Actually, VLAN is a terminology used not only by Cisco. I reckon that is used by the networking area in general. The idea would be exactly what you have in mind when thinking about Cisco’s configurations to setup VLANs (one switch divided into 2 LANs).

I’m not sure about it if you can do it in VMPlayer, since I use Workstation.

I'd recommend this book: The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing, by Syngress.

It's start from the basics, explaning the process of a pentest, goes through linux usage and the most used tools to scan and exploit systems.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Basics-Hacking-Penetration-Testing/dp/1597496553/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Its a very good book to begginers, but if you are already familiar with the basics concepts, I'd recommend: Advanced Penetration Testing for Highly-Secured Environments, Packt Publishing.

http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Penetration-Testing-Highly-Secured-Environments/dp/1849517746/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344467380&sr=1-1&keywords=advanced+penetration

What is great in this book are the  advanced techniques and the labs setups. It teachs you to build up labs with layers of firewalls and systems to make your exploitation harder.