Total noob here

Hey all,
im totally new to the security scene and i was wondering if anyone could tell me how to get started off on my journey of knowledge. All help is very appreciated. :)

that's a pretty broad question...what interests you?

You'll soon learn that www.google.com is your best friend. :)

well, id like to learn how to generaly keep my pc secure, find out how things work and try and find out about whatever i can...as long as its interesting to me i'd enjoy finding out about it.... i'd also like to learn a programming language of some kind.

Well you could start by messing around with maybe zonealarm or blackice if running windows. Or if you really want security think about looking into linux or BSD. That way youll be able to create your own custom firewalls. Oreilly has some good books on security.

well im currently running on xp, i think thats spose to have a build in firewall , but i do have zonealarm set up as well as norton, i was thinking of partitioning my harddrive and adding a version of linux but i dont really know enough about it.

i would recomend red hat linux and there is some pretty good red hat books out there if you wanted to spend money

i think i'd prefer to learn more about windows before plunging into linux

For a newbie Redhat is the way to go. Microsofts quote on quote firewall sux big time. all it really is is disable vb scripting and some other worthless crap. I would check out www.linuxdoc.org for all your linux problems. i would recomend an older book called "A Practical Guide To The Unix System" This is a really good book. Its by Mark G. Sobell

Well for windows Oreilly makes some good books.

Check out the tutorials section here at AO, it should answer most of your immediate questions. This site is very good reference for your endeavor.

welcome to ao potato,

there is a lot to read and should help:

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=133897

cheers,

Your journey starts here potato where it ends or even if it will ever who knows, and who cares as long as its fun along the way :)

v_Ln

Thanks for the info y'all, I can now start my journey :)

You might also want to check out http://blacksun.box.sk

There are some very good tutorials there.

I preffer Ciphers my self.... I'm not very good at it, but it's really interessting.... but don't take my word 4 it.... You'll find what you need....

I also recommend (as already previously discussed) checking out sites such as:
HackYourself
Port Scanning

These won't ensure that you're fully secure, but it's a start...

Also, I would recommend Mandrake linux, simply because it has a built in disk partitioner, that way you need not do any work....it fixes your partitions for you

Also, if you said you want to get comfortable with windows first---DON'T!!!!!---See the problem with so many people is that they go to windows..get comfortable and fear learning once again. They would rather be comfortable with windows, instead of "getting" comfortable with linux.
If you have any linux questions, of course there is google....but feel free to ask. Those who love it, will love to answer them ;)

take care, and good luck on your journeys....

Is there any way i can test out linux without partitioning or changing my current OS?

Also , i wanted to find out about the design aspect of computers, and since i read that linux doesnt support images i thought it be best to stick to windows

I'm unsure of what you mean by images...if you disk images, yes it supports them. If you mean computer 'pictures', such as jpgs, etc... than yes it's fine

if you have 1.5 GB free, than I would throw on Mandrake...you'll notice it's very easy to install, and easy to use. You'll have all of the luxuries of windows, but yet get to experiment with linux.

second: you wouldn't have to change the OS, it would be installed on a separate partition that Mandrake makes from your free space, but partitioning is a must.

However, go to LINUXISO and look for linux distros that run under windows. I don't recommend them, but you wouldn't have to change anything on your OS. ( I know one is call phat linux)