I built NetForge, an interactive way to learn networking and CCNA

Omar Afnan — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 06:59:51 +0000

Hi everyone!

I recently took part in a competition where I decided to build something around networking, since I've been learning about CCNA and networking myself.

That’s how NetForge came about.

The idea is pretty simple. I wanted to make learning networking feel a bit more hands-on instead of just reading about routers, switches, IP addresses and routing.

With NetForge, you can work through interactive networking labs and actually build and configure networks using virtual devices.

This is still an early version of the project. I had to stop making major changes while the competition judging is going on, but I definitely don't want to stop here.

After the competition, I want to improve things like the labs, device behaviour, networking simulations, progress tracking and eventually add a proper backend/database.

I'm posting it here because I'd genuinely like some feedback from people who know networking, CCNA, homelabs, or even people who are just starting out.

What would you add? What feels confusing? What would make you actually want to use something like this to learn networking?

I'd really appreciate any feedback, good or bad. here the link below
[ https://net-forge-kappa.vercel.app/ ]

DEV Community: Omar Afnan

I built NetForge, an interactive way to learn networking and CCNA