I'm sure there's a book you can pick up but the most pleasant way of learning is solving a problem you have. Get a decent router, maybe something a little beefy

I'm sure there's a book you can pick up but the most pleasant way of learning is solving a problem you have. Get a decent router, maybe something a little beefy like Netgear WNDR3800[1] so that you're not too constrained in what you can do with it, install OpenWRT on it and make your life a little easier. Maybe you need a VPN to your company, or university? Unless it's some high security stuff, set up a client on the router and route the traffic through it to selected networks. Or maybe your ISP doesn't offer IPv6 yet and you'd like to use it? Get a tunnel from SixXS[2], or HE[3]. Set up a file server, bridge your network with your parents' network, and let them use it. Keep their backups for example. Create a completely separate open wifi network if you live in a densely populated area. You can also route its traffic through some other host, if your ISP doesn't look kindly on that sort of thing. Learning without goals in mind seems a little tedious. [1] http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3800 http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3800 [2] https://www.sixxs.net/main/ https://www.sixxs.net/main/ [3] http://www.tunnelbroker.net/ http://www.tunnelbroker.net/