The road to recover my certifications.

[matgar]

Greetings fellow gentlebeings.

Due to many years of mental health issues and not working all my certs expired.
I'm back working again, but a long work absence has made me sorta rusty.
And I find it hard to simply pick up a OCG and read if from start to finish.
Since I still know most of it I quickly get bored and loose motivation/focus.
I have access to INE and their video courses but it's a similar issue there.

Do any of you have any recent experience with practice exams that you would recommend?
For example Boson or Pearson.
That way I could get some indication on where I should focus.

Edit: I might as well mention what certifications I used to have.
CCDA                                                                       Retired Certifications *   Expired   2015-12-10   2018-12-10   
CCNA Security   CCNA-Security                                   Retired Certifications *   Expired   2009-03-24   2018-12-10   
CCIP (Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional)           Retired Certifications *   Expired   2009-01-22   2015-01-05   
CCNP Routing and Switching                                           Retired Certifications *   Expired   2007-12-12   2017-11-27   
CCNA Routing and Switching                                         Retired Certifications *   Expired   2006-10-24   2018-12-10
Or for that matter any other tips on where to start on the longish road.

[Otanx]

I don't know about any practice exams, but what I would do is start labbing stuff up based on the certification blueprint. GNS3 has come a long way in usability, but you do need to get your own copies of the images. CML is the official way, but isn't free. Doing hands on labs is much more interesting than just reading a book. If you find yourself stuck on the lab then you know what to spend time reading about.

-Otanx

[deanwebb]

Labbing is definitely a way to go, things have changed, and the labs help you to catch up quick.

[config t]

Just mentioning that I love GNS3. Haven't kept up with it but it's the reason I was able to pass CCNP back in the day.

Congrats for getting back in the saddle. We all go thru things, that's a fact, but getting back up after getting knocked down shows character.

[deanwebb]

I'd also add that knowing about the cloud and how off-prem networking works is more important today, for certain. At least being familiar with SASE, SD-WAN, and things like that is helpful.

[matgar]

Thanks for the answers, I got sidetracked for a bit and didn't check back in until now.

I've used GNS3 before (long time ago) and was aware a lot had happened with it.
So I went a little overboard and set up a system with a 14 Core Xeon CPU and 128GB ram.
I got it up and running but I got stumped with getting a LAB set up and running.
So I downloaded a LAB but the ios version in it was not available for download and I couldn't figure out how/where to change it. And then I "forgot" about it for 4 months.

Guess I might as well create it myself from scratch, might be a good way to familiarize myself with the layout.

[deanwebb]

Indeed! And also in finding IOS images out there on the Interwebs, good luck!