Beginner question - minimum infrastructure for testing J2EE

[Rory French]

Hi all,
I'm a J2EE beginner and plan to teach myself Enterprise Java at home, focusing mainly on EJB.
I want to know about the minimum computer setup I'll need. I.e.: will it be necessary or preferable for me to create a home network? If so then will a standard peer-to-peer network do? Any wisdoms you can impart would be greatly appreciated!
Rory

[Andres Gonzalez]

Originally posted by Rory French:
Hi all,
I'm a J2EE beginner and plan to teach myself Enterprise Java at home, focusing mainly on EJB.
I want to know about the minimum computer setup I'll need. I.e.: will it be necessary or preferable for me to create a home network? If so then will a standard peer-to-peer network do? Any wisdoms you can impart would be greatly appreciated!
Rory

My suggestion will be.. if you're starting from scratch learning J2EE (EJB in particular), use only your PC for the time being and get familiar with the technology, application server, etc... if you don't have access to a non-opensource application server (weblogic, websphere, oracleAS), then download JBoss and start playing with it. Once you feel more confortable start increasing the *complexity* of your application..
I used to run JBoss in my win 2000 box with no problems at all. Reading a book is also highly recommended. Ed Roman's EJB book is one of my favorites, you can download it for free
here.
my $0.02
;-)

[Murali Nanchala]

If you are talking about your system level requirements, then the least denominators are the requirements for the Application Server you choose.

[Rory French]

Thanks a ton for the advice, Andres and Murali. You've told me exactly what I need to know