My Aussie Home Lab Setup – From Zero to Cyber Range 🇦🇺 G'day team! A few of you asked about my lab setup, so here's the full breakdown of what I'm running for hands-on cybersecurity and networking practice. 🖥️ The Hardware Main Workstation: - MacBook Pro 2019 (i9, 64GB RAM, 512GB SSD) – My daily driver for content creation, development, and running VMware Fusion VMs Home Lab Servers: - Dell OptiPlex 9020M Micro (i5-4590T, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) – Compact powerhouse for pfSense/OPNsense or lightweight VM host - HP ProDesk 400 G3 SFF (i3-6320, 8GB RAM) – Running ESXi or dedicated security tools - Additional mini PCs for distributed lab scenarios Network Gear: - Cisco 2960 Layer 2 Switch – Real enterprise switching for VLAN practice - Cisco 1941 Router – Routing protocols, ACLs, VPN configs - OPNsense firewall box – My network security gateway - 8-port gigabit managed switch – Segmenting lab traffic - Multiple NICs for various network configurations ⚙️ What's Running On It Virtualization: - VMware Fusion (on Mac) + ESXi (on mini PCs) - VirtualBox for quick test VMs Security Lab VMs: - Kali Linux – Penetration testing and security assessments - Ubuntu/Debian – Linux server administration - Windows Server/Desktop – Active Directory, group policy, enterprise environments - Splunk – SIEM for log analysis and threat detection - Suricata/Snort – IDS/IPS monitoring Containers: - Docker for lightweight service deployment and microservices testing Network Services: - pfSense/OPNsense for firewall rules, VLANs, VPN - RADIUS server for 802.1X wireless security - DNS, DHCP, and other core services 🎯 What I Use It For ✅ CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+ practical labs✅ Penetration testing scenarios and CTF challenges✅ Digital forensics practice (imaging, hashing, chain of custody)✅ Incident response simulations✅ Packet analysis with Wireshark✅ SIEM dashboard creation and alert tuning✅ Creating tutorial content for YouTube and this community

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