I started off working through the lessons at http://guitar.about.com/ and have been pretty happy with my progress so far. I'm only just now starting at Lesson 3, but I spent a few weeks reinforcing the first two. And of course, there was always some peeking at more advanced stuff from later on. I don't remember how I found this site, I think from a product review while I was looking at effects pedals, but I liked what I saw here as well and joined up. The videos and multimedia files here are very helpful in demonstrating techniques. The about.com lessons actually guide you through learning, whereas this site is just a kind of smorgasborg (did I spell that right?) of information.

This is actually my 2nd start at playing, I bought an acoustic a couple of years ago but only had the crappy starter books to learn with and pretty much gave up on it. Then about 3 weeks ago I decided to get an electric and started those online lessons.

I think the most important thing to it however is to start small and build up your abilities, and not expect to be a good player overnight. As long as you have the patience to stick to a real guided plan, and remember that it takes time, there's no reason why you can't do it at home. Whenever I feel like I'm getting too ambitious, I have to reign myself in. But as of right now, I know at least 9 or 10 chords, a few different scales that I'm alternate picking with moderate speed and pretty good accuracy now (getting that alternate picking was TOUGH at first, but now it seems like 2nd nature), some beginner riffs that sound good on the amp (Iron Man, War Pigs anyone? :) ) and even some simpler songs (simple version of Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner, strumming version of Eagles' Take It Easy). I'm real curious about what I will be able to do in 6 months or a year's time, after practicing every day.

Dan