I am abit late to the party here, but I will add my 2 pence worth.

In general you will find the InfoSec community to be a friendly and helpful bunch, but as with everything in life you need to also help yourself.

You say you NEED to learn about hacking, and perhaps this is getting you off on the wrong foot from the begining. I think you need to do some research on what you think hacking is, why its of interest, what your looking to achieve. If its so you can hack your mates wireless you might be in the wrong place.
If you want to understand the culture, the concepts, mindsets and more then your in the right place.
As Chris has already said look around the forum for a wealth of knowledge, and try and identify where you want to focus.

You say your new at this, so why not start with some security fundamentals books, or if your into hardware hacking check out instructables and hackaday.

Google is your friend

Ok has anyone ever seen or heard of a site called hack this site?  From what I read on it it's sappose to teach you the basics to the more advanced but I question the site entirely.  Anyone ever heard of it?

I know i haven't been here for a while, i was busy with school, i have finally graduated high school.

here is a blog post i made few days a go.
I am not hired by a company to pentest, or work for someone who lets me hack, so i don't want to get in trouble for hacking without permission. I am sure some people are like me too and they don't want to get in trouble. so i just have few vms i can hack and learn from it.

http://t3hgr0up.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/dont-learn-to-hack-hack-to-learn/

@charliemong - ++1 

I like your signature.  That was the quote I'd used, in my previous one.

Thanks Dude i like my "Art of War" 

Still studying my nuts off thanks to your advise. Nearly finished all my M$ stuff (along with python etc). Then after reading Dom's american werewolf in london post about the 7 safe guys I asked about ages ago am gonna pop down and do their CSTA. Should be a good grounding for the OSCP.

Hi,

It's an old thread but guess i can just add on to this thread instead of create a new one.
After hangout for a few years in IT customer service, finally i secured my dream job..to be a pen tester.
However i need to start from a verrrryyy basic things as i didn't have any knowledge in IT security and perhaps the only reason i got this job is because i played with Hellboundhackers during my student life which is 4 years ago.

I have degree in Software Programming, but what can i say that, hacking start with network knowledge. I have to learn bout IP, Port, Linux, Server, etc.

there is no easy way and no spoon feed information. Apparently IT professional didn't enjoy teaching newbie who asked without doing some initial research. At least you should have a general ideas of the thing before getting to more in deep knowledge.

Self learning indeed a necessary criteria in this field. There is no other magical way to gain this skills. Hope i can success

Perhaps my post didn't related to this post...but i feel like i need to say it...hehe..