Learning lots of happy networking things

[mbpark]

Hello.

I've been teaching myself the basics of IP Internetworking as an aside to what I normally do (Oracle DBA/Server Admin/Developer).

I ended up picking up a few Cisco books, as well as the excellent book from McGrawHill on Cisco Internetworking called Cisco Router Internetworking.

Any iptables tips? That seems a lot like IOS, and I'm slowly figuring it out.

My other question: What's the best way to teach yourself this stuff? I've got a few Linux boxen around (mostly running Red Hat 7.2, and will have a Debian one around soon, as well as FreeBSD).

I'm having fun so far, and it's interesting to figure out. So far I've figured out a lot with Oracle Connection Manager and source routing, as well as a little about routing.

The main reason I'm interested in this is because I'm preparing for iSCSI and the interesting new tech that will bring.

And it sure as heck beats SQL Server.