Total Control Dedicated Server for learning?

Not sure if there's anything suitable for me but I'd like to hear your suggestions. Basically I want to learn as much as a I can about web servers, mail servers, linux, dns etc and I think the best way would for me to have a dedicated server that I have full control over and can play and learn to my hearts content.

The server would not be used publically, strictly for my own learning so I have low bandwidth needs. I would also want to play about with different linux operating systems, mail servers and so on .. is there such a server where I have total control over a dedicated server with a low price? (as it will not generate much traffic)

My home ISP does not have a static IP which rules out me having a home pc (which I would have much preferred).

You can just create a partition on your hard drive and install Linux and learn how to install the server software on there. There's a service at dyndns.org that lets you have a YOURNAME.dyndns.org URL and it will reroute to your IP address. The IP address can be updated automatically through a software.

^ I've got spare PC's with net connections so I can make use of them but being able to use my home pc even though my IP is dynamic would be great.
Thanks for the response, I'll look into it now.

Edit: Would such a service work with mx records and not have me blocked by spamlists and such?

I'm a little confused. Why do you even need to have this server accessible by others to learn linux, mail servers, dns, etc? You can, and should, do all of this internally until you get a grasp on everything. Then you could look for a dedicated server and use the applications you decided were best for you on that box with confidence.

There's nothing wrong with the dyndns.org route, but I wouldn't use this for email or DNS. Email and DNS, well, DNS anyway, needs to be in an "always on" environment.

You dont need a VDS, your spare box can let you learn everything. Only thing that might not let you "check" how your server is from the outside world is that many ISPs block a lot of the common ports. Once you learn your way around linux, you can simply change your servers to run on other ports....

Renting server space will make it a bit harder and costlier becuae it is much more difficult to do reinstalls if the machine is not in your house.

Well if you want to learn how to manage say a box running Cpanel/DirectAdmin for webhosting then you will need a server.

Where are you based Bob and what's your budget mate?

Just get a $70-80 monthly box in a trustable datacenter, like theplanet.com . This will suffice for the tasks you are intending to do.

However if you get a redhat enterprise 3, whm cpanel box with standard feature list and learn it thoroughly, you will have learned a great deal of the current web hosting market.