Books to get me started

[rschl02]

Hey guys, I was hoping you could help me out. I've been browsing the books suggested in the forum and checked a few of them out, but most of them are a bit too complicated for me. I'm completely new to this. I'm great at navigating through computers and figuring out how to work them, but not so great at figuring out how they work at a basic level. (The programming, essentially.) Are there any good books that you might suggest for a complete beginner in how computers work? A "Programming for dummies" type thing? (Although I'm sure that's a real book...)

[ghost107]

On programming Start learning C and continue with C++:
2 good Books that I found are:
Teach yourself C in 21 days http://kldp.org/files/c+in+21+days.pdf
Teach yourself C++ in 21 days http://newdata.box.sk/bx/c/

The good thing about these books are, they have a program analysis, quiz and exercises at the end of each chapter. That will help you improve your skills. Learning C and C++ will make you understand other programming languages much easier, even ASM.

After finishing Teach yourself C in 21 days"(or before classes and objects in Teach yourself C++ in 21 days) you could read about Data Structures and Algorithms(Lists, Queues, Stacks, Heaps, Graphs, Trees, Sorting, Searching, Path Finding, etc).

On Networking you should learn networking from the basics, and after that the OSI model(all 7 layers):
- Introduction to networking(bits, bytes, base conversion, IP, Netmask)
- Fundamental of Computer Networking(LAN, WAN, MAN, VPN, intranet, extranet, bandwith, limits, OSI, P2P, TCP-IP)
- Layers of TCP-IP and OSI(Arhitecture, IP addressing, IP obtaining, transport layer and application layer, etc).
- routing(routing protcols, IP routing, subnetwork mechanism, router configuration, router functionality, IOS Cisco, etc)
-Hardware:Cabling, cable types, cable testing.
Find any book on networking and it will explain what I posted above, and a cisco networking book.

On how the computers work you will need to learn about Electronics:
-Electronic Devices and Analog Electronics
-Digital Electronics
-Logic Design
-Numeric computers
-Computer Architecture(Von newton Architecture, and Harvard architecture)
-Microprocessors(here comes the ASM Language)
-Controllers

It takes 4 years to learn it all in college(didn't post all the material), so don't expect to learn it all at once. You can start with Programming when you have free time you could read about networking, some about electronics, if you want.

[rschl02]

Thank you so much! This was exactly the information I was looking for C:

[Denzil056]

Duno if this is the right place to post this, i know you have a books forum but it says that's for specific book discussion. I was just wandering which books would be best for me to start with. I am very new to this kind of thing. I am 19 and have just started my uni course in computing and game development. I don't really know anything about this type of thing, so would need to learn html first i guess. I know there are some guides online but i really do prefer having a book i can look at while i work. Thanks for any advice

[leonteale]

you will find much more literature if you follow the path of a pentester. here check out the link below, it has 3 perfect starting books. start with the beginners pentest guide.

http://leonteale.co.uk/documents

[roselovesyellowroses]

Wow these look great I look forward to reading them, cheers for posting them