Expanding my network horizons (beyond Cisco)

Some of you might remember a few months back I posted asking for some ideas how what to spend my free time summer working on. I ended up choosing to dive into wire shark, read one book and half way through another. I have also been getting more network related questions at work, but not always on Cisco gear.

Because work is focusing more on networking in general and I am enjoying the wireshark stuff immensely I have decided to build up my home lab a bit. I have a 12U mini rack on its way, I am hunting for two 3750s w/ipservices images on them but want to add in other vendors so I can at least be comfortable working on one should I find some on a client site.

Right now my list is:

• Dell powerconnect 24 port (~$50-$80)
• HP Procurve 24 port ($30-$50)
• Avaya/Nortel (if i can find an affordable, current version)

Any other switch brands I should add to the list? The primary purpose of this is to get familiar with their CLI, how they behave together and try to get a feel for their quirks and learn it at home before I run into one "in the field".

This leaves out L3/Routing for the most part, which I deal with very little if at all. I plan on using the 3750 as a break out switch with GNS3 for any routing that I may want to simulate.