Preparing for offensive security

[Pazzie]

Hello all,

I am a Dutch guy and in need of help and pointers..

I dont have lots of experience with hacking, only within virtual machines and then simple ones, i have gone through several books, from Thomas Wilhelm is book and just lots of books.. I love to play with systems and I build my own systems as well.. I want to start the hacking dojo or the offensive security one in a few monhts.. How can I prepare in the best way? I started a Ruby course book and bought coding for pentesters.. And I am only looking for online guides to build a real virtual network, with DMZ and stuff like that.. Havent found it though..

I hope someone can help me out, cause I am not an expert, by far.. But this is something I wanted to do for a long time and now I have the money.. Oh and what I also would like to know is how much time a day will this take? Average?

Thanks everyone for the help and assistance..

Pazzie

[DragonGorge]

Re. OffSec programming languages...I took the OSCP last year and didn't write a single line of Ruby. Strictly Python & C.

[Agoonie]

I would say just go for it.  There is no perfect way to prepare.  Just read as much as you can from the Internet, blogs, youtube, (hardcover/digital) books, etc. Both courses are going to show you a lot of great information, and even then, will require more reading afterwards anyway.  As far as the home network, there are a few posts on this site that can help you with that.  I think Pauldotcom was just talking about cheap home networks:  http://pauldotcom.com/2013/03/building-a-security-lab-on-the.html

[r0ckm4n]

It's a great course and I think you will like it. Go for it.

[Pazzie]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it a lot, and thanks for the link.. Going to read up on it now.. And the Ruby thing, that was offensive security support that gave me that tip:) But thanks, i do have a good python book and the coding for penetration testers will come in tomorrow.. And both courses are equally good? Then its personal preference I guess.. Thanks again all!