Ham Radio Hardware?

[fn8t]

I know almost nothing about Ham radio. I am studying for my license right now. I am aware that many transceivers can be combined with a PC to simplify tuning. But I don't know anything about networking over ham. I'm not sure what equipment is needed. Right now I am thinking about a portable unit with a power adapter. The one I am looking at can interface with the PC for tuning. I just don't know if this interface provides the ability to network digitally or not. I've hunted around the web and mostly find projects that are modifying routers for mesh networking over ham. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough, yet. I thought I might ask here since its likely, that once I find the information I need, I'll also need to find *BSD compatible hardware.