This document provides an overview of footprinting and reconnaissance techniques used during a penetration test. It discusses how penetration testers meticulously gather information about a target network before attempting exploits. The lab objectives are to use ping and other tools to extract information about an organization like its IP address range, network topology, firewalls, and remote access methods. This information gathering process is an important first step of a penetration test to identify vulnerabilities while avoiding damaging the target system.