Hello to everyone.

I have been intrested in the concepts surrounding hacking and programming for a few years now, and will soon be entering university to study an IT segree, soon branching into the Security sector, and later, becoming a penetration tester.

I would like some input on where I may start gaining more knowledge on networking and the sorts.

I am almost finished an amature Java program for my practical assessment task in matric, which browses a LAN for 'alive' IP addresses, and soon will be mentioned on its completion.

Thanking you,
N15M0

Welcome to the forums! You'll find plenty of help here as long as you sound like you're putting in effort! Good luck on your program!

Fantastic!

I will soon be attending some Information Security confrences to further expand my knowledge.

Thanx for the help, much appreciated!

pentest.cryptocity.net IMO is a bit advanced stuff for a beginner.What prior skills do you have?

Since you asked about where to gain networking knowledge, I;ll keep my answer to this only. If you want to do some certificates, which you should do, then I would suggest starting out with Network+. It's a good entry-level networking certificate. Study for it even if you don't want to take the exam. Then you can start preparing for CCNA. I'm myself studying for it and the stuff included in its syllabus is fabulous. I suggest going through RFCs. They might appear formidable at the beginning, but once you get in the habit it'll be like drug. You'll want to refer to RFC for every networking problem you face. Start with this one http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1180.html it'll give you a basic overview of TCP/IP.