Hello Bala and welcome to the forums.

Many questions where the only person able to answer them is yourself. I will try to answer a few of them though.


You should learn what interests you most. The certificates you mentioned are all good in some way, however, it really depends on where you want to go. CCNA and CCNA security are certainly good, especially if you want to learn the network basics and work in the CISCO field. As you are already working as a network administrator, I assume that you should have already a fair amount of knowledge in this area, so those certs might not be too hard to get.
Another cert which you might want to look at is Security+ by CompTia which is vendor-independent. There you will also learn many security basics which might interest you.


Certainly not. I am doing CEH currently myself and enjoy it, though you won't become a hacker after it. It is just something else which will teach you security stuff, but to become a professional hacker (someone who is earning (legal) money with it) much more is needed.
Going through the CEH materials should add some more knowledge to yourself and may open some other doors for you, so if you have the possibilities to go for it, do it.

I couldn't imagine why someone would like to learn all RFCs.


I would recommend you to browse through this forum which is an excellent resource. Many advices were already given, good recommendations given (e.g. books), etc., so take you time.
Good Luck.

Hi Bala,

most of the topics you include in your roadmap are mainly related to networking, so you could cover most of them through CCNA.

Something that caught my attention is that you emphasize on RFC's, and as awesec said, I don't see why learning them. You will see that RFC's are interpreted and implemented in different ways by different vendors, then what you should do is understand the working of the protocols.

Good luck

Hi Bala and welcome to the forums..!!
well i second the awesec's thoughts that CEH is not the whole "thing" to become a hacker (legal), it requires a lot... i also agree with the fact that security+ by comptia is a good start and ya chrisj is also correct when he said to have a look on hacking for dummies book...
i would have preferred the route like: ccna (or network+ by comptia) --> security+ --> and then CEH... jumping into a certification like CEH is not a good idea until you have some fair knowledge about networking. and ya linux knowledge is also good to have, as most cool tools are written for linux...
chart your best route which compliments your career goals and your passion for technology....

i would also comment the same thing: don't expect a cert to mean you're qualified for a job..!! It requires a lot..!!

last but not the least browse this forum, it is full of excellent resources and information... and of course with people who are willing to help..



PS: and ya am also from the same place.