I just created a handwritten index in the white space on the front cover of each book for main topic areas. That only took me 20 or 30 minutes to knock out. Unlike some of the other course ware, Ed did a good job with the index for 560. Just knowing which book to grab was good enough for me and I finished with a 94 and plenty of time left.

Fortinet support was so bad at our last job, our CISO rewrote the kernel for them. They had one really neat feature patch that removed the GUI for the MAC/IP binding tab (DHCP reservations) which was joyous for all our Windows centric GUI lovin sysadmins that had to then use the CLI. Some feature. We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 or so units, mostly wifi60's and 60s that got upgraded to 100a's and a few 400's and 800s and some high end units at HQ that I never saw. (I worked primarily in the field with peripheral duties managing those boxes at the sites - roughly 60 in my region) I had a 100a as my gateway box with a persistent vpn to HQ in my house for the last 2 or 3 years I was at that employer. That tunnel bounced more than any other platform I've used. Maybe they are better now, I wouldn't know. I use Juniper these days.

I'm not trying to be mean, but the log you posted is really not that cryptic. I've never used w3af in my life and those results seem pretty clear to me. This is the problem with running automated scanners without understanding what it is you're testing and what the potential issues are, as well as a basic understanding of the technologies underlying the environment. I would recommend just going line by line and doing research on any areas or technologies that you don't understand. If research gives you heartburn, I'd select another profession.

Also keep in mind that much of this output is enumerating information about the target, it's just informational. It's useful info that you can leverage into further attacks or more refined scanning, but its not necessarily a laundry list of vulns either. That's where tester expertise and judgement comes into play, and determining what your next step is given the information returned from the scan. There is no silver bullet, either in the tools you are choosing to use or an approach to compromise a target.

Grats on the pass! I, like others, also like the running tally. When I did my GAWN exam I missed 7 or 8 questions in the first batch of 20 and I was seriously sweating bullets. Realizing I needed to focus, I only missed 1 question for the next 130. My target was a 90%+ which I've been fairly consistent on with my GIAC exams and made it this time as well. Without that tally I'm pretty sure I would have scored much lower as I would not have been as focused.

I'm also scheduled for the CRT in Orlando. I'm still debating this week whether I'm actually willing to pony up 600.00 for an exam I don't know much about or if I'd be better off paying for that GCIH challenge I keep meaning to take (Am a class alumni but never took exam and will need for GSE). If anyone has more info I'd appreciate it. The following link may help in preparation.

http://www.crest-approved.org/crest-notes-for-candidates-CRT-v1.1.pdf

Feel free to hit me up in you want to coordinate study. For pentesting certs I have GPEN and GAWN only (in addition to CISSP, CISA and some other GIAC and other industry certs)

I'll be applying to facilitate this course in Orlando next year just as soon as they post details for the conference. 660 looks absolutely phenomenal and slightly intimidating coming from Stephen Sims. That guy is a mutant. (but in a good yet scary way) I did 560 as a facilitator in 2009 with a guy from DOD and Ed as instructor and had a blast. I highly recommend the SANS volunteer program and would go that route again even if work was willing to pay for the whole course. Conference + 4 months of ondemand + certification attempt + some of the best networking opportunities with the most amazing minds in security for 800.00? Yes please. Just be prepared for 10-12 hour work days and you'll probably have to stay in the conference hotel. (more money but still worth it)

NBISE is now accepting registration for beta CREST exams

http://nbise.org/certifications.php

SANS course is only 1 day so I suppose it will depend on how much content is actually delivered here. http://www.sans.org/training/description.php?tid=3022

I highly recommend volunteering to facilitate. 700.00 and some long hours buys you the course, audio files, ondemand bundle for 4 months after the conference, vpn access to labs for 4 months when applicable (gpen/gcih/etc) and the certification attempt with practice tests. Not to mention as a facilitator you will get more face time with SANS staff then as a normal conference attendee.

Check out http://www.sans.org/training/volunteer.php for more info

Sorry, was a figure of speech, I had read the other thread already. That was me saying "Yes, please proceed". Thanks for doing this for us Shakuni. 

Sounds like a plan. I have 0 programming exp (other than a really bad C++ class I took in college a few years ago) and the first 2 I found incredibly easy, although I wussed out on the madlib.py length. I only did 2 sentences in that assignment but figured it was enough (2 nouns, 2 adjectives, 2 verbs, and 2 adverbs) to demonstrate the process. About halfway through 3 now.