Overview
You will need to download the BackTrack 4 or 5 operating system which you can find at: http://www.backtrack-linux.org/downloads/ . You can download either an .iso file which you will need to burn as a disc image or you can download a VMware image of the operating system which you can open as a virtual machine through the VMware Player in Windows. If you decide to use the VMware image you will need to download the free version of VMware Player as well. You can find it here: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_downloads/vmware_player/3_0
Once you have BackTrack installed and running you will want to know how to do the following things:
Login, the default is:
login: root
password: toor
Change the root password:
#passwd
<enter your new password twice>
Launch the Xwindows graphical user interface:
#startx
To bring up your network interfaces and be able to get online:
Check what interfaces you have (eth0, eth1, wlan0, etc.)
#ifconfig
For a wireless network card running DHCP
#iwconfig wlan0 mode managed key <your wep key>
#iwconfig wlan0 essid <your ssid>
#ifconfig wlan0 up
#dhclient wlan0
For a wired network card running DHCP
#ifconfig eth0 up
#dhclient eth0
For a manual configuration instead of running the DHCP client
#ifconfig eth0 <your desired ip address and /subnet mask -e.g. 192.168.1.100/24>
#route add default gw 192.168.1.1
#echo nameserver 192.168.1.1 > /etc/resolv.conf
Now test your connection by running a ping command or opening a website in your browser
Video Tutorial