If you are installing NodeJS on a machine that you have admin privileges to, you can install NodeJS by downloading the binaries directly. This allows you to bypass any special setup that a version manager may require. Browse to https://nodejs.org/en/download/ and download the linux binaries. Alternatively use wget.
cd /opt/node
sudo wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v17.0.1/node-v17.0.1-linux-x64.tar.xz
sudo tar -xvf node-v17.0.1-linux-x64.tar.xz
sudo mv node-v17.0.1-linux-x64 17.0.1
You would of course replace the version numbers with the version you are interested in. Also, the move (mv) command is not required, I just prefer to keep the version numbers simple. If this is your first NodeJS install you will need to add sudo mkdir /opt/node.
After you have installed the binary files into the /opt directory you will want to create links so that you can execute them from anywhere.
sudo ln -s /opt/node/17.0.1/bin/node node
sudo ln -s /opt/node/17.0.1/bin/npm npm
sudo ln -s /opt/node/17.0.1/bin/npx npx
