1 Versioning and Notes

We’ve had hundreds of students test these labs on a variety of different platforms over the last 3 years.  They have tried laptops, desktops, servers, and even a couple who tried to get them to work on Surface Pros. This is what we can tell you:

Windows is the most commonly used OS in the world

• • The labs are written using a combination of VirtualBox and GNS3 running on a Windows 11 environment
  • This combination of various hardware and software can glitch or bug, requiring restarts
    • This is considered a Type 2 – hosted virtualization solution
    • This solution can be ported easily to various platforms
    • Type 1 – bare metal virtualization would be better, but then we would have to dictate your OS and configurations, and most people like their computer to work in the manner they already have it.
  • You need at least 16GB of hardware RAM to run these labs – more RAM is better, but unnecessary: slow still works, just be patient
  • Using Windows 11 Hyper-V instead of VirtualBox would increase stability, but there are two reasons why we don’t use it:
    • Teaching Hyper-V is difficult for new students to grasp; we want even the most basic learners to enjoy cyber
    • Hyper-V requires local admin rights, which many computer labs won’t grant students (and they shouldn’t!)

Linux works great

We are seeing more students using Linux for daily use. You will notice that we are introducing more Linux-based configurations as students contribute to the textbook. If you are a Linux user, you should have little trouble hosting VMs using KVM and QCOW.  Using Linux increases stability and speed because Linux is a Type 1 hypervisor. If you are a Linux person, please consider submitting labs to expand our offerings. You will receive full authorship credit along with the student who formats your labs for publishing.

Apple OS

GNS3 does not work on Apple products since they switched to the M-series of chips. It’s not our fault.

Versioning

At the time of this writing, we used the following versions of software:

• Windows 11   25H2
• GNS3   2.2.59
• VirtualBox   7.2.8

VMware Workstation Pro

VMware Workstation Pro works very well. However, when we started this effort, students had to purchase this title, and we believe that you can learn networking principles for free. Converting 70+ chapters to a different virtualization platform is not easy, so we are continuing with Oracle VirtualBox for now.

Why do we…

Because that is how the authors, instructors, and learners (new and experienced) felt the material should be presented. Every lab undergoes several changes (sometimes dozens!) in which n00bs, instructors, authors, testers, etc., all weigh in on how the lab should be presented to new learners.