Training for Penetration Testing

Question

I have been looking into expanding my skill set into penetration testing for a bit and with all of the recent security breaches, I figured it would be best to start my training and learning quickly.

So, where can I find some good 'labs' to use in order to train and some decent tutorials for said labs?

I already have experience with BackTrack(Kali) Linux, I use it as my personal flavor on my home PC and have experience with HTTP, SQLI, Programming and such. I just want to get more real life and up to date experience with everything.

Resources I have looked into thus far:

List of Labs Seems like an extensive list but very little information about any of them.

PentesterLab Pentest Academy

Does anyone have any experience with any of these, or any others, and have any feedback regarding the following.

1. Where would be a good place to get started with some basic understandings in Pentesting
2. Is there any good WebApps that is hosted with known vulnerabilities designed for Pentesting
3. Is there any 'groups' or such to join that is 'Newbie' friendly

Thanks for your time!

Thanks to the answer by Chris, I was able to find HackThisSite from this SE answer. So far it has been very educational (I breezed through the Starter and Javascript missions so far). I do think this is a great start for anyone!

Answer 1

I don't have any experience with PenTesting (training or otherwise) but I came across this mindmap and thought of this question. It appears to list practice labs (doesn't state where they are located) for Pen Testing.

I know Stack Exchange has a Security Forum and post on learning ethical PenTesting here - maybe this is a good place to follow up? Then you can post whatever you learn back here in case anyone else has a similar question.

Answer 2

Check udemy for some courses, this one is one of most popular: link