A Cisco Router Lab is a hands-on practice environment for learning, configuring, and troubleshooting Cisco networks from the foundational CCNA level all the way to the expert CCIE level.
This hands-on lab covers verifying PoE capability on a switch port, checking how much power is being drawn by a connected device such as an IP phone or access point, and configuring power priority to protect critical devices during a power budget shortage.
This hands-on lab covers checking a Windows PC's current IP configuration using both the graphical Network Connections interface and the command-line ipconfig utility, including releasing and renewing a DHCP-assigned address.
This hands-on lab covers checking a Linux machine's current IP configuration using both the GUI network settings panel and command-line tools, and demonstrates renewing a DHCP lease using standard Linux networking utilities.
This hands-on lab covers checking a Mac's current IP configuration using the System Settings network panel, viewing detailed TCP/IP information, and renewing a DHCP lease directly from the graphical interface.
This hands-on lab covers creating standard-range VLANs, assigning access ports to them, and verifying that devices in different VLANs are properly isolated from each other at Layer 2.
This hands-on lab configures VLAN Trunking Protocol between a server switch and a client switch, demonstrating how VLANs created on the server automatically propagate to the client without manual configuration on every device.
This hands-on lab configures a switch in VTP transparent mode, demonstrating how it forwards VTP advertisements between other switches without applying them to its own VLAN database, while still allowing local VLANs to be created independently.
This hands-on lab covers creating VLANs in the extended range above 1005, explains why VTP version matters for supporting them, and verifies an extended VLAN functions identically to a standard-range VLAN once created.
This hands-on lab covers changing a trunk's native VLAN away from the default VLAN 1 for security purposes, and shutting down unused switch ports as a baseline hardening practice, verifying both changes with appropriate show commands.
This hands-on lab covers restricting which VLANs are permitted to cross a specific trunk link, preventing unnecessary broadcast traffic and improving security, and separately covers safely changing a switch's VTP version within an existing domain.
This hands-on lab observes a switch port transitioning through the Spanning Tree Protocol states of blocking, listening, learning, and forwarding as it comes online, and covers the show commands used to check a port's current state and role.
This hands-on lab manually influences Spanning Tree root bridge election by adjusting bridge priority on two competing switches, verifying which switch becomes root before and after the change, and confirming the resulting port roles update accordingly.
