Whats next???

[Rnehora]

I am a newbie, and i am confused as to what i should do now....i got the basic commands down, i have apache running, php and mysql i think, i can use nmap, in the process of learning iptables/chains...but what next is there a specific outline i should be following?

[stepdad]

Sounds like your doing just fine so far. One of the best books I found about Linux is actually free and available over the web:

Securing and Optimizing Linux Red Hat Edition - A Hands on Guide (http://www.linuxdoc.org/guides.html)

It's one of many good manuals available at that particular site, and had a lot of very good information about the day to day administration and proper setup of a Linux box. It was designed for Redhat but translates well to most other distributions, particularly Mandrake.

Best advice I can give you is to keep reading, start tinkering and ask tons of questions. Amazing what you can learn from the other folks in the Linux community. I consider myself to be at least somewhat competent with Linux, and I learn something new from the discussions just in this forum almost daily.

Stepdad