Learn everything in TCP/IP Illustrated like the back of your hand. Buy old high-end gear on eBay ($50k switch from 8 years ago? $200). Setup your own network. G

Learn everything in TCP/IP Illustrated like the back of your hand. Buy old high-end gear on eBay ($50k switch from 8 years ago? $200). Setup your own network. Get a half rack at a datacenter and run your own network and servers. Get a job at a company that has interesting network requirements like high capacity and/or high availability. Read UNIX Network Programming. Learn how to write high performance client and server programs.