+1 to buying the book rather than spending £2000+ on the training.
With just £200 you could get yourself a small lab, one with enough features to get you through the CCNA.
You could even just read the book, and then rent some rack time. Obviously renting it means that you
don't have a permanent kit in your home, but you would probably be able to use much more up-to-date kit.
If you can get hold of some Cisco IOS images as said above, then you could use GNS3 to emulate the Cisco kit
(which is what I am doing for my CCNA/CCNP). Many people choose to get the IOS images illegally, though
obviously that is dangerous and frowned upon for good reason.
The only problem with GNS3 is that the switching capabilities are limited. Although, one of the big benefits
of GNS3 is that you can emulate your routers and connect them to real switches, even the internet/
virtual machines too!
The CBT Nuggets videos for Cisco that oli356 mentioned are most excellent, they even go
as far as the CCNP and CCIE certs. They are pretty expensive, but I have been able to
watch them for free (college paid for them
). Would not hesitate to recommend them at all.
If you go down the book/home lab route, then post how much of a budget you think that
you'd have for kit. For the CCNA you could probably get 3 1720 routers and 3 2950 switches
from ebay with all the cables and bits needed for a little less than £200. If you have a
higher budget and are considering the CCNP after the CCNA, then it may be worth investing
in some more powerful kit, definitely needing a layer 3 switch and maybe 1 or 2 extra routers.
Especially since GNS3 is a much more powerful tool and someone who is willing
