CCNA Lab

Hands-on Cisco IOS practice for the Feb 2027 CCNA v2.0 exam.

CCNA lab gear
Console
USB to RJ-45 + minicom / PuTTY
Layer 2 / 3 Switch
Catalyst 3560 PoE-8 - WS-C3560-8PC
Lab Network
Isolated VLAN 40 from production
Topology
Router-on-a-stick with 802.1Q trunk
Router
Cisco 1900 Series - CISCO1941
Lab Endpoint
Laptop tagged into VLAN 40 for testing
The Bench

Real Gear, Walled Off

Catalyst 3560 PoE-8 and Cisco 1900 router on isolated VLAN 40. Console via USB-to-RJ45, SSH after the initial config. Lab traffic never touches the production VLANs. Documented in repo: cable labels, show-runs, screenshots, topology diagram.

The Long Game

2017 Self-Study to 2026 Cert

Same Catalyst and 1900 router ran my CCNA self-study from 2017 onward, before pfSense took over the homelab. Now formalized with a structured study schedule for the official Feb 2027 v2.0 exam.

Lab Photos

Rack
Connection

What's Covered

Topic 01

VLAN Configuration

802.1Q trunking across switches, native and voice VLAN handling, access vs trunk port modes, and VTP transparent mode to prevent DB-overwrite incidents.

Topic 02

Inter-VLAN Routing

Router-on-a-stick subinterfaces on the 1900, and L3 SVI routing on the 3560. Two valid designs, picked by interface count and throughput need.

Topic 03

Access Control Lists

Named extended ACLs placed close to source for efficient drop, plus VTY line lockdown and ACL-driven route filtering.

Topic 04

Routing Protocols

OSPFv2 single-area with router-IDs and passive interfaces, plus static and default-route convergence behavior. Summarization at the area edge.