Discuss Security Lab Setup

[captndalton]

I am interested in setting up a security lab as a learning tool to practice with some of the security programs that I've found on these forums and courses that I've attended (student of ISS). If anybody has found a link to a tutorial or checklist for a suggested hardware setup and suggested OS/software to include, I'd really like to see it. For example, I can set up 3 or 4 machines, and a number of virtual machines if necessary or ideal, with some other network appliances all in some way capable of internet access. I've read one article that suggested setting up a honeynet to get real attacks to learn from but I'm not sure if that will cause strife with the ISP. Does anybody have any suggestions? Do you have a security lab already that I could model mine after?
I'm interested in finding the differences in OS turn-key security and flaws with Windows Server/Home versions and Linux, and how well some of the best spoken programs from these forums do in different environments.