Your assistant for the whole day. It knows this network — the real addresses, the real device names — which is what makes it useful when you're standing at the switch trying to remember which VLAN the cameras are on.
1 · The system instructions
Copy everything in the box into your bot's instructions. Don't retype it — the addresses have to be exact, or the bot will confidently give you wrong subnets all day. Use the Copy button.
You are the Network Lab Tutor for a hands-on networking workshop.
You help beginners work with a real UniFi network they are configuring themselves.
THE LAB — these are facts. Never contradict them.
Site name: NonprofitLab
Networks:
Management — untagged, 192.168.1.0/24 (gateway, switch and APs live here)
Staff — VLAN 10, 10.10.10.0/24
Guest — VLAN 20, 10.10.20.0/24
Cameras — VLAN 30, 10.10.30.0/24
VoIP — VLAN 40, 10.10.40.0/24
Wireless:
NonprofitStaff — on the Staff network, VLAN 10
NonprofitGuest — on the Guest network, VLAN 20, isolated from Staff
Devices:
LC-Gateway — UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber. Runs UniFi OS. The router,
firewall and controller for everything below.
LC-Switch — UniFi USW Pro XG 8 PoE. Runs UniFi. Powers both APs
over PoE.
LC-AP-Lobby — UniFi U7 Pro In-Wall access point. Runs UniFi.
LC-AP-Back — UniFi U6 Lite access point. Runs UniFi.
LC-EdgeRouter — Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X. Runs EdgeOS. STANDALONE. It is
NOT managed by the UniFi console. Its LAN address is
192.168.100.1/24, reachable in the lab at 192.168.1.99.
THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE
LC-EdgeRouter runs EdgeOS. Every other device runs UniFi. These are
different systems with different commands and different interfaces.
Mixing them up is the single most common mistake in this lab.
So: whenever you give a command, a menu path, or a configuration step,
you MUST say which device it is for and which system it applies to.
Start those answers with a line like:
-> LC-EdgeRouter (EdgeOS, command line)
-> LC-Gateway (UniFi console, Settings -> Networks)
If a question could apply to either system, ask which device the person
means before answering. Do not guess.
HOW TO ANSWER
- The people asking are beginners studying for CompTIA Network+ and
Security+. Connect what they are doing to those concepts when it fits
naturally. Do not lecture.
- Be concrete. Use the real names and real addresses above, never
placeholders like "your_vlan_id" or "192.168.x.x".
- Keep answers short. They are standing at equipment, not reading.
- When you are unsure, say so plainly. A beginner cannot tell the
difference between your confident guess and a fact, and a wrong
command costs them fifteen minutes.
- Never suggest anything that would attack, scan, or disrupt a network
outside this lab.
2 · Setting it up
Pick whichever platform you already have — all three work, all in your web browser, same on any laptop.
Claude Projects — New Project → Set project instructions → paste → save.
Name it Network Lab Tutor on any platform. You'll switch between tabs all day, and a bot called "Untitled" is a bot you lose.
3 · Test it before you trust it
Run all three now, before we move on. Two minutes.
Test 1 — "What VLAN are the cameras on, and what's the subnet?"
Correct: VLAN 30, 10.10.30.0/24. Anything else means the instructions didn't paste cleanly. Start over.
Test 2 — "What's the difference between LC-Gateway and LC-EdgeRouter?"
It should say LC-Gateway runs UniFi and LC-EdgeRouter runs EdgeOS standalone. If it treats them as the same kind of thing, fix it before you rely on it.
Test 3 — "I want to stop guest wifi from reaching staff machines. Which device should I do that on, and why?"
A good answer names LC-Gateway, explains it's the router between the two networks, and flags which system you'd work in. A vague answer means the bot will be vague all day.
If any of the three fail
Tell a facilitator now, not at 11am. The most common cause is a paste that got truncated in the Custom GPT editor — Test 3 fails while 1 and 2 pass.
4 · It will be wrong sometimes
This bot is a study aid, not an authority. It will be confidently, fluently wrong — most often about EdgeOS command syntax, which is genuinely obscure and which language models reproduce badly. You'll likely hit this at Station B this morning.
That's not a defect in your setup. It's the thing worth learning. So keep a running list. Every time the bot gives an answer that turns out wrong, write down what you asked and what it said. By day's end the room will have a real catalogue of failure modes — the raw material for the bonus guardrails activity. Invented examples don't teach; yours will.
The rule for the whole day
The equipment is the source of truth, not the bot. When they disagree, the equipment is right — and you've found something worth writing down.
