Setting up a home lab

droolmonkey

So I've been jamming on my re-learning of basic computer knowledge (taking a+ next week ...guaranteed pass), and its gone by really easily, but now its time to learn some new stuff. I need to delve into net+ and sec+ because I have been offered a (highly) paid internship contingent on me having those 2 certs by september. I don't see getting the certs as a problem, but I want/need to have a basic working knowledge of these two broad concepts outside of just the certs. I own 2 laptops and 2 desktops (1 has 2 nics) to play with with the possibility of building a server if needed (could setup multiple raid configurations if I needed to, maybe vm??). I have permission to setup machines in multiple locations around town if I need to (remote access, wan, servers etc...) I have access to any microsoft software I could possibly want (or linux of course). Im just not sure how to attack this.

My question is how would you setup your lab given these hardware constraints, and would you start in a closed network environment or just start connecting things, securing them, then tear it apart and do it again a different way?

Are there any good lab books I could use? I saw a net+ lab manual by Tony Skandier ... good to start with?

What other hardware would you recommend??


I just really need to do a good job at that internship and my window of opportunity is only open for so long. Suggestions? Comments?

..THANK YOU!!

kriscamaro68

With both of those certs you really wouldn't need to lab to understand the concepts being taught in my opinion. A lot of it is just memorizing facts about the technology. If you want to start going beyond those certs into the deeper stuff then you could go the route I am.

Buy 1 or 2 of these depending on how crazy you want to get: Dell PowerEdge C1100 1U 2X Xeon QC L5520 2 26GHz No HDD 72GB DDR3 Tested | eBay

throw in a couple 256gb ssd's and install either VMware esxi or hyper-v and do everything you ever wanted. You could also get yourself some cisco equipment if you want like a asa 5505, 3550 switch and play with those for the networking side of things or just do gns3/dynamips if you don't want to buy hardware. At that point though you are getting into specific technologies.

I would say study for and pass the Net+ and Sec+ not worrying about labbing right now and once those are out of the way focus on what you want to do from there and dive in.

Darril

Congratulations on the recent A+ pass and the offer of a paid internship.

I'm inclined to agree with krsicamaro68 that you don't really need a lab to prepare for these two certs, but with the equipment you have, I'd strongly suggest you network them.

Two pieces of equipment you might like to add are:
- An unmanaged switch (such as this Amazon.com: Netgear FS105 ProSafe 5-Port Fast Ethernet Desktop Switch: Electronics)
- A wireless router also known as an access point with routing capabilities (such as this Amazon.com: Belkin N150 Wireless N Router (Latest Generation): Electronics)

I just looked for cheap examples but you can select any other switch or access point depending on your budget.

Here's the wired portion.

Desktop PC

---

\

---

Switch

---

Access point
Desktop PC

---

/

Here's the wireless portion

Laptop ~~~~\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Access point
Laptop ~~~~/

This is just one possibility. You could skip the switch if you desktop PCs have wireless capabilities or are close enough to the access point that you can connect them directly. You could add a wired or wireless printer. However any action you take to network all of these devices will help you learn about them a little more.

The access point is typically connected to a broadband connection through a modem like this:

Access point

---

Modem

---

Internet service provider

---

Internet

However, even if you don't have broadband Internet access, you can still set up the rest of the network.

I most strongly suggest that you explore all of the settings/features/options on the access point, especially when these options are mentioned in the objectives. in addition to helping build your knowledge, it will also help you master some of the performance based questions.

Hope this helps.

droolmonkey

thanks for the replies.


I already have the house wired and setup in a soho fashion. The wireless I have down pat. Ive got 19 devices hooked up in both wired and wireless configurations. ...have the router/wap setup in a central location running wireless-n in 3 channel mode and have that exact switch to 4 seperate desktops. ...Maybe Im overestimating the requirements for this certification. Wap is setup. Ive given static ips to everything that stays in the house with mac filtering, use port forwarding for the ps3, ssid is hidden, . change all network passwords every month etc...


I was thinking more of setting up labs for a proxy server, email server, web server, firewall, active directory, vpn etc. maybe getting a smart switch and playing with configurations. ...really just understanding all of the protocols and how they really work so I can manipulate them as needed.


....i may really be overthinking this now that i think about it.

Thanks for the replies though!! If anyone has any other advice on practical knowledge for networking AND security, Im all ears!!


are these things not required knowledge for general networking???

Darril

I'd say that you have more than enough for the Network+ exam. It requires you to understand what proxy servers, email servers, web servers, and VPNs are, but it doesn't require you to configure and maintain them. You do need to have a deep understanding of firewall ACLs but I don't remember anything about Active Directory on this exam.

When you're ready to move past Network+, creating virtual environments like kriscamaro68 suggests is the best choice. If you plan on moving into the Microsoft world, their Hyper-V virtualization software (free with Windows 8 and Server products) is useful and tested on many Microsoft exams. Oracle's Virtual Box is also free. VMware is great and includes both free and paid products. The VirtualBox and VMware free products are great if you're running Windows 7 or older systems because they support 64 bit systems (unlike Microsoft's older Windows Virtual PC). VMware has some certifications that some people value, but unfortunately you cannot certify on these through self-study. VMware requires you to attend a paid class which can be pretty expensive.

For myself, I subscribe to Technet which gives me access to almost all of their operating system and application products as free downloads. I then have a dedicated box that I run Windows Server with Hyper-V on and I use this to create virtual networks periodically. My box only has 16 GB of memory unlike the 72 GB box that kriscamaro68 suggested, but that does look appealing. On my main computer, I'm running Windows 7 and use VMware Workstation to occasionally run virtual environments.

All that said, it's worth repeating kriscamaro68's advice: "I would say study for and pass the Net+ and Sec+ not worrying about labbing right now and once those are out of the way focus on what you want to do from there and dive in."

Good luck.