Building Cybersecurity Awareness: A Hands-on Approach with Cisco Packet Tracer

Understanding networking is essential in cybersecurity. Knowing how devices connect, how data moves, and how services like websites or emails work helps identify weak spots hackers might exploit.

This is where Cisco Packet Tracer becomes important that lets you create a simulation & test virtual networks without needing real equipment and where you can safely practice building and securing networks.

For cybersecurity, Packet Tracer can helps you to understand how information flows and spot unusual activity that might signal a threat. Also to practice setting up firewalls and other defenses to protect networks.

To put this knowledge into practice, let’s dive into two key simulations using Cisco Packet Tracer.

FYI, this simulations are only example and hope the Audiences get to know about it.

1st Simulation: Peer-to-Peer Network In this simulation, we’ll set up a simple peer-to-peer network with two PCs. Each PC will have a private IP address and no server is needed. The goal is to configure both PCs so they can communicate directly with each other.

The rules are IP for PC 1: 192.168.1.2 and PC 2: 192.168.1.3.

Peer-to-Peer Network

Here’s what we’ll do:

make a 2 PCs with no have a connection.

Connect the two PCs using a chopper cross-over cable that specifically designed to connect two similar devices directly. Connect from PC 1 to PC 2 by choose FastEthernet0 for both PCs until fully connected.

Next, assign private IP addresses to each PC by clicking the PC. Assign the IP with 192.168.1.2 and Subnet Mask by tab it, then default subnet mask will appear.

Now the same condition for PC 2. Assign the IP with 192.168.1.3 and Subnet Mask by tab it, then default subnet mask will appear.

Now click the PC1 > Desktop > Command Prompt then insert command “ping 192.168.1.3” to see how PC 1 can communicate to PC 2. If it connected, PC 2 will send back the response to PC 1 by reply it.

Next, do the same thing like PC1 above. Finally, PC 2 also can communicate with PC 1 and PC 1 send the reply to PC 2.

That’s all for 1st simulation, now go on to 2nd simulation.

2nd Simulation : Small Office LAN Network Next, we’ll simulate a Local Area Network (LAN) for a small office with isnide have two departments (Administration and HR). Each department will have its own set of devices connected to a switch, and we’ll configure them to communicate securely.

The rules are:

1. Administration Dept (floor 1) : 3 PCs with IP 192.168.100.3–192.168.100.5.
2. HR Dept (floor 2) : 3 PCs with IP 192.168.100.7–192.168.100.9.
3. switch, in this case I will use 2 switches. It’s ok if only using one switch.
4. one server.
5. All devices should be able to access the server with IP 192.168.100.2 and test connectivity using ping.

It should be like this

Here’s what we’ll do:

make a 6 PCs according to the rules. The first 3 PCs belong to Administration Dept (IP : 192.168.100.3, 192.168.100.4, 192.168.100.5) and the rest belong to HR Dept (IP : 192.168.100.7, 192.168.100.8, 192.168.100.9)

make two switches to represent the separation between floors. Alternatively, you can use a single switch if simplicity is preferred.

Put one server with IP address: 192.168.100.2 and all devices in both departments should be able to access the server.

Connect all PCs to each switch, the server to one of the switches (free to choose what switch you want to connect it) and connect each switch by using Copper Straight-Through Cable for connect different types of devices

Manually configure IP addresses and subnet masks for all devices. Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0.

Now we’ll test the conectivity. Use the ping command from each PC to verify they can reach the server (192.168.100.2) and other devices in the network. For first try, PC1-Admin (192.168.100.4) & PC3-HR (192.168.100.7) will send ping to the server, but you must’ve already configure the IP address inside server. The result in image show that both PCs success to run the ping command and get the reply from its server.

For 2nd test, lets try to test between PC5-HR (192.168.100.9) to both PC4-HR (192.168.100.8) and PC3-HR (192.168.100.7) and its’work.

For last test, we’ll try to test between server (192.168.100.2) to both PC0-Admin (192.168.100.3) and PC4-HR (192.168.100.8) and sure it’s work too.

All set and here the Learning Objectives:

• Understand how devices in a LAN communicate across switches.
• Learn the basics of IP addressing and subnetting.
• Configure and test network connectivity using the ping tool.

By completing this simulation, you’ll see how structured networks are built in offices and learn how to ensure seamless communication between departments and central resources like servers.

Regards, Martin S