[Anima Templi]

Thanx seriously you post made my mind clear even im a newbie who wanna juss dive into the hacking,but what question i have in ma mind is should i just first get clear with the os concepts and then start leaning the hacking tools or should it be like directly starting to learn hacking tools and in between cover the topics .I wanna be a pen tester so and my foundations arent yet bulit i juss know c++ lang and php and strtd leaning os concepts.
Thank u in advance

Pen-testing is a very big field, too big to be covered by one man. Therefore you will have to pick out some fields in which you want to specialize in, like web app pen-testing, networks, malware etc.

So for me to point you in the right direction, I'm going to need you to answer that question. "What field(s) do you want to work with?"

i actually wanna go networking pentesting i even heard that systems securities also come under pentesting so cn you please suggest me about these two fields
thanx in advamce:Thumbs-Up:

Okay, two fairly interesting fields you picked there. Okay let me see..

Networks: You will need to look into how computers actually connect to each other, which packets they send and what type of connection they make. what's the difference between the different packages and why are they not similar? Look into how servers work and how we connect to them. Networks, is much about connections and packages.

System security: This is a bid harder and will take a LOT of time to master. You will have to learn about how the systems work, in depth. How malware behave and most important how to create it. You will have to spent years on studying programming languages etc.

[Mutaroc]

I am just learning, reading a lot and working as much as I can to become a good pentester (which is the path I decided to take).

I am currently using Kali Linux and reading all regards networking from scratch... Any other suggestion you can give me will be very appreciated

[Mutaroc]

I am just learning, reading a lot and working as much as I can to become a good pentester (which is the path I decided to take).

I am currently using Kali Linux and reading all regards networking from scratch... Any other suggestion you can give me will be very appreciated

[Anima Templi]

I'm sorry, Linux distro.

Not an easy answer. But most people starts out with Ubuntu since it's fairly easy and you will find loads of support.

[Anima Templi]

I want the hardest one to use. I want to learn as much as possible.

Go Arch Linux or Slackware then.

May i know how do i get a linux computer? i know it sounds like a stupid question but... i dont see any computer shops selling linux

There are stores around, where you can buy both Linux distros (no reason to do that, since you can get them free online) and even laptop which ships with a linux distro installed. I know especially Dell has been known for making such laptops. You can check this link: http://www.techdrivein.com/2010/09/7-pro...linux.html

[Co0kie334]

Thanks for the post, very helpful ^_^. Question, is learning a coding language similar to learning a foreign language? I'm not sure if thats the best way to put it. And to figure out how someone wrote a program, would the first step be learning the language?

[Anima Templi]

Thanks for the post, very helpful ^_^. Question, is learning a coding language similar to learning a foreign language? I'm not sure if thats the best way to put it. And to figure out how someone wrote a program, would the first step be learning the language?

Yes and no. The process of learning a programming language is almost the same as learning a spoken language. But the process stops there. You will find that programming require much more logical thinking and understanding. And yes, if you want to know how programs are made, simply learn to program.

[chmod]

May i know how do i get a linux computer? i know it sounds like a stupid question but... i dont see any computer shops selling linux

You can also do as I did and buy a regular laptop specifying that you dont want an OS, (you will save yourself quite a bit of money this way too) and then just install whatever distribution you choose when it arrives.

[Ace-Se7en]

I have just registered to this site today as this is a subject that interests me. This is my 1st post so bare with me. Your post made me think. I like things that make me think. One section that stood out to me was the 'white hat /grey hat /black hat'. It is a good point... Why do you want to hack? I think if I was to choose one, it would be somewhere in between white and grey - I of course do not want to do jail time (who does?) and in balance, I am generally a good person so I would want to put any skills I learnt to good use. On the flipside, if I spent so much of my time learning the skills, I would want to have a little fun with it .

I have absolutely ZERO knowledge in how you go about hacking anything.. so that leaves room for improvement. I would like to know primarily (and I have not seen a post about this on the forums yet - but I probably have not looked hard enough), how do you effectively protect yourself from hackers and such. I think that is probably an important starting point, and will probably help me understand more about hacking in the long run. In all honesty, I would love to help people (and myself) who are being attacked by malicious brats that have nothing better to do, and maybe make them think twice about trying it again in the process? Also - I'd love to have a little fun with it and maybe hack some games just for shits and giggles (I have no idea how I'd achieve that, but would love any advice on how to do so).

I really appreciate the time you took to make this thread, it has given me food for thought. I look forward to learning something here, and being a part of this. I am not a complete computer idiot, if I was, I probably would not take an interest right? But in all honesty - I am not far off !!! Any advice/pointers/anything useful at all would be appreciated. I have email alerts enabled for PM's, so I should get them/ reply to them swiftly enough.

Hello to you all, and I hope to learn from those who are willing to help.

[Nick Saban]

Very nice! I agree with alot of what you said, BUT.. It doesn't matter what path that you want to take, you should know it all. To be a white hat, you should have been able to call yourself a successful black hat.
Look at it this way.
White cop goes to poor black neighborhood and doesn't know how things work.
Denzel goes to neighborhood and actually runs it. (Training Day reference)
Make sense?
You need to know it all first in order to call yourself an ethical hacker. I'm not saying that you have to do illegal things to be white hat, but you should know what can and will happens, and how it happens, and with what.