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
▶ 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.
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 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.
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.
★ LAB HARDWARE — AMAZON.CA
If eBay and Kijiji feel sketchy, here's the Amazon path. A used Cisco access switch plus a USB console cable covers every L2 lab on this site. The MikroTik is for anyone who wants a modern home-lab router on CLI without paying enterprise prices.
Affiliate links — purchases earn me a small commission. The 2960X is the workhorse Cisco access switch — works for STP, VLANs, EtherChannel, and most L2 labs on this site. The USB-to-RJ45 console cable is the very first thing every CCNA learner needs (modern laptops have no serial port). MikroTik hAP ax3 is the budget homelab router if you want something modern, cheap, and CLI-driven. The Klein VDV526-200 LAN Scout Pro tells you in 5 seconds whether a bad cable is wasting your debugging time — buy once, use forever.
★ HOMELAB POWER & COMPUTE — AMAZON.CA
Once your lab grows past one switch, two things start to matter: clean power (one brownout can corrupt a switch config you just spent four hours on) and a small always-on Linux box for Pi-hole, DNS, monitoring, or just learning Docker. Both are cheap, both are forever-purchases.
Affiliate links. The CyberPower EC850 is the entry-level homelab UPS — 850VA / ~510W usable, easily covers a Cisco 2960 + Pi + small router. Step up to a 1500VA unit if you're running multiple switches and a NAS. The Raspberry Pi 5 8GB kit (RasTech, with active cooler and microSD pre-flashed) is the cheapest reliable always-on Linux box you can buy — Pi-hole, local DNS, monitoring, Docker. The Beelink with AMD Ryzen 5 5625U (6 cores / 12 threads) is the next tier up — proper homelab compute for Proxmox, multiple VMs, or a full self-hosted stack.
★ HOME LAB SERVER / SELF-HOSTING
▶ 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
Wendell Odom's OCG is the official Cisco study guide, split into two volumes. Vol 1 covers the foundation — subnetting, VLANs, STP, OSPF, IPv6. Vol 2 covers ACLs, NAT, DHCP, security, and network automation. The Library bundle ships both volumes together and is what most CCNA candidates buy. Dense but comprehensive — use it as a reference alongside Jeremy's IT Lab, not as a standalone reader.
Affiliate links — purchases earn me a small commission. The Library bundle is the better value if you're going for the full CCNA. 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
▶ 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.