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Lab01VirtualEnvironment
The objective of this lab was to set up the virtual environment that we would be using for the rest of class. This involved setting the network information of a firewall and a Windows 10 workstation, including both physically cabling these devices as well as configuring the IP information of both so the Windows 10 workstation could "talk" to the Wide Area Network (WAN). In addition, some configuring of the firewall needed to be done to allow this connection.
Setting up the firewall started with physically cabling it correctly, so that the first network adapter was connected to the WAN and the second was connected to the LAN. In the virtual environment, this involved changing the appropriate drop down menus. Once that was complete, I was able to turn on the firewall. Surprisingly, it did not ask for me to log in, but once it was fully booted up I could start setting the IP information for each of the network adapters so that the firewall knew which one was the WAN and which one was the LAN, and how to route communication between the two.
This started with assigning the correct interfaces to the correct ports. The WAN interface needed to be em0, and the LAN interface needed to be em1. While it was already set up this way, I went through the prompts to do it anyway so I would be familiar with the process incase I needed to do it again later. During this process I also double checked that the MAC addresses of each network adapter matched what I assumed were the WAN and LAN ports. They did.
After verifying that the interfaces were configured correctly, it was time to set up the IP addresses. For this bit I just followed the prompts after selecting "2" to set the interfaces' IP addresses. We did not use DHCP, or any form of IPv6 addresses. The WAN upstream gateway was set to 10.0.17.2/24, and the WAN address was set to one that was assigned to me, 10.0.17.102/24. Similarly, the LAN address was set to 10.0.5.2/24, and no upstream gateway is needed.
Configuring the Windows 10 workstation involved setting the name of the computer to one with my name in it, making a local admin account, and manually setting the IP information of the VM.
Making a local admin account involved opening up the lusrmgr.msc application, going to the users tab and right clicking to add a new user. From there I could set the username to echadbourne-loc (because elizabeth.chadbourne-loc was too long) and set the password. After that, I could right click on the new user and make it an administrator.
After that, it was time to set the IP information for the Windows 10 workstation. This took me some time to figure out how to do, but in the end I went to the ethernet connection in the settings, selected "change adapter options," right clicked the ethernet connection and selected "properties," and then click on the IPv4 box and once more select "properties." From there I was able to change the IP information for the workstation to have an IP address of 10.0.5.100/24 with a preferred DNS server of 10.0.5.2.
After the Windows 10 Workstation was set up, I needed to go back to the firewall and actually finish setting up the connection. This involved going to the LAN IP address of the firewall in the browser of the Windows 10 workstation to bring up the firewall's GUI. I set the name of the firewall to fw01-elizabeth, the domain to elizabeth.local, and the primary DNS server to 8.8.8.8, and followed the prompts to the end of the setup (changing settings when indicated in the lab). At the end I set up a new admin password.
I and some of my friends who I was working with did have some trouble getting the IP address of the firewall to work in the Windows 10 workstation. While I don't know what my problem was (since it did eventually work, and I don't recall changing anything) this seemed to mostly be an issue with IP addressing in either the workstation or the firewall. Generally the issue occurred when the upstream gateway or the local IP addresses were configured wrong.
After finishing the firewall setup, I was able to test the connection from the Windows 10 workstation, and it all worked as intended.
I know we will use DHCP more in later labs, so I did a little more research on it. DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and in practice is a way to automatically assign IP addresses to workstations without having to do it manually. I remember from my NET 150 class that assigning each and every IP address manually is tedious and inefficient, which is why DHCP is so useful. DHCP can be used for both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, and can be implemented on small LANs or larger enterprise networks. Regarding the layer that it runs on, DHCP runs in the application layer of networks.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/networking/technologies/dhcp/dhcp-top
Since I have not worked much with firewalls, I decided to do a bit more research on them and their uses. I found that firewalls can be either hardware or software, which is really interesting, because it allows them to be more versatile. In addition, the basic function of a firewall is to block certain network traffic from entering a network, which can be either a home network or an enterprise one. Firewalls can do this by blocking data "...from certain locations (i.e., computer network addresses), applications, or ports while allowing relevant and necessary data through." (CISA.gov). It's great to know how versatile this tool can be to protect various networks.
Source: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/understanding-firewalls-home-and-small-office-use
Finally, I wanted to look a little more at the history of the GUI. According to Britannica, a GUI (or Graphical User Interface) is "a computer program that enables a person to communicate with a computer through the use of symbols, visual metaphors, and pointing devices." (Britannica.com). It's history is a little scattered, since it seemed to mostly evolve over time. There was not one person or one single point in time that resulted in the creation of the GUI and its modern-day use in computers. It started with a paper by theorist Vannevar Bush, who believed that people would one day interact with a device (much like a computer) by giving it various inputs with levers and buttons, and getting back information. This inspired various other innovators to work on creating this theory reality. Eventually the idea made it to the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) owned by Xerox, which created a very early virtual desktop. This later inspired the first Apple GUI in the Macintosh. The GUI has continued to evolve since then, and will continue to evolve in the future. At it's most basic, a GUI is simply an easier way to communicate with a device, which is how we used in this lab, but more complicated GUIs tend to come with more complicated machines, like phones and laptops.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/technology/graphical-user-interface