Practice Labs

Fifteen labs covering the work a network team does every week, from VLANs and trunks to NAT, IPv6, ACLs and five break-fix tickets. Each has the topology, the addressing, the tasks, the checks that prove it works, and the full solution. Then you break it on purpose, because that is where the learning is. Every ticket ends the way real ones do: you write the update, and the page checks it.

How to use them

Any simulator

Built for Cisco Packet Tracer 8 with 2911 routers, 2960-24TT switches and a 3560-24PS. They also run in CML, GNS3 or EVE-NG with interface names changed. The BGP ticket needs one of those, and says so.

Try before you look

Work from the tasks and the addressing table. Open the solution only to compare.

Prove it

A lab is done when every check matches, not when the ping works once.

Then break it

Each lab ends with faults to inject. They are the faults that turn up on real changes.

Then write it up

Fixing it is half the job. The tickets end with a closure note, checked in your browser for the things a manager needs to read.