Hi, I'm a current Master's student in Computer Networking. Over the years I have acquired a broad knowledge of computer networking concepts (TCP, IP, DNS, Proxies, Mail Servers e.t.c). I also have a CCNA and have learnt basic router configuration procedures (in a simulated environment).

Unfortunately I do not have the required industry practical experience to back it up and get a good IT job. I would have gone ahead to buy a live server but I definitely can't afford one.

I would like to know if there's any resource available on the net (probably a simulated server environment) that would allow me practise in a windows server environment or if there's any server setup, configuration and maintenance literature I can read to get a more detailed knowledge of their operations

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

You dont need to buy a full-fledge server machine for you to setup a learning environment for yourself. At a minimum, you'll need 2 systems of any, but reasonable specifications. One would be the server and the other, a host on the network.

What you did not state clearly is the aspect of network your are talking about. There's the "hardware kind of" networking(switches, routers configuration and stuffs like OSPF, RIP . . .configurations) and there's the "Software kind of" networking(when you talk about Server OSes configured as DNS, Mail, Application . . .servers).

This classification is IMHO only.

If you are interested in the switches and routers configuration, I dont know where you could get hands-on practicals that I can direct you to. But if its server OS setup/maintenance, then I have some tips I can offer you.

Just clarify which you need.

if you dont have a fully licensed product you can download server 2003 R2, it has a 90 day grace period (You need to confirm this from the microsoft website) This should be enough time o ryou to play with it. You can awlays tear it down and start again if you need more time. Or if you really want more you can install Citrix Xenserver which will allow you to configure 4 Virtual machines on one hardware. the Express version of Citrix Xenserver is free. If getting hardware is a problem then you are stuck with LABS which frankly are not it IMO

@ Maleek

Thank's a lot for your response. I am actually interested in the "software networking" u described which would involve Server OS configuration. I think i have done a lil bit of hardware networking but not the software networking u described. i would look forward to reading ur tips.

Thanks once again.

@ Komputanq

Thanks for your response. I don't exactly understand wot u mean by hardware. Would my 40GB Windows Vista Laptop qualify as appropriate hardware?
kindly clarify.

Thanks.

OK

Windows environment configuration/management is very wide that I'll probably lose my mind if I want to delve into all of it here. To start with, you'll need the following:
- Two systems: One with Windows 2003 server and the other, Windows XP
- Both systems should be connected(Ethernet via a switch/hub, cross-over cable or wireless)
- An internet connection (Mainly for the DNS aspect)

With these in place, you would be able to try out almost all that is possible in a production environment. If you have this in place, let me know. I'll send some materials or post them here for you to go through and experiment on the exercises in them.