After about two moths of off and on studying I passed.  Unfortunately my energy and sugar levels dropped towards the end, but I still pulled through.

My study plan included reading the Offical CEH book by Graves, I should have skipped it and gone directly to Exam Prep by Gregg.  I found the Exam Prep had a deeper level of the material which represented what was on the test.  While the Offical CEH book was a good start, I felt it lacked the depth of Exam Prep.  Exam Prep explained some of the harder material is an easy to use format.  The chapter on cryptology was steller!  I wish I would have reviewed this before I sat for the CISSP.  In addition to the books I used the Career Academy's videos.  The video was a good solid foundation that went into a lot of the older software you may not find else where and some walk throughs you may not have the time to do on your own.  I previewed the CBT nuggets but I honestly could not take the jokes and unethical comments/stories he was telling.

I felt I should have done more studying with the specific tools like Ettercap, netcat, Snort, and Wireshark.  Having a lot of experience with NMAP definately helped.

My next plan is go self-study for GCIH, as long as my company will spring for the book.  I don't know why they are dragging their feet.  It's much cheaper than flying me to a SANS training.

-un

Great job man, congrats!

it was my understanding that OSCP is a higher level than CEH.  I also had access to all the reading material for CEH for free through work.  That made the decision pretty easy for me.

I like the CEH because if I choose to, I can take the more advanced ECSA and obtain LPT.

Good luck!

Hello

Im also planning to take up the exam. which version did you pass out? I read that V5 is available till june 2009. Is examination for v6 currently available ?

I have the review guide (feb 2007) and also the exam prep both are quite old (2006 / 2007) which doesn't cover the additional modules of v6.

Btw I am planning to give the exam in april / may at the most.

Regards
Niranjan

I took version 5 of the test.  It is my understanding version 5 will only be available up until June, then it will be version 6 only.

My theory is nobody is going to ask me if I am V5 or V6 certified.  Heck, up until a few months ago I still listed my MCP in NT4.0 Workstation on my resume just to illicit a laugh.

Congratz, unsupported!

I like ur theory.. Very simple. 
As long as I know, hacking in practise is the combination of theory, technical operation, and imagination.

In hacking, there are a ton of tools that could be used. But I think, everyone has their favourites. And also almost of people have the same tools in hacking. Such as, nmap, wireshark, metasploit, john the ripper, etc. Just look at the Fyodor page. It's cool if somebody has a physical lab for hacking.

This is my opinion, not my advise..
Just play the game, and more interaction with that tools will making easy for remember the commands. Backtrack is my favourite, I'm currently running is v3.
Unix/Linux environment is very supporting ourself to build up the hacking technique.

Regards,