Question

You have been chatting with fellow cybersecurity students on their efforts to learn

cybersecurity by getting hands-on training. You have discovered that some students
have built their own home labs and you want to try your hand at doing this as well. You
have a budget of $500, an eBay account, and an Amazon account.
Your goal for your lab is to have two servers, a switch, and a firewall. You also need
software, some of which is free outright (like Linux), and some of which is free for
evaluation purposes. Remember, virtualization technology will help you run more than
one OS on a given hardware platform.

Answer 1

Building your own home lab can be a great way to get hands-on experience with cybersecurity. With a budget of $500, you can definitely get started on building your lab. Here's what you could consider purchasing:

- Two used servers: You can find used servers on eBay for a reasonable price. Make sure to look for servers that are compatible with virtualization technology, so you can run multiple operating systems on them. You can expect to spend around $300 for both servers.

- A switch: You can find used switches on eBay as well. Look for a gigabit switch with enough ports to connect both servers and your firewall. You should be able to find one for around $50.

- A firewall: You can either purchase a hardware firewall or use a software firewall. If you choose to use a hardware firewall, you can find one on eBay for around $100. If you choose to use a software firewall, you can download and install a free firewall like pfSense.

- Software: You can download and install free operating systems like Linux and Windows Server Evaluation versions on your servers. You can also download and install free software like Wireshark, Nmap, and Metasploit.

Overall, building your own home lab can be a great way to get hands-on experience with cybersecurity. With a budget of $500, you can definitely get started on building your lab.