Guides of the Beginner's Series:

    So you want to be a harmless hacker?
    Hacking Windows 95!
    Hacking into Windows 95 (and a little bit of NT lore)!
    Hacking from Windows 3.x, 95 and NT
    How to Get a *Good* Shell Account, Part 1
    How to Get a *Good* Shell Account, Part 2
    How to use the Web to look up information on hacking.
    Computer hacking. Where did it begin and how did it grow?

GUIDE TO (mostly) HARMLESS HACKING

Beginners' Series #1

So you want to be a harmless hacker?
 
"You mean you can hack without breaking the law?"

That was the voice of a high school freshman. He had me on the phone because his father had just taken away his computer. His offense? Cracking into my Internet account. The boy had hoped to impress me with  how "kewl" he was. But before I realized he had gotten in, a sysadmin at my ISP had spotted the kid's harmless explorations and had alerted the parents. Now the boy wanted my help in getting back on line.

I told the kid that I sympathized with his father. What if the sysadmin and I had been major grouches? This kid could have wound up in  juvenile detention. Now I don't agree with putting harmless hackers in  jail, and I would never have testified against him. But that's what some people do to folks who go snooping in other people's computer accounts -- even when the culprit does no harm. This boy needs to learn how to keep out of trouble!

Hacking is the most exhilarating game on the planet. But it stops being fun when you end up in a cell with a roommate named "Spike." But hacking doesn't have to mean breaking laws. In this series of Guides we teach safe hacking so that you don't have to keep looking back over your shoulders for narcs and cops.

What we're talking about is hacking as a healthy recreation, and as a free education that can qualify you to get a high paying job. In fact, many network systems administrators, computer scientists and computer security experts first learned their professions, not in some college program, but from the hacker culture. And you may be surprised to discover that ultimately the Internet is safeguarded not by law enforcement agencies, not by giant corporations, but by a worldwide network of, yes, hackers.

You would..
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