Hi,
I have been using linux for about a year now and i havn't really looked into networking before because i have only had one PC, but now i managed to get hold of a old box.
i dont really know where to start, i did a google on the subject and the program "samba" came up alot.
what i want from this network is basic file transfering, i'am intrested in network security and exploitation etc.. so i want to "penertration test" variour operating systems and learn about exploiting and how to prevent it. (safest way i thought)
if someone could point me in the right direction on how to do this i would be very greatful

Thanks for your time
- Jason

hi Jason1, welcome to lq. for file and printer sharing you'll be needing the samba, you can find everything you need including software and documentation here

http://www.samba.org/

you may also want to do some reading on basic networking fundamentals here

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/

http://www.netfilter.org/documentati...entation-howto

for network security may i suggest the excellent security references here at lq's security forum, put together by our own users. you can find it here

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=45261

hope some of that helps. the folks here at lq are more than happy to help.
good luck.

You will only need Samba if you are trying to do file and print sharing with Windows machines.

If you plan on running only Linux, Samba isn't required.

Try The Linux Network Administrators Guide. It's a long reading, but worth each minute you spend on it.