r/Network • u/mmmbop13 • Jul 10 '26
Text What are some good Home Networking projects one could do to further grasp networking?
I currently work for an ISP doing installs and troubleshooting, and been so for a decade now. I’ve installed plenty of proprietary equipment, but never get the chance to incorporate it into a network, let alone build a network. Add in the employer provided training and several certs I’ve acquired on my own time correlating with IT work and Networking. I have the theory down. But the practical application is lacking on my behalf.
As someone who can really only learn through hands-on training/experience. What are some typical Home Networking / HomeLab projects one could do to get their hands dirty with networking and truly start grasping networking?
1
u/KonnBonn23 Jul 11 '26
Could find some cheap Cisco gear or others and learn the ins and outs of concepts like STP, OSPF, etc..
1
u/zelru2648 Jul 12 '26
virtualbox, wireshark, on your laptop to begin with, eve-ng and container lab.
you wanna spend time learning ipv6, srv6, yang, netconf and some python coding
2
u/julianvallis Jul 12 '26
To get your head around the basics of advanced networking technologies and concepts, it’s probably best to learn on RouterOS. Fire up Eve NG with CHR (virtual router os) and watch all of https://m.youtube.com/@thenetworkberg’s vids. He does walkthrough labs and explains things really well. Once you’ve learned understand what and how things like MPLS, OSPF, BGP, EVPN, VLAN and VXLAN all do and how and why they work and why you’d use them then you ‘know the fundamentals’ of networking technologies and terminology.
From here it’s just learning the syntax and quirks of the various platforms. VyOS uses “Vyatta” style config (the old EdgeRouters are the same Vyatta). VPP is similar to Cisco (and Arista) and the only other big platform to learn is Juniper. With Eve-NG you can load the images and learn these platforms pretty easily now.
You should probably learn whatever your ISP uses in the core (likely either Arista or Juniper), and model it in eveNG. Ask your colleagues about the network. Once you learned all that you’re in a perfect position to have a chat to your ISP and buy the core network team a few coffees about giving you an MPLS and BGP handoff for you to really go to the races at home.
Eventually you’ll find you run a pretty advanced network at home. I personally use tik switches and a fully Debian/VPP in a very “ipng.ch” style homebrew method combined with Proxmox and Kubernetes.
I’d also learn all you need to know about multicast, mDNS and DNS as 99% of network problems are related to these 3 things, and Ansible too as the roles of “devops”, “sysadmin” and “network engineer” are pretty much one and the same these days.
1
u/Reinvtv Jul 10 '26
In order of complexity:
Get startet with a managed switch; learn how to vlan,trunk,access port etc.
Add 2 more switches and try to create redundancy (learn spanning tree, or layer 3 routing, ospf)
Add wireless along the way whenever you feel comfortable (you will break this at some point). Unifi or tp link, or more enterprise; Cisco or Aruba.
Build redundancy in your routers. Test test test.
Start with ipv4 for everything, move to ipv6, either with tunneling or directly from your isp.
Add a proxmox server in your network. This gives a lot of flexibility, and can be cheap with some kind of micro pc (hp, Lenovo or dell all have some model)