The best way is probably to get a broadband connection and to setup a home network.

Since I work from home I had to learn so much stuff about firewalls and the various services you can run on a machine that it is not even funny!

Just start small, set-up a firewall that allows nothing, then add a web server (and an https one). Later you can add ssh, smtp, squid, samba, ftp...

This will take you some time that won't be spent doing Perl stuff but it is fun in its own right! Plus nothing prevents you from writing admin scripts in Perl, thus learning how to use a bunch of new modules.

That said the main result for me is a new respect for sysadmins. It is a real job, just keeping those !@#$%^&* computers running properly and securely!