Hacking for Dummies

The six Guides to (mostly) Harmless Hacking of Vol. 1 jumped immediately into how-to hacking tricks. But if you are like me, all those details of probing ports and playing with hypotheses and pinging down hosts gets a little dizzying.
So how about catching our breath, standing back and reviewing what the heck it is that we are playing with? Once we get the basics under control, we then can move on to serious hacking.