a live network works. I was able to get everything set up and working and felt pretty proud of myself but I did run into a couple snags…
I have a Plex Media server, and between this and Netflix is how I watch all my tv. Most of the movies are 1080p & between 5GB – 12GB and I ran into serious latency/buffering issues such that I couldn’t even watch my movies. I initially attributed this to a bug in Plex, or authentication issue, or some kind of misconfiguration on my end. After lots of troubleshooting I believe it was either an issue with the network speed (100Mbps) or possibly not enough memory on my 3550. Also, copying large files across my network was painfully slow. I also had issues with my connection to Comcast & was maxing out at 10Mbps on a supposedly much faster connection. After upgrading my modem and trying everything I could think of, I found a few forums saying that it is a known compatibility issue with some non gigagbit Cisco routers.
So here is my question: Can someone suggest comparable Gigabit models that I could use for my home network? I thought maybe the 2851 would be a good fit but not sure about L3 switch? The caveats are: ability to watch streaming HD video is priority 1, and having security options so I can set up firewall, netflow etc and protect myself but also gain experience and study for ccna security, I don’t have much budget so somewhere in the $100 on ebay range is ideal. Suggestions on difference between models and which IOS version I should be looking for would be great; I get a little confused by all the WS- and the million different versions.
I know that’s a lot but any suggestions would be super helpful and appreciated!! Thank you in advance!!

Mike

[lis]

you'll always be Jeremy "Save the Hosts!" Cioara for me <3

[JoaoMarceloBritoCosta]

Hi Jeremy!
As I already congratulated Keith, the same apply to you! Your way to approach the subjects is really amazing! We can learn in a pretty easy way, for real! Smooth and really fun! Thanks for your dedication and for spreading the network knowledge to everyone who wants to learn! Cheers!

[kartikk]

Just love Jeremy Ciroara, he is the best!!!

[rbaleksandar]

Another way to do all that BUT not spent that much cash (even none at all) is to use virtualization. We have GNS3 and VirtualBox at our disposal. Using Linux you can turn a PC into a router or a switch in no time and the only thing that you might need to spend your money on is some RAM, although minimalistic Linux installations (no window manager and only dedicated to a very narrow set of tasks they have to work on such as routing) require a hilariously low amount of memory so you might actually not need to give a cent for buying stuff. For GNS3 you can ask friends if they have Cisco routers and take the binary images for those in order to create a pretty realistic virtual network using Cisco's hardware. :-3

Still a cool intro.

[cbtnuggets]

Josh, if you go to our website and search for GNS3, you will find this training course by Keith Barker. Sorry but YouTube does not allow us to provide links in comments. Let us know if you have anymore questions.

[cbtnuggets]

GNS3 might be free, but we have training that explains how to practice, configure, and troubleshoot network scenarios inside GNS3.

[cbtnuggets]

Any labs Jeremy mentions are available for CBTNuggets subscriber in NuggetLabs. You can quickly see which series has NuggetLabs by viewing the series page.

[cbtnuggets]

Hello Martin,

When Jeremy is mentioning a lab guide, he is talking about his training series "Cisco CCNA Labs: Cisco for the Real World" and you can find this series at the CBT Nuggets website by entering "CCNA Labs" in the search bar. Let us know if you have any questions.

[matrat]

Love the video. Being just over 2 years old, do you still recommend the same equipment for CCENT/CCNA?

[cbtnuggets]

Brian, sorry but we don't disclose our trainer's email addresses. If there is something specific you would like to ask Jeremy, we would be more then happy to forward the question along if we can not answer it ourselves.

[cbtnuggets]

We can't add a link to a YT comment, but if you visit our website (cbtnuggets[dot]com) the course is called "Cisco CCNA Labs: Cisco for the Real World". A quick search on the site will pull it up for you. You'll need a current subscription to view more than a 2 minute preview.

[cbtnuggets]

Peter, we have completed a MicroNugget on building a CCNP Home Lab. Check out the MicroNugget (2013) Playlist to find it.

[stevelee]

Is this recommended for the New Cisco CCNA as well?

[Futeki]

GNS3 & Cisco Packet Tracer are more than enough for lab preparations.

[robertwise]

I have some technical questions for you in related to your video in the Nuggets. Please tell me where is the best place to address this to you?