This page is a running list of the tools, gear, and study resources I've personally used and recommend. Some links are affiliate links — if you buy through them I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only list things I've actually used. See the affiliate disclosure for full details.

★ CCNA STUDY — WHERE TO ACTUALLY LEARN

[ FREE — START HERE ] ▶ Jeremy's IT Lab (YouTube) — The best free CCNA course that exists. Full stop. Start at Day 1 and work through every video before touching anything else. He covers theory and CLI in lockstep. No shortcuts needed if you actually watch all of it.

▶ Packet Tracer (Cisco Networking Academy) — Free with a free NetAcad account. The labs on this site are built in PT. It's good enough to pass the CCNA — don't buy GNS3 topology add-ons until you've maxed it out.
[ ★ PAID — WORTH IT ]

Once you've done Jeremy's IT Lab, practice exams are where you close the gap between "I understand it" and "I can answer it in 90 seconds under pressure."

BOSON EXSIM ↗ NEIL ANDERSON UDEMY ↗

Boson ExSim is the closest thing to the real CCNA exam. If you can consistently score 85%+ on Boson you will pass. Neil Anderson's Udemy course is the best video course if you want something more structured than YouTube.

★ FORTINET HOME LAB GEAR

The gear I run in my lab. All bought used — see Fortinet on a Budget for the full breakdown on where to source it and what to avoid.

[ ★ MY LAB STACK — AMAZON.CA ]
FORTIGATE 60F ↗ FORTISWITCH 124E ↗ FORTIAP 421E ↗

These are affiliate links — if you buy through them I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Buy used if possible — check eBay and Kijiji first.

[ BUDGET ALTERNATIVE ] Not ready for Fortinet pricing? A used Cisco ISR router + Cisco Catalyst 2960 switch from eBay will run you $50–$80 total and cover 90% of CCNA lab scenarios. It's also more directly relevant to Cisco exam topics.

★ HOME LAB SERVER / SELF-HOSTING

[ WHAT I RUN ] ▶ OS: Pop!_OS — Ubuntu-based, handles Docker well, minimal bloat.

▶ Web server: Apache2 — documented extensively in the self-hosting article.

▶ Tunnel: Cloudflare Tunnel (free) — keeps home IP private, handles TLS automatically.

▶ Analytics: Umami (Docker) — see the Umami setup article.

▶ DNS: Pi-hole on LAN — network-wide ad blocking and local DNS.

★ NETWORKING BOOKS

[ ★ CCNA OFFICIAL CERT GUIDE — AMAZON.CA ]

Wendell Odom's OCG is the official Cisco study guide. Dense but comprehensive. Use it as a reference alongside Jeremy's IT Lab, not as a standalone reader.

CCNA CERT GUIDE ↗ NETWORK WARRIOR ↗

Affiliate links — purchases earn me a small commission. Network Warrior by Gary Donahue is the best "real-world networking" book I've read — not an exam book, but an eye-opener.

★ USEFUL FREE TOOLS

[ NO COST, HIGH VALUE ] ▶ subnettingpractice.com — Drill subnetting until it's automatic. I used this every day for two weeks before it clicked.

▶ GNS3 (gns3.com) — Free network emulator. Steeper setup curve than Packet Tracer but supports real IOS images. Useful for OSPF, BGP, and advanced routing labs.

▶ Fortinet NSE Training (training.fortinet.com) — Free NSE 1, 2, and 3 courses. NSE 4 requires a lab environment. Start here before buying any Fortinet gear.

▶ EVE-NG Community Edition — Another network emulator option. Runs in a VM, browser-based UI. Good for multi-vendor labs.
◀ START HERE NEW TO THELINEMAN? BEGIN HERE LABS ▶ FREE CCNA PACKET TRACER LABS