Very great post! /applause
Meatsploitable2 is a great starting place for anyone wanting to get introduced to pentesting. http://www.securitytube.net/ has all sorts of video resources to help you learn to tricks.
My advice to anyone practicing with this particular VM:
Once you successfully exploit the machine one way, start over and try to exploit it differently. This vm has plenty of vulnerabilities. Once you get comfortable and understand the concepts a bit better, start trying to automate your exploits.
I'm planning for a write up for more resources in the future like http://www.securitytube.net/ , https://www.vulnhub.com which has more vms to hack into on ur own, and online wargames like https://www.hackthebox.eu where you can pwn virtual computers uon your own or with your friends/team thank you for your comment ! :)
Excellent! It sounds like we will get along wonderfully. Gave you a follow. Hackthebox.eu is a new one for me! I will have to check it out.