Hi All,

Wanted to share with you some of the things I am setting up for my studies for our first exam, CEH. Since other security certs like Security+ and CISSP deal more with theory, process, policies, procedures, etc., the need for a lab was nonexistant. CEH is very much a test of tool usage, so becoming familiar with the tools is essential to passing. So a lab is very important.

I am basically setting up 2 labs - 1 real and 1 virtual.

Real Lab:
Since some of the tools don't work well in virtual environments, it became necessary to create a lab with real, individual machines. To keep costs down, I'm using old desktops and laptops with various OSs. We're not decoding the human genome or editing Jurassic Park IX, so cheap PIIIs with 256MB of RAM is plenty to run Windows XP, Red Hat and FC5. If you can afford more - great.

Virtual Lab:
Since Microsoft decided to give away Virtual Server R2 for free, I figured I'd give it a go. I ran into some problems with FC5, so I thought I'd share it here. Make sure you select "LCD Panel 800x600" for the display, 800x600 for the Video Mode and for depth choose 16bit during installation. This will not only prevent many headaches and fruitless searches for answers but also prevent a reinstall of FC5. But now, I can easily run XP, Server 2003, RHEL4 and FC5 on the same machine and see them on the same network. Pretty cool, huh? You can do this with a any decent processor, but make sure you have at least 2GB of RAM.

Anyone else setting up a personal lab?

Is everyone still gearing up to take the exam around July 1?

Talk to me...
Don

Where would I find that? Can you provide a link and instructions?

Don

Sorry that I was too lazy to include a link directly in my post - should have thought that somebody will be interested in.

Thanks Negrita for helping out...