Alright, I have read a few post so far and I am in complete amazement at the knowledge that is floating around here. I am extremly new to "this" (hacking, cracking, whatever the correct word is sorry if I offended anyone). I am not trying to find out how to get into my buddies system or anything what I want to learn is how to check a network for holes or weak spots. Along with my companies site and so forth.

My OS as of current is Windows 2000 but I am wondering if I should switch over to Mandrake 8.2. A buddy of mine gave me that software and I am wondering if it would be wise to load it up, or if it won't make much difference. I have been reading a bit on Linux and it sounds wonderful, yet I have no clue about it. So my first question is, should I dual boot W2K with Mandrake 8.2? Or, should I continue running W2K without any linux.

Next question is, can anyone help me with just the basics... I don't want people to hand me code and me pass it off as my own because I would one day like to help people on this thread but for now, I need to learn and be humble and take advice from those cats that are smarter than me so please if you know of a good way to start or someone has alittle extra time they could donate to me I would in gratitude.

Thanks.