Updated Gantt Chart v7

9/28 - 10/2 -- Gather articles and do research on setting up proposed servers/network COMPLETED

10/5 - 10/9 -- Set up mail server, FTP server, and workstations COMPLETED

10/12 - 10/16 -- set up firewall/router server COMPLETED

10/19 - 10/23 -- get virtual network up and running, troubleshoot any issues FAILED

10/26 -- get virtual machines to communicate with each other, set up DNS server COMPLETED

10/27 - 10/30 -- research hacking techniques and using Kali Linux for penetration testing COMPLETED

November -- penetration testing; router tweaking; documenting finds MOSTLY COMPLETED

12/1 - 12/8 -- Prepare PowerPoint Presentation on findings IN PROGRESS

Update 9

Forgot to post all of November so this will be a big update:

Had issues with laptop, which was intended to be used for pentesting the Ubuntu router (in fact Windows crashed and burned so I had to reformat my laptop's hard drive and ended up installing Linux instead). In the meantime I instead created a virtual Kali Linux machine on the same host as the router but on a separate virtual network to act as pentester.

Had trouble getting virtual Kali machine to communicate with Ubuntu router. VirtualBox manual not really clear on how to get two virtual machines on separate networks to communicate, and Google was not very helpful. Resolved by just setting up separate adapters on each machine that could ping each other.

Pentesting went about as well as I'd expect. Not very good at hacking myself so I had to use articles/videos to help with things to test and applications to use. Also tested the ping speeds from servers to each other within the network as well as out to Internet like google.com and the like.

Pentesting is mostly done although I'm still researching other hacking techniques to really get a good feel for the effectiveness of an Ubuntu router. Also documenting finds to create a PowerPoint to present my findings.

Updated Gantt Chart v6

9/28 - 10/2 -- Gather articles and do research on setting up proposed servers/network COMPLETED

10/5 - 10/9 -- Set up mail server, FTP server, and workstations COMPLETED

10/12 - 10/16 -- set up firewall/router server COMPLETED

10/19 - 10/23 -- get virtual network up and running, troubleshoot any issues FAILED

10/26 -- get virtual machines to communicate with each other, set up DNS server COMPLETED

10/27 - 10/30 -- research hacking techniques and using Kali Linux for penetration testing IN PROGRESS

November -- penetration testing; router tweaking; documenting finds

12/1 - 12/8 -- Prepare PowerPoint Presentation on findings

Update 8

Was able to dedicate a lot of time to project today. Had a few issues getting two of the servers to communicate (one was a simply a syntax error on a config file and the other was not detecting a networking card so that took a little longer to sort out with VirtualBox and through the OS). Also decided a DNS server was needed, so set that up on Router server. Project is back on schedule again.

Updated Gantt Chart v5

9/28 - 10/2 -- Gather articles and do research on setting up proposed servers/network COMPLETED

10/5 - 10/9 -- Set up mail server, FTP server, and workstations COMPLETED

10/12 - 10/16 -- set up firewall/router server COMPLETED

10/19 - 10/23 -- get virtual network up and running, troubleshoot any issues FAILED

10/26 - 10/27 -- get virtual machines to communicate with each other IN PROGRESS

10/28 - 10/30 -- research hacking techniques and using Kali Linux for penetration testing

November -- penetration testing; router tweaking; documenting finds

12/1 - 12/8 -- Prepare PowerPoint Presentation on findings

Update 7

Unforeseen personal circumstances last week prevented me from dedicating much time to working on project. Will work on catching up today and tomorrow, then continue with project plan.

Updated Gantt Chart v4

9/28 - 10/2 -- Gather articles and do research on setting up proposed servers/network COMPLETED

10/5 - 10/9 -- Set up mail server, FTP server, and workstations COMPLETED

10/12 - 10/16 -- set up firewall/router server COMPLETED

10/19 - 10/23 -- get virtual network up and running, troubleshoot any issues IN PROGRESS

10/26 - 10/30 -- research hacking techniques and using Kali Linux for penetration testing

November -- penetration testing; router tweaking; documenting finds

12/1 - 12/8 -- Prepare PowerPoint Presentation on findings

Update 6

Setting up the router/firewall was fairly smooth. Spent the weekend tweaking firewall rules, think it will stand up fairly well to penetration testing, but that remains to be seen.

Updated Gantt Chart v3

9/28 - 10/2 -- Gather articles and do research on setting up proposed servers/network COMPLETED

10/5 - 10/9 -- Set up mail server, FTP server, and workstations COMPLETED

10/12 - 10/16 -- set up firewall/router server IN PROGRESS

10/19 - 10/23 -- get virtual network up and running, troubleshoot any issues

10/26 - 10/30 -- research hacking techniques and using Kali Linux for penetration testing

November -- penetration testing; router tweaking; documenting finds

12/1 - 12/8 -- Prepare PowerPoint Presentation on findings

Update 5

Been battling a cold all week. Setting up other environments has been completed. Setting up router/firewall server in progress; has been slow being sick and all but steady.

Update 4

Successfully set up the FTP server

Updated Gantt Chart

Project Itself

9/28 - 10/2 -- Gather articles and do research on setting up proposed servers/network COMPLETED

10/5 - 10/9 -- Set up mail server, FTP server, and workstations IN PROGRESS

10/12 - 10/16 -- set up firewall/DHCP/router server

10/19 - 10/23 -- get virtual network up and running, troubleshoot any issues

10/26 - 10/30 -- research hacking techniques and using Kali Linux for penetration testing

November -- penetration testing; router tweaking; documenting finds

12/1 - 12/8 -- Prepare PowerPoint Presentation on findings

Update 3

Successfully set up mail server and the two workstations. Will work on FTP server in the next few days

Update 2

Week has been successful. Gathered and studied 16 articles/videos to gain knowledge to help me in the next two steps of my project.

Update 1

I have decided against setting up a DHCP server. Reasons being not very many nodes will be in the network, and with the addition of mail/FTP servers for complexity it would be better if they had static addresses.

To add a little more complexity to the network, I will use Ubuntu for the router, CentOS for the mail server, and openSUSE for the FTP server. In addition, there will be two Mint workstations.

Tentative Gantt Chart

Project Itself

9/28 - 10/2 -- Gather articles and do research on setting up proposed servers/network

10/5 - 10/9 -- Set up mail server, FTP server, and workstations

10/12 - 10/16 -- set up firewall/DHCP/router server

10/19 - 10/23 -- get virtual network up and running, troubleshoot any issues

10/26 - 10/30 -- research hacking techniques and using Kali Linux for penetration testing

November -- penetration testing; router tweaking; documenting finds

12/1 - 12/8 -- Prepare PowerPoint Presentation on findings

Project Decision

Project chosen: turn an Ubuntu Linux server into a router/firewall/DHCP server and build a virtual network behind that. The network will include an FTP and mail server to make it a bit more complex. Then a separate physical Kali Linux machine will be used to do penetration testing to test the effectiveness of using a Linux server as a firewall/router.