Good papers, websites to read about networking?

Well, yea I want to read up on it. Like how they work, how to set one up, what kind of programs (if any) are used in networking. I'm a newbie, yea….not much proud of it. But instead of asking "how i h4xx mah skool pl0x0rs??!?" I would rather you point me out in the right direction by giving me links to articles about networks, looking mainly at the ones used for schools.

Maybe a stupid question….but come on everyone has to start somewhere ;)

Yup..,I was going to do that but I tried to post first. Reason: There's so many websites, some may not be right. So I wanted to ask here first to find reliable links first so I can be specific in what I will be searching for in google.

Thank you for the response tho :p

i see an unicorn in the facepalms =D

Haha, the "hidden" picture is Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

~face-palm.

@OP: Many school networks are different, and run different software. The amount of security employees, the default school OS, and many other factors effect how it could be set up. There is no "default" way that school networks are set up. Mine, for instance, runs a fairly complicated linux setup, while the christian school next to us runs all windows with poor security, and can easily be broken into from what i've seen. So when it comes to looking up articles like that, your better to look up general networking articles, or mess around with your schools system to find out what software it runs, then look up information based on that. Because you wont find much information in all the "H0w to pWnZ ur schoolz wIndowzz s3tup" because most of the stuff they show is ridiculously simple and im guessing out of date.

what about this? http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/,, This is one of the textbooks for my undergrads