I've never taken any of their classes but I definitely looked into it because I wanted to get the wireshark cert. I've read that their videos are pretty good, and they will definitely help anyone gain more knowledge about wireshark and TCP/IP (experienced to rookies).

You really cant compare their pricing to SANS, SANS is in a whole different league. I would rather fork out 4500 for a SANS course rather than wireshark university, but it just depends on your budge, experience, and career path.

If you sign up, definitely let us know what they are like.

Looks good maybe if i get some time and funds i will do this after OSCP

I've read it for the most part (still need to finish up the Tshark stuff). I was looking for something that would be a low cost version of the GCIA training. 4500 isn't happening anytime soon. OSCP looks cool but the WCNA material would be beneficial. I may just try to squeeze the OSCP in at some point late next year (probably after CCIE written if I do it at all).

I'm a little shocked that you didn't include the other "TAO" book:
http://www.amazon.com/Extrusion-Detection-Security-Monitoring-Intrusions/dp/0321349962/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324319286&sr=8-1

Isn't this a much, much cheaper alternative?

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Packet-Analysis-Wireshark-Real-World/dp/1593272669/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2C55HVZC0QAX3&colid=13CPC8DZ1Z4LY

With WireShark being free and all I'd think downloading the tool and reading up on this material would be pretty good for those on a budget. I have heard the Laura Chappel courses are amazing, but again, for the price.

I might pick it up but I was looking for something a little higher level.

I've never taken Wireshark University courses, but I've seen Laura Chappell teach at the first Sharkfest a few years ago.  She also has free videos online on different sites.  You can always learn this stuff on your own, but I think it's really helpful when someone is walking you through the fundamentals and stepping through different analysis scenarios, explaining the approach for each one.  She's very good at this and her instruction style keeps you engaged.

I've read her Wireshark Network Analysis book.  I also have the WCNA and GCIA certification.  The WCNA is partially about Wireshark as a tool, but it's also very much about doing protocol analysis and understanding how networks function from a packet's point of view.  It's an extremely valuable skill in this day and age as it'll help you find the smoking gun at work.  If you get the WCNA cert, you'll be required to upkeep it with CPEs if you want to maintain the cert, but you can do that through the WCNA Portal where they have all kinds of additional instructional videos.  Good stuff.

As for the GCIA, there's not a whole lot of Wireshark mentioned, but much of the concepts still apply.  It's more tcpdump-focused and you'll be expected to know how to interpret packet headers by looking at the raw binary values.  WCNA covers traffic analysis, but doesn't necessarily get into "how attackers craft malicious packets and how to identify them" like the GCIA covers.  I'd say the WCNA and GCIA material complement each other very well.  I also think TCP/IP Weapons School is a nice additional complement, but that's another subject altogether.  You can always read Richard Bejtlich's books and get a good idea of what his class is like.