Create a "Virtual" LAN (not a VLAN)

I've just finished reading an article on ARP spoofing, and I've become intregued by the subject. The article cleared up my understanding of how networks work, but there is still a lot I don't understand and I'd quite like to have a go at setting up a network that I can play about and experiment with.

My first though was to buy myself an expensive hub / switch and play around with whatever old computers I could scrounge, but then I wondered if I would be better off creating a "Virtualised" LAN (not sure what the correct terminology is) between some VMs

Any ideas on if this is possible / how I would do this? (Or what the correct terminology for this is)

From serverfault Kragen

• You can create a virtual LAN using Hamachi.

  Advantages of LogMeIn Hamachi

  • LAN over the Internet Arrange multiple computers into their own secure network, just as if they were connected by a physical cable.
  • Files and Network Drives Access critical files and network drives.
  • Zero-configuration Works without having to adjust a firewall or router.

  It has a free non-commercial license. Hamachi is very popular on the gaming scene allowing people to play a game as if they were on the same LAN together.

  Hopefully this helps.

  Thanks

  David Archer : I'm not sure this answers the question. This looks to be a vpn solution. Sounds like he wants a LAN running in a virtualised environment

  tomfanning : agreed. Not relevant.
  From $pageUsers[$post.author].name

• Yes its very possible to do this with a bunch of VM's. Dunno what host OS you're using but to decent choices of VM software are VirtualBox and of courseVMWare

  Each of these machines can then pretend to be on your local network or you can create a network just for them.

  You can look at vmware appliances to download some ready made images of servers. You could use one of them as a router/dhcp-sever/whatever for the network which would save you buying a piece of hardware.

  Obviously just watch out for mem usage running all those VM's.

  tomfanning : To elaborate on this, VMWare (for one) has the concept of a virtual switch. This PDF seems to cover the concepts. http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/virtual_networking_concepts.pdf

  David Archer : Great link :-)

  Kragen : Thanks - fantastic link. I didn't realise that VMWare had built-in support for switches.
  From David Archer

• I asked nearly the same question on Serverfault and got some good answers there.

  From edg