Member Avatar for RiddlerLG

Title says all, its summer and my job doesnt take up to much of my time, i would like to learn/become a computer programmer i just recently became interested.

What i need help with:-Which type of programming i should start off(c, c++, etc.)
-website/ the forum community that will help me learn
-programs i need to purchase or pirate
-basics

Thanks a bunch, any input would be nice.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by KillerOfDN

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Since says the interest is networking/telecommunications, here is a short, practical path focused on the protocols, tools, and languages that actually matter in that area. was right to push for a goal first — telecom work is different from desktop or web app work — and ’s suggestion about beginner-friendly languages is useful for general programming but not the whole picture for networks.

First things to learn (short list): the OSI/TCP‑IP concepts, IP addressing and subnetting, TCP vs UDP, basic routing, and how sockets work. Practice capturing and reading traffic with a packet sniffer (Wireshark). Useful, compact reading for socket programming is Beej’s Guide; the SIP spec for VoIP is RFC 3261 if you move into telephony.

Pick languages by task: start with Python for scripting, log parsing, automation and quick packet work (Scapy is a common packet-manipulation library). Learn C afterwards if you want to understand or modify protocol stacks, write high-performance code, or work with embedded/network firmware. For carrier/back-end systems, Erlang historically shows up in telecom infrastructure.

Make small labs and projects: set up a Linux VM, capture and analyze real packets, write a Python script to parse a pcap, build a tiny SIP call lab (softphone + SIP server) or a simple client/server socket program. Use emulators/virtual labs (GNS3, VirtualBox) rather than touching production gear. Read the protocol RFCs for the pieces you implement.

Quick starter resources:

Caution: do testing only on your own lab or with explicit permission — intercepting or stressing live networks can be illegal or disruptive.

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Member Avatar for Nick Evan

What i need help with:-Which type of programming i should start off(c, c++, etc.)

That's a subject of eternal debate. It would help if you would tell what exactly do you want to create. Like web-apps, OS, games, something else..

-website/ the forum community that will help me learn

This one of course :)

-programs i need to purchase or pirate

pirate?
That's a big no no. For every language I know, there's a free compiler available, so no need to prirate anything.

Member Avatar for RiddlerLG

thank you for the import, im really not sure which type of programming does what.

Member Avatar for KillerOfDN

Hi RiddlerLG , as niek_e said above you really need to decide what it is you want to create. Software, web pages, games programming. One you decide that you are then welcome to enter a world full of confusion/debate as to which is the 'best' language to learn. If you only want to develop your every day applications then consider looking at something like Visual Basic.NET. A google search of programming languages should give you a jist as to what language does what.

Hoped this helped!

Member Avatar for RiddlerLG

i want to get more into networking/telecommunications stuff......but before that type of programming, what would be a good start?

Member Avatar for KillerOfDN

I recommend you give Visual Basic.NET a try, its syntax is easy for the beginner and is very user-friendly. Using any .NET language you have access to predefined routines already written for you to take care of those tedious tasks (and sometimes more complex tasks). Thus saving you time writing code you don't really have to worry about and giving you more time to spend learning the language.

For some great (free) tutorials using VB.NET please see http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/

Good luck - :)

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