If I remember correctly, I did not receive any confirmation that they got my report after I submitted it. After about one week I contacted them to ask for a status update and the next day I received the confirmation that I passed the exam.

In case you didn't see it already, you can find my review on it here.

Thanks again.

A small study group sounds nice.

OpenSecurityTraining has a couple good classes as well.

Thanks everybody. SANS was kind enough to let me exchange the offered courses with SEC660: Advanced Penetration Testing, Exploits, and Ethical Hacking as it covers topics which are more towards my main interests.

It's within the first post of this thread.

Does the 30% off offer also apply if you just go for the exam?

As always, nice one.

The SSID (Service set identification) is the name of your wireless network, e.g. "TomTees_WLAN". You can disable the broadcasting of the SSID, so that it's not that obvious for everyone that there is such a network available, but that's not a real protection, as it can still be detected.

I'm sure what hayabusa was referring to was more towards changing the default credentials and such. Also be sure to enable a strong encryption with a long passphrase (e.g. WPA2 Personal (PSK) + AES). I'd also recommend to disable WPS, if supported by the device (I didn't check its specifications).

Where is your review, MaXe?

AWE and GXPN, sounds great! Be sure to write a review on both, especially of AWE, since reviews are rather rare.

I've achieved all certification goals I had for 2012 (except GPEN). 2013 will be rather calm in terms of certifications:
* One SANS/GIAC certification, thanks to Don
* If time permits and it becomes available in the next few months in an online format: OSWE

Thanks, m0wgli. I'm not sure yet which course it will be eventually, but I'll keep you updated once I've made my decision.

Thanks again Don, it's much appreciated!

If I remember correctly, you need to proof at least two years of working experience in the IT-security field when going the self-study route.


Source: http://www.eccouncil.org/about_us/frequently_asked_questions.aspx

Offensive Security has great courses which do not require any prior working experience before you can enroll. You could also take a look at eLearnSecurity.