Hi All

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to post, but Mods, by all means move it as necessary.

I'm an IT pro of a number of years, currently "resting". Most of my work has been in the IBM Host sphere, although I have also worked on Unix or clone systems, and performed a number of multi platform projects.
I'm a pretty experienced PC hobbyist, fixing a number of buddies hardware and software issues, and giving them the benefit of my experience.

I'm currently refreshing via Ubuntu Linux, as most of the better tools for Network hacking seem to be in this area.
I'm looking to make a few buddies who I can learn from, and indeed share my knowledge with, but would be particularly interested in getting a couple of people that would act as mentors over my first initial hurdles.
Someone that I could ask via email, or some form of chat, when I hit a problem, which might be a bit dumb to ask on an open forum.

For instance, I have versions of Ubuntu I run from CD. I haven't been brave enough to make dual boot systems, but I do have 3 PCs in the house, plus a Laptop, so intend installing it on there.
But when I get some of the code, for instance Kismet, I am a bit dumb about how I install it, and in which environment.

Anyway, hears hoping some of you guys can spare a bit of time in what will be my big fact hunt.

Thanks

Tom Wilhelm runs training classes that are based on the mentoring concept and are reasonably priced. You can look them up at http://www.hackingdojo.com/.

big_fact_hunt

If I were you, run Ubuntu as your OS but take advantage of Backtrack. Like chrisj said, dont re-invent the wheel. Using their virtual machine you can blow it up and you wont mess up your host machine.

http://www.backtrack-linux.org/downloads/

The forums are pretty active so you can always ask questions here but if you'd like my personal email address just send me a private message.

Check out IRC, Freenode is a great place, for instance: #backtrack-linux, #corelan and #intern0t are places you can ask many questions, even privately  (In #metasploit you should ask questions about metasploit of course.) Doesn't hurt to check it out, and it's free as well and you can also gain much more knowledge than most of the provided infosec mentors and trainers which is mostly not based on practical penetration testing such as scripting, programming, finding 0days, debugging, wifu, and so forth.

It's an easy and free way to learn, though you should expect that it is expected that you will also try to research and learn topics yourself but there is almost always room to ask any question on IRC if you're just asking the right place.

On the password side, I like John the Ripper for offline password cracking and hydra for online.  JTR has password lists/dictionaries available @ http://download.openwall.net/ along with http://g0tmi1k.blogspot.com/2010/02/site-news-isos-and-dictionaries.html

g0tmi1k also has some nice vids on Wireless