Book Recommendation
I'm reading a new book on packet analysis that would be good for someone new to network security (or just networking). It's by Chris Sanders and it's called "Practical Packet Analysis: Using Wireshark To Solve Real-World Problems". The first chapter on "Packet Analysis and Network Basics" would be especially helpful to someone just starting out, as it's one the clearest, easiest to understand summaries of protocols and the TCP\IP stack I've read. It's also not a terribly expensive book. I picked up my copy for about $30. If you're looking for some informative reading on packet analysis over the holidays, I'd recommend this one.