Complete beginner in need of a good guide.

[Roydd85]

Hello, I am pleased to say that I wish to learn all I can about BSD OSes and this seems like a good place to get help. I know that most boards frown upon asking questions that are probably posted on an OSes home page or in an easy to find guide, but I don't even understand those. Let me start by telling you what I do know. I can do basic programming in C++, Python, and I know a little BASH coding as well as the essential basic Linux commands e.g rm, mv, cp, useradd/del,groupadd pwd, cd ls etc. I fully understand the hardware aspects of my computer as well as fixing, upgrading or replacing everything from a blown capacitor to the easy things like HDD, RAM, MOBO, and optical drives. My problem stems from being a long time windows user and so the most I have ever had to do is edit the registry. I am not very familier with networking concepts such as DNS, or configuring routers manually. I do know the basic stuff like what IPs, MAC addresses, and subnet masks are and I know how to find that info with IFconfig but I cannot configure anything yet.

Now, with that rather poor introduction out of the way, I need help getting started with this OS. I don't want to use a GUI until I get the hang of most of the intermediate stuff. Is there a good, easy to understand guide around or a tutorial series that can take me step by step from beginner to intermediate user? I also need help configuring my laptop because it cannot find a DHCP link.