Free/cheap dedicated server?

[HappySkeet]

Yep, crazy title, sorry to get your hopes up - I dont have free dedicated plans
But I'm looking to learn how to manage a dedicated server. I heard you can do it fairly easy with cpanel/WHM.

Is there a way to load linux and cpanel on a box I have here in my home?
I just want to play around with the settings to get a good feel before I load my sites and start dishing out $80+/month.

Are there any guides out there? I didn't find anything on google. I'd rather not pay, but I could manage 20-30$/month for a cheap "learner" server (but I'm pretty sure cpanel costs $30/month just for the license).

ANY and ALL help would be much appreciated.
Cheers

[wfb]

cpanel needs a license you will need to pay for. Depending on the company the price varies.

You can always rent a cheap vps (dedi in small) ; settings are the same as a dedi , so you can test it.
I believe cpanel costs an adiidional 5-10$ and the cheapest vps is about 17,5-20$ (192mb ram, 225gb transfer) at jagpc (see sig) : make sure to use their promotion coupons, they give mostly discounts (discount 15% + 50% more resources and cpanel for free)

[HappySkeet]

Cool, so are all VPS essentially mini dedicated servers? I'm guessing they are just virtual portions of one then. I never knew that if that's the case.

And can I do almost anything on the VPS that I might need to do on a full dedicated? I'm looking to start up some proxy servers and I have no idea what I'm doing :/ Thanks for the response