Firewall/Router Simulators/Labs

Hey guys, I started studying for my Security+ about 1.5 weeks ago however had not come across this site and therefore have been using professor messer's online free course. Anyways I am the type of person that needs to do something once or twice before it is 100% grasped and stays with me forever. Can anyone suggest a firewall/router simulator I can play around with and maybe some LAB exercises to go with it? Also does anyone know how one would simulate a vulnerability scan as well? Unfortunately I do not have the funds to pay for the Sec+ LABS on this site otherwise I would not be making this post. Hey guys, I started studying for my Security+ about 1.5 weeks ago however had not come across this site and therefore have been using professor messer's online free course. Anyways I am the type of person that needs to do something once or twice before it is 100% grasped and stays with me forever. Can anyone suggest a firewall/router simulator I can play around with and maybe some LAB exercises to go with it? Also does anyone know how one would simulate a vulnerability scan as well? Unfortunately I do not have the funds to pay for the Sec+ LABS on this site otherwise I would not be making this post. My personal advice is to get an external hard drive (or if you have another one you're already not using, great!). Partition that little guy and install a kernel/OS called [Proxmox](https://www.proxmox.com/en/) (you may also wish to consider VMWare, ESXi, etc.). Proxmox is a great tool for virtualization and will REALLY help in terms of being lower on funding, since you'll be able to spin up virtual machines (and KVMs \[Kernel Virtual Machines\]) at your leisure with whatever OS you want to mess around with. You will of course want to do this on your most powerful computer because you're going to be virtualizing chunks of it (don't worry, it's dynamic resource allocation, so your computer won't crap out on your unless you assign all your resources and use them all at once). For labs and whatnot, check out [Pentester Lab's](https://pentesterlab.com/exercises/) free exercises. They also offer ISOs that are constructed for that particular vulnerability. Of course, these are just a few well-known exploits-- in the end if you want to get the best experience, you'll need to follow some of the major security blogs, CVE, etc. so that you can find out where bugs are, find an ISO or software that is vulnerable, put it in one of your virtual machines and have fun! For simulating vulnerability scans, you can use anything ranging from nmap to nikto (both installed by default on Kali and nmap is installed on nearly everything now). The tool you'll want to use to scan will of course be dependent on what sort of vulnerabilities you're scanning for. In terms of firewalls/routers, you may wish to try [PFSense](https://www.pfsense.org/download/) in its own virtual machine (once you have your lab setup), however this is not a substitute for becoming overly familiar with iptables as well. Hope this helped a bit! I am putting together a cheap 200 dollar laptop from my friend and setting it up as a test station. I am looking to use it for linux, pentesting, hacking, etc. You can always use Oracle's VM service, too for some things if you need to. It isn't yet ready for Windows 10, but you can use it on Windows 8 and such, even a Mac. Also, look into your own computers firewall and settings. Then look online for replies to any questions you may have about them. Use multiples resources, too. Sometimes being more active and researching can help you remember things better. Plus muscle memory and practice can, too. Krux has very good advice as well.