Hi all,
I'm new here, my name is Rich and I live in the UK. I became interested in hacking a little while ago and decided to teach myself about computers and hacking. I've never had any tuition about computers but have used them since I was young and have a good deal of familiarity with them at surface level.
Durring university I took a short module on programming (C++) which I found challenging and good fun - so I decided to look more into it after my course ended. I have so far been working from a book called 'Hacking: the art of exploitation" by Jon Erickson. It seems like a rather good text to start off with as It begins with a basic view into C programming and disassembling code using gdb however I find it rather difficult to follow at times. I also have a (several year old) book on networking which I have recently begun reading.
It seems like I've dived into a pool at the deep end sometimes with the sheer number of different aspects I am trying to understand, so I am here to ask you all; where is the best place to start? Is getting a good basis in coding a good idea? Or do programmers tend to overlook important aspects for the sake of making thier code do what they want (something, i'm informed, most hacks take advantage of)? Is it better to get an old computer or 2 and play about with its inner coding just to explore and see what it does? Or play around with internet protocols and http until i'm experienced enough to go onto the next level?
Also if anyone can recommend any good/useful books for me to study, I would be very gratetful.
I look forward to browsing these forums more thoroughly, and I'm loving the show!!
Thanks,
Rich
