eLearnSecurity PTSv3 and eJPT

_nessie_

Hi,
as there are not so much reviews ATM about this course and certification, though I could as well add one as I believe it deserves some attention.
I was a total noob on pentesting to be honest. Let's say I knew the basics of networking and stuff, but had no idea on how to use the "tools" properly.

I'd looked into the CEH, but then eLS came along and the reviews on the eCCPT proved eLS offered a better package than EC in this matter. So why bother a theory if you can go for the practice.
But as stated before, I was kind of new in this. So yes, I already had the CEH AIO and read that one through and even managed to learn something from it. But, I believed it to be rather expensive. Nevertheless, I did tag parts for future use, so I'm not saying it was totally lost.

Now I can compare at least the theory of CEH with the entry-level of eLS and guess what: PTSv3 is actually FUN to do.
If you're that type of person that really likes to try things out and feel that childish thrill when it actually works out, then I believe PTSv3 is something for you. After all, I have a full-time job and a family and some more hobbies. Just saying that I couldn't stay for days behind a screen testing things out either.

That said, the level of enjoyment was probably due to the excellent slides and videos.
I went through all of them, tried everything out in the videos and made mindmap-sheets on every topic.
IMVHO eLS attacks the issue in a structured manner, although you might find out later on that you need to add some more for yourself. Guess that's absolutely normal.
Ok, so I had the slides, went to the videos and did the labs. I then found securitytube's metasploit course to be an excellent add-on for the metasploit part in PTSv3, although, and I have to be honest, you do not need to have that add-on. It only helps to deal with metasploit and recognise when you have to reset the lab (which I had to do a couple of times during the exam as well).

Now back to the labs: really interesting and good for practice. I also had plenty of time left to go through all the labs without the manuals for a second time and rely on my mindmap-sheets to find out if I lacked some more knowledge or had gaps. (there were some ).
I quickly found out, however, that I ran into issues with my Kali VM and the VPN connection and found the labs not so stable (I cursed them more than once as well).
So I decided to install Kali on an 'older' laptop and work from there. Tadaam, everything ran smoothly. So smoothly I decided to add a couple VMs on that machine to practice some more in another environment than the HERA Labs. Conclusion: the reason to curse was probably my own setup and not due to the Labs.

I can also comment on the support and was pretty pleased with the reaction-time and the quality of the answer. Some others may just say 'try harder', but here I got a clear answer. (had to do with metasploit btw). Only needed support once, so cannot comment further on that.

I believe you'd be able to manage the course and the exam without the labs and videos, if you already know what all this is about. For me, it was no waste of money.

The exam directives are a nice push in the right direction. However, at first, I almost got a heart attack when I started to dive in, luckily after reading the questions and knowing where to start. Once that first obstacle was covered, I was good to go.
Had to redo some steps due to connection-losses and crashed services. But it's also a good thing to learn recognizing these situations I think.
Started this morning with the exam and rounded this evening. Wasn't expecting to wrap things up that fast, but then again: this is much better for my health. I felt like I was going to go through all of it in one rush. Even started to eat less at noon and kept thinking about how to handle this or that issue while doing other things (cooking, shopping, recovering kids ...)
Enjoyable feeling to have it passed

BlackBeret

Congrats on the pass. I just completed this exam as well and agree that it was an excellent course. Even though it's designed to be basic I still felt like I learned some things, especially with the web app items. I really want to go through professional course, but unfortunately my time/money commitments are elsewhere right now.

impelse

Congrats

_nessie_

BlackBeret wrote: »

Congrats on the pass. I just completed this exam as well and agree that it was an excellent course. Even though it's designed to be basic I still felt like I learned some things, especially with the web app items. I really want to go through professional course, but unfortunately my time/money commitments are elsewhere right now.

Thanks BlackBeret, and that is exactly what I intend to do as well.
Will do a wee diversion towards WiFi though (still struggling with either OSWA or SWSE) an get through some on the cybrary.it site (which I discovered yesterday, thank to techexams.net )
Indeed, time/money is a concern probably most of us have, certainly if it this field is not your main job

impelse wrote:

Congrat

Thanks impelse

H3||scr3am

Congratulations on passing your eJPT I have access to the free resources and are working through them I may pursue the Certification at some point in the future.

veritas_libertas

I'm currently doing the course right now as preparation for the eCPPT. Good material.

5ekurity

Congrats and thanks for the review!

alias454

I'll add to this. I am on the last lab prior to taking the final exam. I should have the final lab done tonight and take the exam this coming weekend. So far, it is a very good introductory course. I second the ops opinion that this course helps one learn the basics of the tools. However, you could easily find all of this online and learn it, One thing going for the eLearn course IMHO is the information is put together very well. I think one thing this course does bring to light is that to become proficient in pentesting, one has to practice - practice - practice!

I came about this course through an email from tech exams for a free barebones account. I bit on the upsell and opted to upgrade to the elite edition for $199.00. I wanted the extra lab time not knowing what I was getting into. 60 hours of lab time was way more than was necessary (having a physical certificate of completion will be nice too I guess). I was able to complete all the labs so far in about 5 hours. With the metasploit lab as the final lab, I figure that might take me another hour.

i will add my experience with the final exam once completed.

Regards,

UnixGuy

thanks for the excellent review!

_nessie_

H3||scr3am wrote:

Congratulations on passing your eJPT I have access to the free resources and are working through them I may pursue the Certification at some point in the future.

Thanks H3||scr3am Good luck on your pursuit (how long it may take )

veritas_liberta wrote:

I'm currently doing the course right now as preparation for the eCPPT. Good material.

Busy with the SWSE course material atm and I might as well go for the eCPPT afterwards .. if that course is equally well bundled and explained as the PTSv3, then I will love it for sure

5ekurity wrote:

Congrats and thanks for the review!

Thanks 5ekurity, hope it serves ...

alias454 wrote:

snip .. I came about this course through an email from tech exams for a free barebones account. I bit on the upsell and opted to upgrade to the elite edition for $199.00. I wanted the extra lab time not knowing what I was getting into. 60 hours of lab time was way more than was necessary (having a physical certificate of completion will be nice too I guess). I was able to complete all the labs so far in about 5 hours. With the metasploit lab as the final lab, I figure that might take me another hour. i will add my experience with the final exam once completed.

Thanks for the addition alias454, and indeed, I felt the same way about the labs. I went for the 60 hrs as well and found out I didn't need that much. Tried to spend some more by trying other things whilst being in a safe environment anyway.
But I did need more than 5 hours .
Good luck on your exam

UnixGuy wrote:

thanks for the excellent review!

Thanks and you're welcome, I've found so much information on this site that I could as well share my thoughts as well ...

alias454

Here is my update: I ended up spending a lot more time on the metasploit lab than I had anticipated so that took the total practice lab time up by roughly 4 hours on top of the 5 I had completed. I should be clear though, the time I am giving is the actual lab time spent and does not include the time spent reading the information and watching the videos. If I add that all up, it may be around 20-25 hours. I did pass the final exam with 18 correct answers out of 20.

Overall, I agree this was a fun course. I don't know how much weight it holds with any future employers but it did help me gain some knowledge about pentesting fundamentals.

regards,

_nessie_

alias454 wrote:

...snip... I did pass the final exam with 18 correct answers out of 20.

Overall, I agree this was a fun course. I don't know how much weight it holds with any future employers but it did help me gain some knowledge about pentesting fundamentals.

regards,

Congrats on your pass alias454

I also look at this one as an introduction for more advanced courses, and who knows in time it will get weight for future employers ..

fuz1on

congrats!

_nessie_

fuz1on wrote:

congrats!

Thanks fuz1on