A great way to learn ethical hacking in the comfort of your own home, is to hack your own home.
When asked how I got started and which courses I recommended, I always suggest to start at home.
Most people have internet access served by a home router, with at least one computer, maybe some tablets, mobile phones, smart TVs, set-top boxes, and possibly some IoT devices connected in order to receive updates and serve content.
Why not learn the tools and techniques of hacking by running a security test on your own home network? Start by using a tool like nmap to scan your network and see what devices you can find. Map out the connected devices by IP address and try to fingerprint each. Look at open ports. Is the device located at a particular IP address a printer or mobile phone? How can you tell? Probe the device further. Is the operating system and software being reported out dated? Are there known vulnerabilities and exploits for your device? Google the versions being reported by nmap.
Once you have mapped out your network, run periodic scans to see if new devices connect. Walk around your house and turn things on that you know will connect to the home network or wait for other occupants of your household to enable their devices. Let them know what you are doing. Remember, you are scanning not exploiting!
Next use a packet sniffer like Wireshark to inspect the traffic between your devices and the router and the internet. Are there any security holes you can see? Use an application programming interface (API) tool to try to communicate with your devices. Understand how they work. Probe for weaknesses.
Once you are done write a report for yourself on your findings along with recommendations. Look online for vulnerability analysis or penentration test report templates. What could you do to improve the security of your home network and home devices? Maybe change some settings on the router? Remove permissions granted to devices that you no longer own. Maybe you added a port-forwarding rule for a games console that is long gone. Delete the rule if still present.
Congratulations. You have learned how to scan a network, probe for weaknesses, and compose a report on your findings with recommendations, and all from the comfort of your own home with no cost to you other than your time. Next, fix the problems that you found and action any recommendations.