What to Do with Your First Home Lab

This article provides a hands-on blueprint for creating a mini office home lab—featuring client VMs, a mirrored switch, Windows Active Directory and Linux servers, a firewall (e.g., pfSense), and an attack/observation workstation—and then practicing core security skills: DNS/DHCP configuration, Sysmon log collection, web server setup, RDP password spray with detection via DeepBlueCLI, LLMNR/Responder attacks, and Wireshark PCAP analysis, all with an emphasis on learning by building, attacking, and teaching while keeping the lab isolated.