Question 1

What exactly is NetLab?

Accepted Answer

NetLab is an independent CCNA practice environment. It generates switching and routing labs, simulates the network you configure from a Cisco-style command line, and grades your work against the running state of the topology. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Cisco.

Question 2

Do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

Yes — labs, practice sets and progress tracking all save to your account. Creating one is free and takes a few seconds. A free account includes 5 Beginner lab starts every day plus unlimited practice questions.

Question 3

What do I get with Premium?

Accepted Answer

Unlimited lab starts at every difficulty (Beginner through Expert), troubleshooting labs with injected faults, the full 40-question timed mock exam, and every premium lab we add in future. Premium is $9.99 per month, or $24.99 every 3 months — a saving of $4.98.

Question 4

Are the labs the same every time?

Accepted Answer

No. Every lab is generated from a seed, validated as solvable before you see it, and checked against your recent labs so you do not repeat scenarios. The same topic and difficulty will give you a different topology, addressing plan and requirement set.

Question 5

How is grading done?

Accepted Answer

Each requirement is evaluated against the simulated network — reachability, VLAN membership, trunk state, routing table contents, OSPF adjacencies and so on. Your score reflects the actual state your configuration produced, not a text match against expected commands.

Question 6

What is troubleshooting mode?

Accepted Answer

A working network is broken by fault injection before you get it. You diagnose with show and diagnostic commands, then repair the configuration. Higher difficulties inject more faults and give less guidance.

Question 7

Can I stop mid-lab and come back?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your configuration commands and timer are saved automatically, and you can resume the same lab from the dashboard. Resuming does not consume another free lab start.

Question 8

Does the CLI accept real Cisco syntax?

Accepted Answer

It parses and simulates a practical subset of Cisco IOS: config modes, interface ranges, addressing, VLANs and trunking, spanning tree, EtherChannel, static and default routes, OSPF, ACLs, NAT, DHCP, IPv6, plus show, ping and traceroute. Abbreviated commands and context-aware help work as you would expect.

Question 9

How do I cancel?

Accepted Answer

Open Account and choose "Cancel recurring billing". Your card is not charged again and you keep full Premium access until the end of the period you have already paid for.

Question 10

Will practice questions repeat?

Accepted Answer

The bank holds 900+ questions across every CCNA domain, sets are randomised, answer order is shuffled, and many questions generate fresh values (addresses, VLAN IDs, masks) with recomputed answers and explanations.

Question 11

Is NetLab enough on its own to pass the CCNA?

Accepted Answer

It covers the hands-on configuration, troubleshooting and recall side of the exam very thoroughly. Pair it with the official exam topics list and a theory resource for the conceptual material that cannot be practised at a CLI.

Question 12

Something is wrong with a lab — what do I do?

Accepted Answer

Use "Report a problem" inside the lab console. It sends the lab, topic and difficulty along with your description, so we can reproduce the exact scenario. For anything else, use the support page.

Frequently asked questions