Should I start learning with Cisco Home Lab?

Question

Cisco

Should I start learning CCNA with Cisco Home Lab? In the network (Amazon, Ebay) there are ready-made solutions based on Cisco hardware.

Answer 1

Yes, if you really want to work with iron. But this method is not even practiced by Cisco anymore. There is also GNS3, Unetlab and, finally, PacketTracer

Answer 2

At first it is necessary to learn for itself what for to you to study a tsiska. If you are starting your career as a networker and you just need to learn how to configure a cisco, or you only need CCNA, then you should not spend money on hardware. If you're pursuing certifications and don't stop at CCNA, then it all depends on what kind of person you are. For example, in CCNP it is desirable to do a lot of practical work, you need to get comfortable in the CLI and know every command that you need during the study. For example, after a couple of hours for GNS3 or unetlab, I quickly get tired and get bored, but with hardware everything is different, interest disappears much more slowly than in a virtual environment. So it all depends on you. There are also topics that you cannot raise in a virtual environment. For example, features such as stacking, UDLD, SDM templates, POE, many of STP + STP often bugged me in unitlab, and SNMP didn’t work there at all, and there are many more such things, right now I just can’t remember everything. You can master CCNA and pass the exam even with a tracer package, although there are a lot of bugs there, in GNS3 there are fewer. If I were you, I would do this:
1. I would start learning using GNS3
2. If you feel that virtualization is not for you, then you can also collect a lab.
PS When I said that you need to know every command, I meant exactly that. Many people say that you don’t need to know every command, but if you take an exam, then you will come across commands like: which team needs to do this or that thing, what piece of the config is missing in order for everything to work, and so on. And these are questions without symbols and a lab. there you will not go to the device and you will not check what's what.