Thanks for all the replies, I never really considered starting with another programming language such as python or perl. This is something that I may look into.

As far as taking classes at a university goes I am currently attending a univeristy but I am a Biology major but I do love computers and I want to learn about them as a hobby. I know quite a bit about common troubleshooting with a PC but nothing about networkings and how they work.

I also have a copy of linux mandrake 9.0 that I downloaded from the mandrake site. I like it but I have a dsl modem that runs off of usb. I have found the drivers but I dont know enough about linux yet to install the drivers.

Thanks for all the help.