Observations of Instructor Led Training with Real Hardware

TechNow has heard many students talk about virtualized/remote training that TechNow Does Not Do.  While training our most recent offering of PA-215: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Essentials FastTrack a student told his story of how he endend up in our course.  His story we have heard for other technologies like Cisco, VMware, BlueCoat and other products.

A large percentage of training is moving to the virtualized/remote lab environments.  Students are asked to use some variant of remote access software and remote into the training company's lab environment. Our student in our Palo Alto Networks Firewall course informed us that he went to a very costly offering of that course from the vendor and was not able to perform any labs.  There were either network connectivity issues, or issues with the remote access software, or other problems.  The whole training experience was very frustrating and not productive.

We keep our labs open to students if they would like after hours, or before hours access.  Repeatedly going through a lab engrains that knowledge for later recall.  Touching hardware is so critical in understanding the problems that arise when a cable comes loose, or a cable gets plugged in the wrong port.  There are other scenarios such as just pulling the power cable, or turning off a power strip, or accidently overwriting a configuration.  These disaster scenarious requires hands-on physical access to hardware.  Preventing and recovering from disasters is what it's all about, and that requires hands-on, instructor led, real hardware.

L-245: Linux System Administration I

Course Overview:

In this course students will learn to install the Linux™ operating system, to administer users and software, to use vi, basic Linux security, process control, file system maintenance, backup and recovery, including some basic networking concepts. This course insures that students have the skills to configure all desktop and client side related activity.

Attendees to L-245: Linux System Administration I will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Linux operating system installation
  • Hardware Issues
  • LILO & GRUB Configuration
  • Managing the Linux file system
  • Boot Process
  • Customization of setup files
  • System Startup
  • Run Levels
  • Network Services
  • User Management
  • Changing Passwords
  • Monitoring, accessing & restricting root system access
  • Administration Tools
  • Disk Management
  • Quotas
  • Process Control
  • Installing & removing software & patches
  • Network Configuration
  • Client side components of NFS, Samba, NTP, NIS
  • Printing
  • Backup and Recovery
  • Using utilities for process control, locating files & automating maintenance tasks

Prerequisites:

  • Students should have an understanding of all basic UNIX commands as well as variable substitution, wild card expansion, command pipes, permissions, the grep  and find commands.
  • These prerequisites can be met through completion of TN-125: Introduction to UNIX & Linux and six month’s experience with Linux.

 

Comments

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User: flores2015

Instructor comments: Very Good Instructor (Bill Peterson)

Facilities comments: Nice - Can't wait for your new facility.

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PA-213: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Install, Configure, and Manage (EDU-201)

  

 

Course Overview: PA-213: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Install, Configure, and Manage (EDU-201) Training Class is a three-day course that teaches students to configure and manage the entire line of Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls. This course prepares the student for the Palo Alto Networks Accredited Configuration Engineer (ACE) and progress to the Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE).  Through hands-on training, students learn high end skills of how to integrate Palo Alto next-generation firewalls into their network infrastructure.  This is not a virtualized theoretical course.  This is hands-on, real world instruction, directly relevant to the DoD and Commercial implementations of Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls.

Each student is issued a physical Palo Alto firewall and a Cisco layer 3 switch at their desk.  Real hardware per student for real experience and real skill development.  TechNow provides a very comprehensive client infrastructure that includes Windows, Linux, and multiple packet sniffer agents.

This course sets up the foundation for the two day course PA-212: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Configure Extended Features. The instructor for this course has been a lead in Unix kernel development to implement firewall and intrusion detection technologies.  Additionally, the instructor has taught several security appliance products and carries several SANS, ISC2, ISACA, Cisco, Unix, and Windows certifications.

Attendees to the PA-213: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Install, Configure, and Manage (EDU-201) Training Course will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

TechNow PA-212: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Configure Extended Features (EDU-205) immediately follows this course in the schedule so that you can take both courses in the same week.  We also offer a discount for attending both classes in the same week!!

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 3 days

Course Objectives:   Students attending this foundational-level training course will gain an in-depth knowledge of how to configure and manage their Palo Alto Networks firewall, including hands-on experience in configuring the security, networking, threat prevention, logging, and reporting features of the Palo Alto Networks Operating System (PAN-OS).

Day 1

  • Module 0 – Introduction & Overview
  • Module 1 – Platforms and Architecture
    • Single-Pass Architecture
    • Flow Logic
  • Module 2 – Initial Configuration
    • Initial Access to the System
    • Configuration Management
    • Licensing and Software Updates
    • Account Administration
  • Mod 3: Basic Interface Configuration
    • Security Zones
      Layer 2, Layer 3, Virtual Wire, and Tap
    • Subinterfaces
    • DHCP
    • Virtual Routers
  • Mod 4: Security and NAT Policies
    • Security Policy Configuration
    • Policy Administration
    • NAT (source and destination)

Day 2

  • Mod 5: Basic App-ID™
    • App-ID Overview
    • Application Groups and Filters
  • Mod 6: Basic Content-ID™
    • Antivirus
    • Anti-spyware
    • Vulnerability
    • URL Filtering
  • Mod 7: File Blocking and WildFire™
    • File Blocking
    • WildFire
  • Mod 8: Decryption
    • Certificate Management
    • Outbound SSL Decryption
    • Inbound SSL Decryption

       

       
Day 3

  • Mod 9: Basic User-ID™
    • Enumerating Users
    • Mapping Users to IP Addresses
    • User-ID Agent
  • Mod 10: Site-to-Site VPNs
    • IPSec Tunnels
  • Mod 11: Management and Reporting
    • Dashboard
    • Basic Logging
    • Basic Reports
    • Panorama
  • Mod 12: Active/Passive High
    • Availability
    • Configuring Active/Passive HA

 

Prerequisites:

This course is in no way associated with Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

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N-595: VoIP Security Analysis and Design

Course Overview:

As VoIP (Voice-over IP) is integrated into the operations of many missions, it is imperative to understand its security ramifications.  In the N-595: VoIP Security Analysis and Design class the objectives are designed for those who are chartered with the responsibility of securing networks and application environments that incorporate VoIP.   Topics include how VoIP works, its interactions with the network, its vulnerabilities and mitigations.  Focus is on leading open source and proprietary technologies utilizing Asterisk and Cisco and the protocols SIP, H.323, RTP, MGCP, and Skinny.  Other protocols such as Nortel's UNIStim will be addressed.  As for Cisco, security pieces in the VoIP CallManager servers, Catalyst switches, IOS-based routers, and ASA firewalls, amounts to several different platforms, each with its own management interface and lockdown procedures.   Various open source tools including those in BackTrack are used for VoIP attacks.  A task list of actions for securing enterprise VoIP is carried out in hands-on labs, performed on Cisco phones, routers, switches, and ASA firewalls.

Attendees to N-595: VoIP Security Analysis and Design will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

  • VoIP Architecture
  • VoIP Signaling and media protocols
  • Common VoIP authentication mechanisms
  • Common VoIP encryption techniques
  • VoIP protocol analysis with Wireshark
  • Maintaining QoS while mitigating DoS
  • VoXML, XML, and application integration security
  • Converged network security design and implementation
  • Impact of NAT and firewalls
  • SIP, H.323, and MGCP vulnerabilities
  • VPN, IPsec and SRTP to secure VoIP services
  • Penetration testing with open source tools
  • Attacks for Eavesdropping, call redirection, and DoS
  • Design of hacked firmware virtualization layer
  • Concise lockdown steps for network hardware and VoIP

Prerequisites:

  • This is an advanced Information Security Course which requires basic Windows & UNIX competency
  • Certification or 2 years of experience in these operating systems is highly recommended
  • As well as an understanding of TCP/IP

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CT-395: CySA+ Cybersecurity Analyst

 

Course Overview:

CT-395: CompTIA CySA+ Cybersecurity Analyst is for IT professionals looking to gain IT security analyst skills, and for those following the recommended skills pathway to achieve cybersecurity mastery. It provides a bridge between CompTIA Security+ (CT-325) and CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP,CT-425), thus completing a certification path within the CompTIA family of certifications. As attackers have learned to evade traditional signature-based solutions, an analytics-based approach has become extremely important. CySA+ applies behavioral analytics to the IT security market to improve the overall state of security. The CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) certification verifies that successful candidates have the knowledge and skills required to configure and use threat detection tools, perform data analysis and interpret the results to identify vulnerabilities, threats and risks to an organization, with the end goal of securing and protecting applications and systems within an organization. Let us help you bridge this gap, and leave you prepared for the certification exam (CS0-002).

TechNow is a CompTIA partner uses official CompTIA CySA+ curriculum.

Dates/Locations:

Date/Time Event
09/08/2025 - 09/12/2025
08:00 -16:00 		CT-395: CySA+ Cybersecurity Analyst
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX
12/01/2025 - 12/05/2025
08:00 -16:00 		CT-395: CySA+ Cybersecurity Analyst
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

  • Threat Management
  • Vulnerability Management
  • Cyber Incident Response
  • Security Architecture and Tool Sets

Prerequisites: 

While there is no required prerequisite, the CompTIA CySA+ certification is intended to follow CT-325: Security+ or equivalent experience.  It is recommended for CompTIA CySA+ candidates to have the following:

  • 3-4 years of hands-on information security or related experience
  • Network+, Security+, or equivalent knowledge.

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