NET-101 Equipment and Setup Guide

Everything you need before week 1 starts. Setup is shorter than FND-101: most tools are browser-based. Plan ~45 minutes.

What you need

A laptop. Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+, or current Linux. Any 64-bit machine from the last 8 years works.

A browser. Chrome or Firefox. The academy pcap-tools workbench and the tutor run in-browser; no plugin required.

A terminal. For dig, traceroute, curl, tcpdump, and Git commands. If you completed FND-101, you already have this working.

NOT required: hardware kit, special networking hardware, paid software.

Tool checklist

1. Browser for pcap-tools (required, no install)

The academy pcap-tools workbench is at https://virtuscyberacademy.org/pcap-tools/. Open it in Chrome or Firefox. If packet captures load and display a protocol tree, you are ready.

No login required for the catalog captures. You do not need to install anything.

2. Terminal with curl and dig (required)

• macOS: Terminal (pre-installed). Run curl --version and dig -v to confirm both work.
• Linux: Any terminal emulator. curl and dig are usually pre-installed; if not: sudo apt install curl dnsutils or equivalent.
• Windows: Use WSL2 (see below). Git Bash from Git for Windows also includes curl; dig may not be included in Git Bash by default. WSL2 is strongly preferred.

3. traceroute (required)

• macOS/Linux: traceroute is pre-installed. Verify: traceroute --version or traceroute 8.8.8.8 (it will start running; Ctrl+C to stop).
• Windows: tracert is built into Windows and available from CMD or PowerShell. WSL2 users: install traceroute with sudo apt install traceroute.

4. Git (required, already set up from FND-101)

git --version should print a version number. If not, install from https://git-scm.com/download/.

5. Wireshark (optional but recommended)

Wireshark lets you capture live traffic and open pcap files locally. The academy pcap-tools workbench covers all lab work without it, but the live-capture capstone is easier with Wireshark.

• Windows: https://www.wireshark.org/download.html -- installs the WinPcap/Npcap driver for live capture
• macOS: https://www.wireshark.org/download.html -- also available via Homebrew: brew install --cask wireshark
• Linux: sudo apt install wireshark (or equivalent). When prompted whether to allow non-root users to capture: select Yes if you want to run Wireshark without sudo.

Verify: open Wireshark, go to Capture > Interfaces. You should see your active network interfaces listed.

6. tcpdump (optional, for live capture labs)

• macOS/Linux: tcpdump is pre-installed on most systems. Verify: tcpdump --version. Running it requires root or the net_raw capability: sudo tcpdump -i eth0 -c 5.
• Windows WSL2: sudo apt install tcpdump.

Windows students: WSL2

NET-101 labs use dig, traceroute, and tcpdump from a bash shell. These work natively on macOS and Linux. On Windows, WSL2 gives you a real bash environment.

If you set up WSL2 for FND-101, you are ready. If not:

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator
2. Run: wsl --install
3. Restart when prompted
4. After restart, Ubuntu finishes installing; create a username and password
5. Open Ubuntu from the Start menu
6. Install the tools: sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl dnsutils traceroute tcpdump

Verification: run curl --version, dig -v, traceroute --version. All should print version information.

Accounts to create (if not already done)

1. GitHub or GitLab account (free): for pushing your lab repos and capstone. Same account you used for FND-101 is fine.

What you do NOT need

• Paid Wireshark license: Wireshark is free and open-source
• A special router or network device: your home router is sufficient
• A second computer: all labs can be done on one machine
• Root or admin privileges (except for live capture with tcpdump/Wireshark, and WSL2 install on Windows)

Reading material to bookmark

1. Stevens TCP/IP Illustrated Vol 1 -- primary anchor reading; available at most public libraries
2. Kurose & Ross Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach -- secondary anchor; available at most public libraries
3. Julia Evans networking zines at https://jvns.ca/ -- free; plain English; great supplement
4. Beej's Guide to Network Programming at https://beej.us/guide/bgnet/ -- free; referenced for Python socket labs
5. Academy pcap-tools workbench at https://virtuscyberacademy.org/pcap-tools/
6. Academy pcap fundamentals handout at /handouts/cross-chapter-pcap-walkthrough-fundamentals.html

Estimated setup time

Setup guide v0.1.