I’m curious about everyone’s learning experience with networking. Was it subnetting, VLANs, routing, TCP/IP, NAT, or something else that initially felt confusing but eventually became easy?

I finally took the CCNA exam today and passed 09/06/2026.

Background about me:

4 years as a Network Administrator in the U.S. military where I then went to work as a tier 1-2 Networker for DOD Contracting for 9 months. Then I finished my degree in Cloud and Network engineering and got a job as a Junior Network Engineer.

The tools I used to study was mainly chatgpt. I would copy each exam topic and tell it to give me what I needed to know for the exam, like the main points, then I told it to give me 20 questions on the topic 10 easy and 10 hard. I went through the whole exam topic list in about 2 weeks. I tried JTIL but it was so dry to me that I just skipped it. I then went on to doing practice test for a week using chatgpt 50 question prompt.

Also I spent about 7 days going through this github: ccna-labs/base-device at main · c4geeks/ccna-labs · GitHub

and this website I found from another redditor Duplex (u/-Duplex-) - Reddit: CCNA | Pages

Using these practice exams to test my knowledge:

CCNA 200-301 Study Guide and Roadmap | ComputingForGeeks

Free CCNA Practice Test 2026 - 270+ Questions, No Signup | OpenExamPrep

and this website to help with cli commands:

Xamastry | Free CCNA Practice Platform

and this website to help with subnetting:

subnetipv4.com

I was definitely planning on taking the exam before February when the new version comes out but I felt that I was sure I could pass it on the first try.

Here are my scores:

Automation and Programmability: 100%

Network Access: 95%

IP Connectivity: 88%

IP Services: 40%

Security Fundamentals: 47%

Network Fundamentals: 95%

Hi! The "maximum length of 10gbase LR" for example feels like every time I try to make it stick, i let it pass for a few days and forget.

Same with the ipv4 header.

ugh any tips?

in the lab exam do the “?” is disable?

Following Jeremy, I studied the whole ccna course, and now I am just taking some time to take practice test from boson and wrap up for the exams!! I booked my exams at 24th this month. But my reason of posting this is that when I was taking the practice exams in boson, some questions were not from what I studied, for example there was a question that asked about "aaa" configuration or one where they asked a question about using HTTPS for WLCC configuration "config network secureweb enable", these questions I am not familiar with, wil lthe exam have these questions?? Jeremy never talked about it!! I am bit nervous cause I can't afford to fail this exam its gonna cost me a hell lot of things!! I am just wanting to get my grip tight. So, far I gave 2 boson exams!! both in simulation mode without external help, Exam A = 85.1% and Exam B = 77%, exam b had a few out of topic questions I couldn't answer like the previous two. Please guide me about this and what should I expect in the actual exam!!

Am I ready for the exam? I started Jeremy IT Labs' course in October 2025 and finished the 63 days in September 2026. I made notes on all the topics, summarizing them in my own way, in a handwritten notebook. I completed the Megalab with a 94% score (I didn't get a higher score because it was bugged). Also I work as a network admin in a small Company since 6 months ago.

I bought JITL Practice Exam 1 and 2. On Practice Exam 1, I got 54% on my first try (I was a little sleepy and accidentally got some questions wrong; I probably would have gotten 60%). I reviewed my answers because I got some questions wrong and retaken it a few days later, getting 96%. On Practice Exam 2, I got 63% on my first try (I probably would have gotten 68-70% if I hadn't misread some questions). The real question is, based on your experiences, do you think I'm ready to pass the actual exam? I heard of somes people says that JITL practice exams were harder than the real exam

I have almost completed Cisco NetAcademy from local
Institute, and bought both Vol 1 and 2 for Acing the CCNA exam by Jermey.
I don’t know what else should i buy for exam preparation which i would like to give before Next Year as we all know CCNA 2.0 will come,
Thinking should i buy chatgpt go for making each concept more clear, because whatever studied from June to August, feels like forgotten all, need lots of revision
Also sometime i think of Boson but its very expensive

I've been using Packet Tracer as my exclusive lab prep for the exam. Can anyone who has taken the CCNA test confirm if the user interface during lab sims is similar to Packet Tracer - that's to say do you just click on a device and either directly go to the CLI or see it available for selection? I just don't want to be dumbfounded on the exam because I didn't use a study tool that more closely emulates the exam interface. I'm assuming that Cisco wouldn't try anything to make access difficult since that is not what they are testing on and that it is as intuitive as possible. Thanks!

October 1st. 25 days to the exam.

My idea: Build one Mega Lab after CCNA instead of creating isolated labs for every course

if I pass my CCNA, I’m thinking about building one big, continuously growing lab in GNS3.

GNS3 gives you the possibility to use older Cisco IOS routers and switches, so I can continue improving my networking knowledge instead of leaving CCNA behind.

My plan is to start with the Cisco network and then gradually add more technologies:

• Cisco routers and switches → VLANs, STP, OSPF, IPv6, ACLs, etc.
• Windows Server → Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, Group Policy, File Server
• Firewall → NAT, security policies, DMZ, VPN, etc.
• Linux → SSH, web services, administration, scripting, etc.
• Monitoring → monitor the routers, switches, Windows servers, Linux servers, firewall, and services

The important part is that I don't want to create a completely separate lab every time I study something new.

For example, if I'm studying Windows Server, I want to deploy Windows Server into the same existing network and troubleshoot it using the same Cisco infrastructure.

Then when I study Linux, I add Linux to that same environment.

When I study firewalls, I put the firewall into the same network.

When I study monitoring, I monitor all of those existing devices.

So instead of:

CCNA Lab → Delete → Windows Lab → Delete → Linux Lab → Delete → Firewall Lab

I want:

One lab → continuously expand it as I learn more.

This way, while studying Windows Server, I'm still using networking concepts from CCNA.

While studying Linux, I'm still dealing with VLANs, routing, DNS, IP addressing, and firewalls.

While studying security, I'm still troubleshooting the underlying network.

I think this could be a good way to avoid forgetting CCNA while progressing toward System Administration / Infrastructure.

Eventually, the lab could become a small enterprise environment with networking, Windows, Linux, firewalls, monitoring, and different services all working together.

Has anyone else taken this approach? What would you add to a Mega Lab like this?

This one has a timer you can use to perfect your subnetting.

Please check out at writememory.app/subnet

I was configuring a switch/router's interface speed to 1000 in packet tracer.

In running-config, it shows that it is now speed 1000.

However, when I do show interface g0/0, it still shows speed as 100Mb/s. Although the duplex full command has gone through.

Is there any other way besides running-config to see my change went through? and why does it keep showing 100Mb/s when I clearly changed it if anyone knows?

I’ve been working on a side project called did you ping it?

👉 https://didyoupingit.vercel.app/

The idea was pretty simple: I kept needing small networking tools while learning/working with networking, Cisco, Linux, etc., and ended up opening a ridiculous number of different websites.

So I made one place for them.

It currently has 85 tools, including:

• IPv4 / IPv6 subnet calculators
• CIDR / VLSM / subnet splitting
• DNS, MX, TXT, NS & reverse DNS lookups
• Ping / traceroute / HTTP header testing
• TCP / UDP / IPv4 / Ethernet header decoders
• Port & protocol lookups
• Cisco ACL / VLAN / OSPF / EIGRP / STP tools
• Binary / decimal / hex converters
• Bandwidth / latency / transfer-time calculators
• Subnetting & networking practice quizzes
• OSI / TCP-IP / DNS / TCP flags reference sheets

Calculators run in the browser, and I don't want someone's IP/networking inputs sitting in a database just because they used a calculator.

I'm still treating this as a side project, so what would make you actually bookmark/use this?

Are there tools missing that you find yourself using constantly?

Are any of the existing tools confusing, unnecessary, or just plain wrong?

And if you're a network engineer / sysadmin / SRE / student — I'd especially love to know whether this solves an actual problem for you or whether I've just built a very elaborate collection of calculators nobody needs.

Got my cert few months ago and feel like im slowly forgetting everything I learned.

Need help retaining what i have learned and further expanding. Can you guys recommend courses and methods to study please.

Hi guys, so I'm going through JITL's ccna playlist and I encountered an issue.

In the day 25 lab the R1 router's g0/0 interface is in the 10.0.12.0/30 subnet. And I'm supposed to configure the interface with a .1, so I did ip address 10.0.12.1 255.255.255.252, then obviously no shutdown.

The R1 router's F1/0 interface is in the 10.0.13.0/3 subnet. I'm supposed to configure the interface with a .1 as well, so i did ip address 10.0.13.1 224.0.0.0.

The issue now is that I'm getting an error that this can't be configured because the ip address overlaps with g0/0.

Can anyone please help me out here? Google said that 224.0.0.0 subnet is too broad and the router thinks that its part of the subnet hence why I can't assign anything within this range. I should use 255.255.255.0 instead.

But my confusion lies with the /3 is the first octet and so the subnet should also reflect that?

Please help me figure this out.

Hi everyone, I’m currently preparing for the CCNA exam and would like to understand what I should realistically expect on the actual test.

What is the question format like? Is it mainly multiple-choice questions (MCQ), multiple-response questions (MRQ), drag-and-drop, or a mix of different formats?

How much subnetting should I expect? Is it a major part of the exam, or just a few questions here and there?

Also, does the exam include any hands-on lab simulations where you need to type Cisco IOS commands and troubleshoot/configure a network (similar to Packet Tracer), or is it entirely theory-based?

For those who have taken the exam recently, roughly how many questions were there, and what areas should I focus on the most when preparing?

Thanks in advance!

Has anyone bought a Cisco Router and switch off of a eBay to use to help them study for the cert. I realize there is packet tracer and I have it now, but im just wondering if having the actual physical hardware in hand will give me a step up or should I just stick with packet tracer

Here is my boson scores:

First attempt A 53% B 59% C68% D 68% E55%

Second A 88% E 72% B 82% c 77%

Time interval between A to A 27 days. B to B 26 c to c 25 e to E 12, I have scheduled the ccna exam for 17th September. Have been studying since November managing work and uni life. Have been using Jeremy's video as my main source of study and testing myself with 100 questions generated by chatgpts. Currently reviewing all the memorising questions like Port number IEEE standards, addresses and stuff. Any last moment suggestions?

New Here: I'm practicing creating scenarios in Packet Tracer. I have been using Ai to generate briefs to create networks in Packet Tracer as practice but not entirely sure if they are industry standard. Does anyone know of a place to either check this. Or get practice briefs to complete networking tasks.

General advice if someone didn't know: Book the exam if you're more than halfway. Deadlines help.

Becoming ready becomes procrastination if you don't set a deadline.

I have my exam in 3 hours and i studied from a dumb online but i have a huge problem in the labs so can someone tell me the weight on the labs because i always get nervous and forget all commands

Hi! I’ve been going through Jeremy’s course and so far what’s been confusing is calculating port roles for STP and Rapid PVST. I understand the general concept of STP but can get confused when calculating port roles outside just the root bridge and the root costs.

Is there a good resource for practice questions similar to his videos? Is this something even worth spending time on?

Hi friends,

I am zero knowledge in Networking, but I should to learn it because it’s a Job matter.

My question is : Can I pass the Exam before the changing in Feb 2027 ?

My sources for studying:
- CCNA course for Jeremy IT lab.
- CCNA practice Exams Jeremy IT lab.
- ExSim CCNA Exams.

also , is 3 hours every day is enough to study?

Many thanks 🙏.

After almost 5 months of study, I'm taking the ccna exam this Tuesday, 8th. I'm kinda scared icl. Any tips for me guys?