Mining Questions for a Newbie

I am completely new to mining, so bear with me and I would appreciate everyones' help here.

I have three long term goals:

1.) Mine alt-coins which will increase in value over time

2.) Mine alt coins short term for exchanging into BTC.

3.) Make a profit after all expenses paid.

Questions:

1.) Is mining altcoins very bandwidth intensive? Will I need to upgrade my bandwidth?

2.) Does mining altcoins primarily consist of two systems: first system is desktop pc to run software and receive coins, second system is for mining hardware to solve the next block?

3.) What kind of hardware knowledge do I need(soldering, etc)? I was able to build PCs in high school from ordering parts on new egg, is this sufficient?

4.) What kind of technical software knowledge do I need?

5.) Is it better to run linux, windows, or some other alternative on an altcoin rig?

6.) Are there only two types of mining-gpu and cpu?

7.) What kind of security should I utilize on a mining rigs? virus protection? vpn? etc

8.) Can I mine more than one altcoin(example ltc and craftcoin) on a single rig at the same time?

9.) How will mining be affected when utilizing a vpn?

10.) I want to build a rig that allows me to take my profits and use them to buy more hardware to increase that rate of profit generation. Are there stock layouts that allow for continual growth of hardware on a single system?

11.) What are some of the most important sites for selling and learning information about alt-coins-specifically which ones to mine for the intention of trading for btc? For example, iIve heard of cryptsy and found coinchose.

12.) How often should I expect to be buying new hardware to keep up with the increasing difficulty scrypt based alt coins?

Thank You!