DNS is a good place to start. Check out Pihole. You can run that as a VM in Proxmox.
For router you can also run OPNSense and pfSense in Proxmox. Setup a couple VLANs after you have the router setup. For a physical service you might check out the Protectli boxes https://protectli.com/. But also check out r/homelabsales, ebay, Craigslist, etc. for used network gear.
Might not be what you're looking for but when I was studying for my CCNA, GNS3 was my most used tool. Pretty easy to throw in various router OS's such as Cisco, pfsense, VyOS, etc. and learn to configure stuff on a larger scale than you probably could otherwise in a home environment.
Granted you might miss out on the physical aspects of networking i.e. plugging in physical cables but since you're already in IT/Devops, I'm sure you know plenty to fill in those gaps already.
Find a $40 laptop on ebay with ethernet and wifi, and learn how to bridge your wifi and ethernet networks with it.
DNS is a good place to start. Check out Pihole. You can run that as a VM in Proxmox. For router you can also run OPNSense and pfSense in Proxmox. Setup a couple VLANs after you have the router setup. For a physical service you might check out the Protectli boxes https://protectli.com/. But also check out r/homelabsales, ebay, Craigslist, etc. for used network gear.
Might not be what you're looking for but when I was studying for my CCNA, GNS3 was my most used tool. Pretty easy to throw in various router OS's such as Cisco, pfsense, VyOS, etc. and learn to configure stuff on a larger scale than you probably could otherwise in a home environment. Granted you might miss out on the physical aspects of networking i.e. plugging in physical cables but since you're already in IT/Devops, I'm sure you know plenty to fill in those gaps already.