EVE New Citizens Q&A

Great advice in this thread, but I have to say, if you don't mind the cost of medical clones, and if you are careful to make sure they are always up to date, you can suicide explore all you want :)

Back in the days well before I knew about there being "no local" in WH-space and all that, I probably snuck into 30 or 40 wormholes and just poked around in a Magnate before I finally got caught on the exit by a Loki.
I did all this in a Magnate with a core probe launcher and standard probes. No cloak.
Given, you can't do much other than scan and see where the wormholes go, but that sort of ship set up, especially when you are newer, is a cheap way to get used to being in wormholes and how they work. If you get podded, no problem. Low replacement cost. If you get stranded, same thing.
You can spend time learning about using d-scan, making bookmarks ("safe spots"), and evading other players while not cloaked.
Set aside a few days, pop into a wormhole, and probe around, jumping from place to place until you find a high-sec exit, and see where you pop out. I came out 40+ jumps away from where I started at one point.
Note, though, there are "high-sec islands". Locations in high-sec space that do not get back to the primary high-sec region without having to go through low/null areas.

Things I've learned (some of which repeat what has been said above)
1. Always update your clone immediately. When you get podded, you wake up in a good one, but if you go and get podded again, like I nearly did, that new replacement clone still needs to be upgraded.
2. Always make a bookmark as soon as you enter a new system via WH. Whether it's wh-space or k-space.
3. If you jump from wormhole to wormhole, it's helpful to name your bookmarks appropriately so you can follow your "bread crumb trail" back to where you started.
4. Do not fit anything but a covert ops cloaking device to your ship! This limits the types of ships you can fit a cloak to, and takes a while to train for, but the reason for this is because the other cloaking devices will have a detrimental effect on scan probe resolution (about 50% or so). This effect occurs even if the module is off or powered down.

Finally: Find a wormhole, jump in, don't warp anywhere. Launch *one* probe, then jump back through the wormhole.
You will get a friendly message letting you know that you still have probes in space, and "are you sure" you want to jump, etc. Check the little checkbox that says "don't ask this again" and then click on YES to jump and leave the probe.

Half, even quarter, seconds count, and that little message was enough of a delay for the Loki to lock onto me and prove that a Magnate doesn't do well against auto-cannons.

Lots of ways to get killed in wormholes. Have fun and don't be afraid to try a number of them before putting an expensive ship on the line. :)

I did something similar in a cheetah for a few months, I was prospecting for a WH base and wanted to "have a look around" to get a feel for wspace.

It's quite good experience to see how wspace holds together, from getting stuck in a change of C4 wormholes, to dodging locals or making new friends. Just remember you'll be treated as a threat anywhere you go so make sure you're safely cloaked up before saying "hi" in local.

Also, one thing you need to learn about wspace is sometimes you need to be very patient. Getting "stuck" for a few days is worth while to see if it's something you can deal with and still think it's fun.

Have a WH question, so rather than cluttering the board up with a new thread, I'll post here if it's OK.
Any hints on taking out sleeper sites solo? I'm trying with a Hurricane fitted with everything T2, but no luck even with Ambush points in C1 sites. Can only get a couple of rats before the cane's tank goes. And I'd rather not take a BS into a WH? Any suggestions for clearing sleeper sites solo?