Hands-on CCNA and CCNP practice labs — OSPF, VLANs, ACLs, routing, NAT and more, each a real Cisco Modeling Labs scenario you build and grade against the answer key.
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Build a small but realistic edge topology and configure static one-to-one NAT on R1 so the inside host PC-A (192.168.10.10) always translates to 203.0.113.3. Validate bidirectional reachability with an upstream ISP router and a public server one hop further. Verify translation state and counters on R1 and connectivity from both ends.
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Configure static PAT (port forwarding) on a Cisco IOS edge router so an outside client can reach an inside HTTP service on TCP/8080 using a dedicated public IP that is not the router's interface. Validate using curl from the outside host and NAT show commands on the router.
Configure PAT on an edge router so only PC-A is translated using a standard ACL as the traffic selector. PC-B remains untranslated and fails to reach the ISP, illustrating that NAT occurs only for traffic explicitly matched by the ACL. Validate using host pings and IOS show commands, and interpret ACL hit counters and NAT tables.
Advanced NAT capstone, run as a fault hunt. Inside hosts cannot reach the internet, the translation table stays empty, and one host cannot even reach its own gateway. The lab is called NAT, which is the trap: not every fault here is a NAT fault. You get symptoms and the required end state — no fault list. Faults span the router, the switch and the path beyond, and fixing the translation alone will not restore service.
Configure static one-to-one NAT for two inside hosts on R1, mark inside/outside interfaces correctly, and read the four-column NAT translation table (inside local/global, outside local/global). Verify from both sides and relate observed traffic to table entries.
Build an Internet-edge NAT design that reaches beyond the ISP to a real external network. You will configure dynamic PAT (overload) from a private LAN to a public /29 using a NAT pool on the edge router, with the router’s default route already pointing to the ISP. Verify that an inside host can reach a public server across the ISP and that translations, counters, and default routing reflect the expected state.
Operate, observe, and clear Cisco IOS PAT translations on an internet edge. You will configure a standard PAT overload on R1, generate multiple concurrent sessions from an inside host, read translation/state counters, and clear single and all entries to see how the table repopulates immediately under live traffic.
Hands-on static routing lab in a small branch–WAN–branch triangle. You will configure recursive, directly-attached, and fully-specified static routes to enable end-to-end reachability between two hosts across three routers. You will learn how next-hop resolution works, how it appears in show ip route, and how to troubleshoot when static routes don’t resolve or forward as expected.
Advanced ACL and NAT capstone, run as a fault hunt. A branch site was cut over last night and the policy does not behave: the flow that should be blocked gets through, other traffic does not come back at all, and nobody recorded what changed. You get symptoms and the required end state — no fault list. The faults span all three routers and include a shadowed ACE and a policy applied on the wrong side of NAT, so translated addresses hide the very hosts the rules name. Expect fixing the first one to change the symptom rather than clear it.
Deploy router-on-a-stick inter-VLAN routing across a compact branch topology with a distribution and access switch, a hardened 802.1Q trunk, and two user VLANs. Configure VLANs and access/trunk ports, build router subinterfaces, verify end-to-end user reachability, and troubleshoot trunk/native-VLAN/subinterface mismatches.
Deploy a numbered extended ACL on a router-on-a-stick topology to allow HTTP from a single approved client to a web server while denying all other TCP attempts to that server from the same user VLAN. Apply the ACL inbound near the source, verify with real client traffic, and troubleshoot using ACL hit counts and test flows.
Hands-on CCNP OSPF lab comparing broadcast and point-to-point network types. Three routers share a multi-access Ethernet via an access switch to observe DR/BDR election, manipulate interface priorities, and then convert to point-to-point. Includes a user LAN behind R1 and realistic troubleshooting: neighbor stuck in 2-Way due to type mismatch, area mismatch isolating a router, and incorrect interface priority preventing desired DR/BDR roles.
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