Forum.HaveTheKnowHow.com

I think I need some general help. Maybe background info or a reference website or book. I recently found myself with a 64bit quad core Dell XPS box and about 2 gigs of hard drive space and this media server looked like the ideal solution to my mismatched media solutions(a pc hooked to my tv for Hulu, an Ipad hooked to the stereo for music and numerous external hard drives and cloud drives for backups.) The Install has gone swimmingly, but the configuration has had me scratching my head a few times. My dilemma is that I am more than capable of following the steps Ian has listed until something crashes. Then my limited Linux knowledge fails me for troubleshooting. If it were just google-ing the problem or searching this discussion forum I would be golden, but so far I have stumbled into pits where I quickly get over my head and don't have the background necessary to understand the solution, much less implement it.

Can some of you recommend favorite research websites or reference books, or even a good basic Linux project with the sole purpose of providing a general broad knowledge of Linux?