Today has been busy, to say the least, and didn’t go any way that I thought it would.  For starters, my day was to consist of me knuckling down to finish my WGU homework assignment which I’ve been putting off for the past two weeks.  I really have to finish my paper “Cyber Defense Report” soon or else it will bleed into my other projects and consume all of my time as it gets closer and closer to being in the last minute category.  I figured that I would at least have knocked out a couple more pages as the subject is something I am very familiar with.  Enough of that.

I started working on my lab setup to assist me in practicing crafting custom tools and exploits against practical systems.  I’m using VMware workstation pro to create a virtual network consisting of Windows 2012 server (Domain Controller), Windows 10, 8, and 7 pro,  and Kali  2017-2 for starters.  Honestly, I was only able to install Windows 2012 server and configure the Domain Controller today and I’m squeezing that in, while I am updating this website.

— Update– Feb 20, 2018

I finally decided on a way for this Hacking lab that has been on the back burner because of all this work my current job has been throwing at me to bog me down.  Like I told my wife, it’s like they know that I am trying to progress or something.  Anyway, I picked up a Dell M4700 mobile workstation from Dell Auctions a few months back that is a decent machine (it cost me about $325).  I have a few laptops but since I’m not attached to this machine yet I decided last night that I could use this as my Vmware ESXi server to host my Hacker lab network.

Tomorrow I will be replacing the current hard drive with a 500 GB SSD and installing ESXi 6 (full blown) onto it.  I will then re-deploy the current VMs that I configured on my old Dell T3500 as this thing is giving me problems installing VMware ESXi 5.5 or 6 on it.  I hate burning up a good laptop to work as a server but I don’t want to spend the money to buy a server and I really don’t have a choice.  Anyway, this is just a practice server and the laptop will suffice in this situation.  If I can manage it, I will record the process on video and post it here (something I would like to explore).  Either way, I’m setting this thing up tomorrow!  I cant put it off any longer.  I really don’t know when I’ll get to set up the Cisco Routers, Switches and ASA, but I am going to force myself to get this all setup and configured.  They’re just sitting in the corner collecting dust telling me that I’m neglecting them.