Hello everyone! So this is just a random question that I have after I saw some posts in other subreddit. For those who are also CCNP or CCIE; did you stay and developed your careers only with Cisco devices or in some point you decided to go for other networking brands certificates like JNCIP for Juniper, ACP for Aruba, etc..? how did it went? is there something you don't recommend or some brand that you think is taking over Cisco?

I'm currently focused on the cloud (Azure) and im going towards Az305 right now, but im sure after I will finish this I will try to get more experience and possibly some certs for Fortigate, Zscaler or Palo Alto. At the same time, Im considering to move to other vendor to get a broad experience although networking concepts really doesn't change.

Thanks and hope you are all happy and healthy!!!

Hey all,

I’m planning to get an INE subscription for CCNP ENCOR prep. Does anyone know if a sale is coming up, like Black Friday or something similar? Or does anyone have a coupon code that still works?

If it’s smarter to wait for a promo, let me know. If not, I’ll just buy now.

Been studying for a while and feel close to ready. Went to take the Cisco U practice test today as my final prep and had a serious concern about running out of time during the real exam. The sim questions have four scenarios to work through and there's at least 3 sims in the practice test.

Apparently the real test has six sims and you're supposed to use the first hour for them. But if there's four scenarios in each sim, I'll need to work through each in 2.5 minutes??? The sim questions on the boson practice tests are short but in the Cisco U practice test, they are NOT short.

Did you find time to be an issue when you took the ENCOR or am I overthinking this?

I'm starting to study for ENCOR and would rather not spend $200 on CML Personal if I don't have to.

I know it's possible to get by with the 5-node free version and Packet Tracer, but I'm wondering if that ends up making labbing more of a headache than it's worth.

For anyone who's gone through ENCOR, did you find 5 nodes limiting or was it enough for most of what you needed?

I’m looking forward to taking the v2.0 exam in November after being humbled by SCOR v1.1 twice this August.

Just curious for a temperature check on the exam. To be honest at face value the material comparatively seems easier now. However I’m also getting the feeling there’s going to be more one-off, niche questions.

Any feedback and thoughts from any testers (or soon to be) of SCOR v2.0 much appreciated.

Happy studying.

Has anybody ever used Cisco U learning labs? Compared to the overall price of other bundles and courses it seems decent. I just wonder what the experience is like has anybody ever used them?

Hi guys, I got my CCNA like 3 weeks ago and just started working towards CCNP Encore. If you guys are at the same level and are looking for a study partner, DM me.

I've been working as a team lead for a large platform that I won't mention for various reasons. It's a day 2 operations team. I do everything including project management, high level technical troubleshooting, config migrations and our teams automation. I just finished ENCOR and I'm currently working on ENARSI which most likely will take me 3-5 months to complete based on what I'm reading in the OCG.

What I'm seeing in the job market here is every single job requires boatloads of experience in everything and the jobs aren't offering much more than what I make currently in pay.

My job is extremely heavy on BGP, EVPN/VXLAN and platform virtualization. It seems like there's no middle ground for me where I can go to a new job that provides me opportunities to develop a stronger skill set.

Hi everyone, I’ve created a GitHub repository where I’m uploading and documenting networking labs that I build in GNS3. I mainly do this to learn by working with more realistic environments than Packet Tracer, while also starting to build a portfolio that I’m sure will be useful in the future.

I’m currently preparing for the CCNA, and having this extra motivation helps me stay engaged by doing my own experiments and playing around with the topologies I create.

I’d really appreciate some feedback on how you see it and what things you would improve, so I can keep them in mind for future labs.

Here’s the link:
Link

Just had an interview for a Network Engineer position and mentioned I am working on thd CCNP and described what I am have been learning. They were impressed and I got selected to be hired. Same thing happened when I was working on my CCNA. Interviewers seem to have a overwhelming positive response. Is it just me or has this happened to others?

Are the labs provided in the ENARSI course in INE enough or even more than enough to pass? Just want to see yall opinion before I purchase a subscription. TIA!

What happened to the ine.com ENCOR learning path?

2 weeks ago, the video duration was around 87h and now it is 106h, and I can't find any statement or update documentation.

Sometimes the INE learning paths suck - quiz questions about topics which aren't in the videos (you have to watch other courses to answer the questions about IPsec IKEv2, for example) and changes without any communication. INE is one of my favorite learning resources, but sometimes it is a little bit annoying.

Next career steps? Looking for advice

Hi all. Looking for advice.

Current role Tier 3 Senior Network & VoIP Engineer with I have been for about 4 years after internal promotion from tier 2.

\*\*Experience:\*\* 6 years in IT
BAS in Computer Systems Networking & Telecommunications

Certs:

CCNP Enterprise (2025)
Fortinet NSE 4 (2026)
CCNA (2022)
CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+ (2020)

Current roles, experience

Tier 3 network and VoIP escalations and troubleshooting.

VoIP including asterisk and cloud hosted PBX that run in my companies data center.

Cisco IOS routing, switching, VLANs, subinterfaces, HSRP, and ACLs for two data
centers.
Configuration/t shooting data center FortiGate ha firewalls.

Edge connectivity with multi BGP peers.

FortiGate firewall migrations, IPsec VPNs, dual-ISP SD-WAN, BGP, and route maps.
Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, site-to-site VPNs, OSPF, and firewall rules.

Oracle Acme Packet SBCs, Webex Contact Center trunks.

Full Webex contact center builds and support.
AWS networking and hybrid on-premises/cloud connectivity.

All stuff networking for AWS, including interconnects to on prem.

Ansible playbooks for FortiGate configuration automation. (Understand Ansible but used Claude for heavy lifting)

Built a Grafana/Prometheus monitoring system for Webex customer trunk health with Alertmanager notifications. Relied heavily on Claude as I’m not great at python.

Looking to stay relevant. 28 years old. Thinking of going much deeper into cloud, security. Wonder if any recommendations? Thanks

I'm starting with EVE-NG, I just have one image (Linux - Ubuntu).
How can I make the other ones disappear?

I already tried:
Checking "Show provisional Templates" does nothing

I edited "/opt/unetlab/html/includes/config.yml.distribution and changed it from missing to hided - didn't work either.

I passed ENCOR in September and realised the thing that actually got me through it was having people to ask dumb questions at 11pm. So I set up a Discord for people studying Cisco tracks.

What’s in there right now:

• Channels split by track (CCNA, ENCOR, ENARSI)
• A lab channel where people post Packet Tracer and real gear topologies to work through
• Subnetting practice, posted daily
• General “why is OSPF doing this” troubleshooting help

https://discord.gg/yXmAy3ueRW

Have a 1-hour Meta screen coming up for Network Production Engineer (IC3): ~25 min networking fundamentals and ~25 min coding. Has anyone done this recently? Is the coding LeetCode-style or file parsing/Battleship-type, and how deep does the networking go (TCP, BGP/OSPF)?

I'm preparing for the CCNP Enterprise ENCOR 350-401 exam and I'm looking for reliable study materials that are up to date for 2026.

Could you recommend any official Cisco books, study guides, or learning resources that cover the current exam topics?

If you've taken the exam recently, I'd also appreciate any advice on which resources are worth investing in and whether older editions are still relevant.