hey all....

[Kage]

Welcome

In my experiences at least; the best stuff, you learn from doing it yourself, and not from a book, etc. Your mind picks it up a lot quicker.
But a book is never a bad thing to get an overall view, however.

 

[jmacavali]

If you are into opening up computers and working on hardware stuff then the A+ route is the best. I am A+ certified (I know, I know so is almost everyone here...) but I find that I like the networking part of things better. There just is more variety and I find it more of a challenge (a good challenge). It is alot more of here's the problem and here's the solution, how do I connect the two. A+ type stuff is kind of that way to, but it seems to get a little repetative for me. I don't like sitting and waiting for Windows to re-load and then having to download all the drivers....blah! I also don't care for trying to figure out how to open all the stupid cases out there and trying to get to the different parts. I always end up with scratched up fingers and usually end up bleeding if that is all I'm working on all day....that's probably just me though.

Anyway sorry I'm rambling, but I think you should start by reading any A+ certification book and maybe try to get certified. Then I would recommend branching out from there into networking (they are somewhat similar) or if you want to be more diverse there is programming, yuck!!, or web/graphic design. Also, let people know that you are interested in computers and they will certainly have a problem or two that they will ask you to look at. Almost always there are family memebers with issues that they want you to fix. Just be honest if you can't fix it so that you don't make it worse. But that is always a good start since you'll be comfortable working on your own family members computers more than some strangers.

PS. Coming from a newcomer myself, this is the best computer forum I've found.