What is the best resource or method for learning more about servers and networking?

Question

I can get around a server to some degree, but everything I have learned has been as I have needed to learn it. Every once in a while I will learn about some new command that will revolutionize how I think about systems and networking, and realize how I could have been using it this whole time if only I had known about it. Anything to bring someone from novice to some kind of fluency? Do I just need to earn the battle scars bit by bit over the course of years? (I mean of course I do but what can I do to help it be not quite so painful?)

For instance, I am still fuzzy on all of networking. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Today, to learn quickly there are the virtual machines. After and while reading a book/tutorial you can try what are you learning, without the panic to create problems!

Answer 2

1. ServerFault.com
2. The Practice of System and Network Administration
3. Anything from O'Reilly on the topics that interest you.
4. Find a mentor or three that can answer vague questions and direct you to appropriate resources for the areas you're interested in.
5. Subscribe to and follow the mailing lists for the technologies that you're interested in. You'd be amazed at how much you can learn from watching other people discuss the technology and its capabilities.

Answer 3

Fairly new to it all myself but found doing the Network+ certification useful. Got a couple of study guides for it and that gives a fairly broad overview of lots of bits and pieces. The books I used were the Sybex and Myers books. Since that I have set up an ESXi server and am busy using (breaking) them to try and refine my knowledge and convert theory in to, hopefully, practical skills. Have also enjoyed reading The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference. Not everyones cup of tea but gives a fairly comprehensive overview of the various bits of TCP/IP you will beusing and some of the history which can help explain some of the limitations/reasons for what it is doing today. Bar that I would say experience and failures are the best way. Finding that out myself slowly as I get more exposed to servers and infrastructure.

Answer 4

The way I've learnt is to pick a project, try it and fail, see where you went wrong, fix it! break it learn to fix it!

Aside from that both the Cisco course and Microsoft training books are excellent.