Encryption VB.Net

Question

I am using code that I have downloaded from one of the many .Net sites, that tries (and Fails), to show beginners how encryption works, but as I have found out they all add so much information that in the end you can't see the wood for the trees. If anybody at this forum could write a series of tutorials starting Part 1 as basic as possible then building on that with each subsequent part, I am sure it would be a very popular tutorial.