Hugely disappointed in Elearnsecurity- outdated, not working

I purchased the 4 in a box bundle and I have never been so disappointed. What a waste of money. I chose PTS, PTP, WAPT and WAPTx.

Here's the story:
The CEO told me to evaluate these courses. I am not allowed to write the name, but it is a fortune 500 company based in New York and London. Our team is about 40-50 and are looking to spend our yearly training budget. They purchased it for me, so I was luckily.

Going through the courses, I have seen nothing but outdated or non-working material. Here's a summary of the report submitted to the CEO.

Complaint 1:
PTP: Buffer Overflow with XP?? WTF, is this 2002? Yes, the material is adequate, and VERY outdated. Labs not always working.

Complaint 2:
PTS: no Powershell, labs work only half the time (overall and excellent course)

Complaint 3:
ABSOLUTELY no support on their forum. Questions are ignored. I doubt they monitor it....

Complaint 4:
WAPT/WAPTx: Labs don't work correctly, 2-3 years old. (because you know that the web has not changed in that time.)

Complaint 5:
While stating lifetime access, that is not true. The labs are accessible for around a year or so.

Overall, the material is nice for fun, but if you want serious training. I suggest looking somewhere else.

Find more posts tagged with

eLearnSecurity

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

triplea

Basically I was following the provided solution as I was stuck half way through one of the labs. I was getting a error reply about a session when trying to run the back door which I googled but didn't really get anywhere. My meterpreter session was in the background and I just think somewhere I missed telling the exploit to do it on the backgrounded session.

basically I was asking what I missed, I think thats a reasonable question?

Anyway im ignoring that for now and redoing the course again quickly just to make sure I'm ready.

Elearning. Good idea, learnt loads but the guy replying on the forums - MAJOR!

r3nzsec

It was really contradicting based on my experience. I've took 2 courses from them and now taking my 3rd, and this is actually the best customer support I had compare to other vendors. If ever I have questions, it only took them like hours, probably 2-4 hrs before responding, even late nights, even weekends. Not sure where the hate is coming from but I really appreciate what ELS is doing to provide the right skillsets to us, folks.

PC509

r3nzsec said:

It was really contradicting based on my experience. I've took 2 courses from them and now taking my 3rd, and this is actually the best customer support I had compare to other vendors. If ever I have questions, it only took them like hours, probably 2-4 hrs before responding, even late nights, even weekends. Not sure where the hate is coming from but I really appreciate what ELS is doing to provide the right skillsets to us, folks.

Going by the ELS forums, they won't come out and tell you the answer, and they won't allow people to say what's on the final exam. They do give good hints that you can use. I've gone through, and found a few things to brush up on based on those answers. I'm glad they won't just give answers. They seem like they are really responsive and give good hints to users. I haven't had any issues, but I haven't had to reach out yet.

r3nzsec

PC509 said:

r3nzsec said:

It was really contradicting based on my experience. I've took 2 courses from them and now taking my 3rd, and this is actually the best customer support I had compare to other vendors. If ever I have questions, it only took them like hours, probably 2-4 hrs before responding, even late nights, even weekends. Not sure where the hate is coming from but I really appreciate what ELS is doing to provide the right skillsets to us, folks.

Going by the ELS forums, they won't come out and tell you the answer, and they won't allow people to say what's on the final exam. They do give good hints that you can use. I've gone through, and found a few things to brush up on based on those answers. I'm glad they won't just give answers. They seem like they are really responsive and give good hints to users. I haven't had any issues, but I haven't had to reach out yet.

Agree. Who the hell in earth will give such the exact answer to the exam that they've created? The thing is, they are willing to help you if you got stuck, or messing around because of unsolved puzzle during exam. I'm impressed about their professionalism from the support community and up to the lab exercises, they really put an effort to this and that's why they are gaining good reputation rapidly fast compare before.

triplea

There's a difference between asking for an answer and clarification on whats supposed to happen in a book. Theres a HUGE difference between giving someone a gentle hint and basically making them feel stupid whilst 'sheldon' runs round feeling smug.

Maybe in the advance stuff I understand them repointing you to go and look again. I can understand that, but a JUNIORS course? Thats someone trying to get a base understanding and despite what they say there is a lot of assumption by them in the books.

Im quite happy to admit Im a fool if it is pointed out where I went wrong AND if I was asking every 5 minutes.

Dont get me wrong I think its a fab setup and idea, but the guy who answered me was just plain rude IMHO

cicumag

Not trying to be a jerk but if you plan on taking the OSCP prepare to be disappointed. “Try Harder” is their favorite saying for a reason. Courses like this expect you to be able to learn on your own and research on your own.

That’s as much a part of the process as the coursework.

triplea

your not being a jerk. no problem. I have no problems researching ( hence why I decided to learn this course for no other reason than increased knowledge )

Im not intending to take the OSCP and yes as a higher exam I would expect that. But recently becoming a information security officer I decided to learn this so I would have some red/blue team exposure and some familiarity with the subject matter.

I have been contacted by someone else on their forum who kindly offered to help. I didnt take the offer but said I would review everything again first and ask if I got stuck again. Thats helping, the other chap is just plain unhelpful and rude.

PC509

triplea said:

I have been contacted by someone else on their forum who kindly offered to help. I didnt take the offer but said I would review everything again first and ask if I got stuck again. Thats helping, the other chap is just plain unhelpful and rude.

Sometimes, you just find one guy that's not helpful or is having a bad day. I'm glad someone else offered to help, though. Hopefully, they can help make your experience with ELS a bit better. I'm hoping that I have a positive experience (great so far, but haven't reached out for help).

new2Sec

Problem is, small mom-n-pop company only has one person answering tech questions in forum. ceo and community manager no visit in 10+ days.

10/20 post: I got the course today and I was very excited to learn the material but the video quality is making it very inconvenient to even look at the screen sometimes.

How did you guys manage to complete the course ? I don't want to sound so negative, I do appreciate all the effort elearnsecurity is putting into the courses but when I pay 100usd per video, I expect it to be worth it.

elearnsecurity response: NOTHING

r3nzsec

new2Sec said:

Problem is, small mom-n-pop company only has one person answering tech questions in forum. ceo and community manager no visit in 10+ days.

10/20 post: I got the course today and I was very excited to learn the material but the video quality is making it very inconvenient to even look at the screen sometimes.
How did you guys manage to complete the course ? I don't want to sound so negative, I do appreciate all the effort elearnsecurity is putting into the courses but when I pay 100usd per video, I expect it to be worth it.
elearnsecurity response: NOTHING

What course are you pertaining on this one? I bought four courses (PTS, PTP, WAPT, DFP) and I got all the videos in HD and it helps me to really understand the topic and module. How did I managed to complete the course? FOCUS on your goal and absorb the information and learning towards to the course. Sometimes the problem is not really on the provider it self, sometimes the problem comes from within. What is your goal on buying the course? Have you finished all the labs? How about the video tutorials? Have you absorb each topics? From the ELS response perspective, I got all the response on my questions by just messaging them, posting on the community and not more than 3-4 hrs, I get the answer to my questions.

chrisone

new2Sec said:

10/20 post: I got the course today and I was very excited to learn the material but the video quality is making it very inconvenient to even look at the screen sometimes.
How did you guys manage to complete the course ? I don't want to sound so negative, I do appreciate all the effort elearnsecurity is putting into the courses but when I pay 100usd per video, I expect it to be worth it.
elearnsecurity response: NOTHING

What issues are you having with the videos? can you be specific? I have a 34 inch wide monitor, and when I stretch the video out to full screen I see everything clearly. I doubt the video is made for such resolutions and dimensions, but it works clear for me. Although it may not seem so from the attached pictured, this is exactly what I see when I put the video to full screen on a 34inch wide LG 144hz 4k monitor, a video most likely not edited for such a stretch.

Seems like you are new2sec?
How did we complete the course? Straight hard work, failure, getting back up redoing labs, going over course work over and over, not giving up, researching other peoples experience and guidance, researching more, more failure, reminding myself to work harder, reminding myself others have passed this test with much less resources.

Pentesting/Red/Blue teaming is not a field where answers are given to you. Imagine your company is getting hacked, you plan on asking the hacker for help in some forum? <-seriously this is the concept that good security courses should teach and in reality it is a methodology to break the student and make him dig deep, research, fail, see how the student responds, do they quit or get back up and fight again. Seriously, once again, you are getting hack and you can't figure out whats going on, you just quit? do you quit your security job if so?

ivan_lu

new2Sec said:

Problem is, small mom-n-pop company only has one person answering tech questions in forum. ceo and community manager no visit in 10+ days.

10/20 post: I got the course today and I was very excited to learn the material but the video quality is making it very inconvenient to even look at the screen sometimes.
How did you guys manage to complete the course ? I don't want to sound so negative, I do appreciate all the effort elearnsecurity is putting into the courses but when I pay 100usd per video, I expect it to be worth it.
elearnsecurity response: NOTHING

Not sure what your problem is. I'm new to infosec myself and the only recognised cert I hold is CCNA R&S an even that is outside security. I found that I've had to search for Youtube videos and read through sections of some well-known pentest security books like Georgia Weidman's to really understand the material. But eLS provides some really good slides and videos without which I would probably not understand external books.

The value of eLS training is not they are self-contained (I doubt any trainers are) but they teach you enough to understand what your Google search results are saying. Infosec is not a domain for newbies but rather a multidisciplinary field where experienced programmers, sys admins, Web devs and network engineers cross over after having some knowledge their prior field.

Skyyyyy2001

As @new2Sec name suggests, he is probably new to security, do get used to it. You are getting the best bucks for eLS.