GUIDES MEET PRACTICE
Clear networking guides and 68 CCNA browser labs. Learn the concepts, practice IOS-style commands, and check your work as you go.
One lab free. No account, installation, or hardware needed.
A browser simulation of selected IOS behavior. It does not run an IOS image.
EXPLORE THE LIBRARY
Models, addresses, and the basics that connect everything.
↗ 02Switching & VLANsBuild and troubleshoot Layer 2 networks.
↗ 03RoutingUnderstand forwarding decisions and paths.
↗ 04Security & accessExplore controls, authentication, and firewalls.
↗ 05WirelessFrom WLAN fundamentals to controller operations.
↗ 06Linux & toolsDiagnose and verify from the command line.
↗FREE FIELD REFERENCES
A free PingLabz account unlocks the Linux, ASA, BGP, and OSPF PDFs. Choose the guide you need and keep it close while you practice.
GO FURTHER WITH PRO
Pro unlocks 60 build labs, six troubleshooting labs, and the campus Mega Lab. Follow guided exercises, try IOS-style commands, and check your configuration as you go.
SELECTED READING
Keep learning
What Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, Controller, Validator and WAN Edge each do, which plane each works in, the DTLS ports they use and how a new router joins. Every output comes from a 20.18.2.1 overlay built in my home lab.
Cisco SD-WAN, explained from scratch: what it is, how Manager, Controller, Validator and WAN Edge routers fit together, and a full map of the PingLabz series on Catalyst SD-WAN 20.18 and IOS XE 17.18.
vManage is now SD-WAN Manager, vSmart is SD-WAN Controller, vBond is SD-WAN Validator. Here's the full name map, when it changed, and where Cisco still shows the old names.
What is SD-WAN? Start with a 40-branch MPLS network backhauling SaaS traffic through the data center, then see how SD-WAN uses every link and runs the WAN from one place.
The hub for the PingLabz Cisco ISE 3.5 lab series: nine hands-on posts covering setup, 802.1X and MAB failures, Live Logs codes, TACACS+ device admin for IOS XE and ASA, policy sets and CoA.
The hub for the PingLabz observability tools series: LibreNMS against Zabbix on the same devices, Netdisco for topology and MAC/ARP search, and Suricata and Zeek watching the management network.
The hub for the PingLabz config tools series: Oxidized backups to Git, Batfish offline validation, NetBox as the Ansible source of truth, and one real IOS XE change taken through all of them.
The hub for the PingLabz flow visibility series: five hands-on posts that take NetFlow v9 from Cisco IOS XE into Akvorado, GoFlow2 and pmacct, and use it to find top talkers and scans.
The hub for the PingLabz Zabbix series: nine hands-on posts on Zabbix 7.0 LTS with Cisco IOS XE and Linux, from adding the first router over SNMPv3 to quiet triggers, escalation, discovery and database upkeep.
The hub for the PingLabz Grafana series: ten hands-on posts that take Cisco IOS XE routers and Linux hosts from SNMP metrics to logs, flows, alerts and a NOC wall screen in Grafana 13.
I mirrored my lab's management network into Suricata 8.0.3 and Zeek 9.0.0, shipped the logs through Alloy into Loki, and alert in Grafana when anything outside the NOC touches router management. Tuning, gotchas and real output.
Netdisco 2.117001 on IOS XE 17.18 over SNMPv3: one seed router, CDP finds the rest, then MAC and ARP search and the neighbour map. Plus what a small lab can't show.