Traveling down a low security pipe is one of the most challenging skills for a new player to learn. And the reality of the situation is that most of the trouble stems from fear of the unknown. In order to hopefully alleviate some of the anxiety of traveling through sometimes hostile territory, I am writing a guide on how to get about in low security space. Please carefully read the documentation below, as your ship worth hundreds of mil may very well depend on it someday when you least suspect it.
FAQ
Player: What kind of ships can you get through low security on an average night?
Scout: Any ship you want from a shuttle to a freighter.
Player: What are my chances of being caught?
Scout: Depends greatly on your ship, skills, knowledge, and of course pure luck.
Player: So it is okay if I attempt to take my only battleship down the pipe instead of a shuttle?
Scout: Generally no, if you are taking anything of substantial worth, and you do not feel that you understand these concepts already, please seek the assistance of veteran members.
Player: How many people in the corporation lose ships traveling through the low security pipes?
Scout: Oh, it depends, some people lose ships more than others, some never lose ships, that's what this guide is for, so that we have more of the latter.
Player: Is there a particular ship that I can fly that will almost guarantee that I travel safely?
Scout: Yes and no. If you fly a shuttle, Interceptor, ship that can warp cloaked, or otherwise nimble ship, you may be impossible to scramble but you can still be smart bombed.
Player: Smart bombed?
Scout: Yes, some pirates will sit battleships on the gate and as they see you warping onto the grid they activate a row of as many as eight smart bombs which may even pop your shuttle before you exit warp, and your pod before you can warp to safety.
Player: Wow, I just shat in my pants a little, do pirates smart bomb a lot in the Kheram or Yong pipes?
Scout: Here, have some wet wipes, Stinky. And no, I have only heard of it happening once in those pipes.
Player: If I want to get valuables in and out of Providence, I should do it myself right? I mean the (ESC), a corporate hauling service, prices are pretty steep for a new player like myself.
Scout: No, but a veteran member may be willing to haul some of your loot in a few runs down the pipe for free in their transport, just consider it a courtesy haul, but not something that you should expect to be repeated.
Player: How dangerous is low security once I have passed the pipe?
Scout: It really depends, but there have been periods of weeks or more when Mamet was as safe as Empire, and also periods when it is like a gauntlet of death and destruction.
Player: What about 0.0 space?
Scout: Safer than Empire if you know what you're doing.
GUIDE
Warp Disruptor
First things first, let's talk about how pirates snag newer players. First, they're going to have ships capable of taking sentry fire. That means battlecruisers, heavy assault cruisers, heavy interdictors, command ships, battleships, and etc. Second, if there are more than one of them, and they know what they're doing, they'll have either a fast tackle like a HAC, or they will be sensor boosting a tackle of any kind. Third, they are going to warp disrupt you. Low security gates got a buff last fall that included a wider radius for possible exit points via the gates themselves being made larger. A good majority of the time you will pop onto the other side of a gate anywhere from 15-30km from the nearest player on grid, and that is warp disruption range. So what do you do to give yourself an edge?
You fit these, for travel only, on your ship:
Warp Core Stabilizer
Inertia Stabilizer
What do these do? Well for every warpstab you fit you can negate one warp disruptor on one of your aggressors, for every two you negate a warp scrambler. For every inertia stablizer you fit, you will align faster to warp which gives you an edge if your aggressor cannot target you before you warp away. These are by no means fail safe.
Overview
Corporate Member - Threat Level: None
Alliance Member - Threat Level: None
Affiliate - Threat Level: None 
Non-Aggression Pact - Threat Level: None 
Fleet Member - Threat Level: Not Established 
Neutral - Threat level: Not Established 
Aggressive - Threat Level: Uncertain
Kill On Sight - Threat Level: High
War Target - Threat Level: Extreme LOCAL
The local window is your friend, as noted above, you should keep it open and expanded at all times. As you can see, there is a red currently in the system which alerts me to potential danger should I encounter them in space. These are important points of note to be aware of at all times while residing in low and null security.
thecitadel
As you may note from the picture above, the Citadel channel, thecitadel, is open at all times while I travel as well. This is an intel only channel, and is only to be used for intelligence purposes. You may post information about red hostiles only, never post any information about neutrals, blues, or corporate and alliance members unless hostile actions have been taken against other neutrals, blues, or corporate or alliance members by said parties. You may report and observe the following behavior while watching the Citadel channel:
FOF - Friend or Foe requests
Example as noted above in the picture (click the link for full size). You will receive a friend or foe response indicating whether that player is marked hostile per CVA rules (see the audio blog linked ingame in the AU-F guides mailer by Varian Knight).
Status - System Status Requests
Query: X6AB-Y status?
Response: Clear.
You may only respond with a phrase that indicates the system is clear without revealing whether neutrals or blues are present or respond with information about existing reds in the system at the time. You may receive various responses that a majority of the time will clearly indicate whether the system presently has a high degree of safety.
Aggression - Conflicts In Space
Report: Engaged by two reds/neutrals, Misaba, Curse and Hurricane, at belt XI-IV!
Response: How long can you hold?
Report: Minute or two, hurry!
Reponse: OMW!
You may report active engagements in thecitadel as they occur to yourself or other person(s) of interest in low security Domain space and the Providence region. However, please do be cautious about listing blue information, a simple blue Abaddon engaged by X ships at stargate Y in system Z should suffice, and you need not list that the blue is in a fleet, and what the composition of that fleet is. Response teams need form up based on RED intel only, because not only is blue intel not allowed in Citadel, but more than likely if the blue fleet is outnumbered then any help that arrives need face the bulk of the reds themselves. It may sound complicated, but as long as you keep one thing in mind, blue intel to the absolute bare minimum when reporting active engagements, you will do fine.
Starmap
Upon opening the starmap (F10) and hitting the toggle button until you have a view of the EVE universe, you need to make note of a few points of interest. First, you will want to set your waypoint plotter to prefer shorter distances, so that the plotter does not give you routes that circumvent wide swathes of space just to avoid going into low security at all costs. As noted above, please select the prefer shorter routes option.
After setting your destination, you may note that a plotter appears on the starmap directing you to your final destination. This is an important factor when planning a trip that you are unfamiliar with as you can use the starmap to gauge the temperature of the pipe you are about to traverse.
As noted above, you may modify the filter parameters for the display of the starmap such that you gain valuable insight into the activity levels of your area. If you look at the picture of the plotter, you may notice that there is a mouseover popup indicating that there has been one ship destroyed in the past hour in the Unefsih system. This information may very well save your ship and pod should you decide the system is definitely being camped, even if no one in the Citadel is reporting it.
Before traveling an unfamilar pipe, or before you gain the experience and comfort level with being able to gauge the temperature of the pipe, always use the starmap both going in and coming out of low security space.
Directional Scanner For Travel
Open up your directional scanner, and set it to use your active overview settings, scan at 1,000,000km, and use a 360 degree scan. When traveling from stargate to stargate, or having jumped through a stargate, do a quick scan out to this distance to get a good idea of whether or not pirates are sitting off grid waiting to warp in on you or give chase to the next gate. It also becomes very useful given one of the protips listed below.
Summary
When traveling through a low security pipe, the most important thing is to expect the unexpected. There are neutrals flying about, they may sometimes be hostile, they may sometimes not, but so long as you are certain within a reasonable level that no KOS or Aggressive players are within the vicinity of the pipe you intend to travel, your chances are just as good as the next guy. Please use caution, but do not be afraid to travel the pipe, it all sounds a lot more dangerous than it is. Just make sure you really use that caution, or you might end up as a statistic on the killboards.
Pro Tips
Warped to 0m of a stargate and now I find myself on grid with unscrupulous pirates! HALP!
Do not panic.
Do not fire.
Do not jump.
Wait.
There is a thirty second aggression timer a player receives in any space at any time when they engage in a hostile act that bans them from jumping through a stargate or docking at a station. The last thing you want to do is land on grid with a gang of reds, panic, and either fire shots off at them, or jump through immediately.
Let them assess the situation as you do as well. They may find that there are not enough of them to snag you, or even pop you, or they may get trigger happy and every one of them or enough of them begin firing on you, thus allowing you to jump through the gate, and warp away to safety as a majority of them cannot jump for thirty seconds.
Whatever you do, stay calm, do not panic, and realize that the chances are good in some circumstances that you will get away scot free if you play your cards right.
Jumped through a stargate and now I find myself on grid with unscrupulous pirates! HALP!
Do not panic.
Do not break gate cloak.
Do not fire.
Wait.
Burning back to the gate can be your friend.
There is a thirty second aggression timer a player receives in any space at any time when they engage in a hostile act that bans them from jumping through a stargate or docking at a station. The last thing you want to do is land on grid with a gang of reds, panic, and either fire shots off at them, or try to warp away immediately.
Let them assess the situation as you do as well. They may find that there are not enough of them to snag you, or even pop you, or they may get trigger happy and every one of them or enough of them begin firing on you once you uncloak, thus allowing you to burn back to the gate you came through, jump, and warp away to safety as a majority of them cannot jump for thirty seconds once they have fired on you. This becomes even easier when you are fitted with a MWD on a small ship.
Whatever you do, stay calm, do not panic, and realize that the chances are good in some circumstances that you will get away scot free if you play your cards right.
Tacticals
Hop in a frigate or an interceptor, fit a microwarpdrive and overdrive injectors, and go zipping off through space merrily making tactical bookmarks as you go. Most importantly make some offgrid bookmarks that allow you to warp to a point off the grid from a stargate and use the directional scanner at 1,000,000km to detect if there is a camp present. This is especially important when reds are present in the system you jump into or they come into the system as you prepare to jump to the next gate. Other tacticals include combat tacticals at 150km, safety tacticals at 350km, and exit tacticals at 15km.
Neutral Alts
Login to your account, create a neutral alt that you will never train, put him in a shuttle and fly him to Kheram or Yong and dock up. You just got free eyes on the system, and will know when reds are present. Logon your alt, take a peep at local, assess the situation, then relog your main, and zip down the pipe. Gravy.
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