Rocking the GIAC Exam with Voltaire
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- Voltaire is a web-based indexing tool for GIAC certification examinations. Creating an index with Voltaire is a simple three phase process involving: documentation/note-taking, sorting & normalization, and word processing.
Voltaire Website: voltaire.publickey.io - Наука та технологія
I’d definitely be using this to build my index. You taught the SEC560 just a couple of days while Ed was down. I really liked your teaching style. Thanks for the tool.
Thanks so much Sal!!!
This Index format is far better than any I've used before. Thank you for sharing. Will be using this to complete my index studies for next month's exam.
Thanks so much for letting me know! It really helps!
Everything works pretty well. I cannot thank you enough for making my certification exam's preparation. Next time you happen to be in Zurich Switzerland, i'll probably give you a tour around our city and send you off with a Swiss Fondue dish. Thanks a lot.
Awesome, glad you like it and I'm sure we'll run into each other at some point!
Just in time...course begins Monday and I was working through the Xenocrates tool. This is an excellent resource! Thank you for your time and efforts creating this.
James Graves thanks man! And good luck!
this was a great help ... i really appreciate you putting this out there. It helped me a ton on the test with being able to make find the info so quickly and add some quick reference notes.
Just finished SEC501 with Paul Henry down at SANSFIRE 2018 in DC. I will be using your suggestions for my index. Thanks!
thanks so much - this made all the difference in my passing my first certification !
Hell, yeah!
Thank you sooo much for this tool!
Thank You for the tool. This will help tremendously.
Absolutely! I'm glad it's been useful for you!
@@MatthewToussain I'm unable to login back to my index. Is there any way I could lodge a ticket /issue for tracking?
Thanks so much. This video helps a lot. Right now I’m struggling just to figure out what content exactly I should put my energy into due to being overwhelmed by the amount of information in front of me. Did you take your index and all the SANS material books provided into the exam? Or did you dwindle down everything to just be included within the index. Thanks in advance
Thank you!
GSEC and GIHC went hella smooth due to this Index Tool from the Gawwwds! Thank you for this 🙌
Thank you for putting this together, Matthew. I was trying to format my index using the tool, but the export option was not working for me. Are you making any changes? I imported it from a cvs file and then exported it using the build index option. Do you have any suggestions for what I should do? Thanks!
THANK YOU!!
Thank you! Those are rare words on the Internet. Cheers, mate! And good luck on your upcoming exam!
Hi Matthew, amazing tool. I was wondering if I can also use it on IPad? I can’t get it to work on it. So was wondering if it’s just me or it just doesn’t work. 😅 thank you in advance and thank you for making Voltaire
Thanks Matthew for this great tool! it helped me in my first GIAC Cert and I am preparing for the second. However, when I restarted my PC and logged in to Voltaire again, I couldnt find my saved indexes. Can you help in this? very appreciated
Thank you for the video and the tool! One question. What are you replacing the "," with?
Anything works. For me I'm using spaces, but for others do note that you only need to worry about this if you're using the import CSV feature.
Hello. I tried adding to my index for GSEC but when I try to edit, it's blank. Is there a way to recover it?
Cool video and thanks for the tool. Question, do most of you take all your books into the testing center? So the index is just to help find the information quickly correct?
Yes and yes! Definitely bring all the books with you. It can't hurt to have more options.
Hello, great video and thanks so much for an amazing tool! How do you know how much information is too much when creating the index? Is there a point where adding too much info can have a negative effect during the exam? Thanks so much, again!
I recommend following the 80/20 rule. I wouldn’t say that too much info is likely to have a negative effect during the exam, but it might end up being wasteful if you go too far. Your time is valuable too!
@@MatthewToussain Thank you so much for the quick reply! It is very much appreciated!!
@Matthew
There're some issues with the sorting of special character, i.e. "underscores", "dots", etc and lower-case at the beginning of field names (first column). I also lost a weeks work between the 3rd. -10th. January 2020 for some reason that i cannot explain (Maybe you had maintenance :-) ). I have a few suggestions, but will get to that via DM.
Certainly, feel free to reach out. I'm happy to share. Some of the known issues with Voltaire (like sorting) are in the pinned comment on this video.
Hey Matthew, Great tool. Thanks for putting it out there. Q: How does the index handle duplicate entries of the same term on different pages? duplicates them or shows them with the different page numbers?
You’ll see the term repeated with the associated pg/b numbers. I actually find this useful and recommend referencing the term multiple times. Normally I’d suggest the format of: Term - Section
@@MatthewToussain Thanks a million for getting back quickly with an added suggestion.
Thanks Matt, about to prepare for 560. Gonna be an intense few weeks :(
Hell yeah! You got this my friend!
Hi! I am trying to upload my index and I am not seeing the screen as it is in this video. When I click edit my index, there is no import option. I am using Chrome. Safari didn't work either. I was told maybe if I comment you could help.Thank you! I am making an index for the GFACT.
Thank you for this tool! However there is an issue, the Z index is missing. They show up in Voltaire when I import my spreadsheet, however not included in the built index.
Yep, that’s a known bug. Fix coming soon.
Any idea what you used for tabbing your books in this video? I know it's fairly old, but I really like those tabs and haven't had a lot of success finding anything similar yet. What I ordered ended up not looking anything like it.
Sure I just use the three ring binder tabs that you can buy at any office supply store (like Office Depot). The binding machine can punch straight through so the three ring holes don’t matter.
I'm looking forward to trying this out. However. something appears to be going on with the Google authentication. I try to log in with my Google account, but it never does so successfully.
HI, I have tried to updload a csv file with all commas in text removed and the 4 required labeled columns, and nothing gets loaded into the index. suggestions?
Hey Matthew, I wanted to use this tool but the it does not handle google users not having a last name.
Hi, Tried everything to import a .csv. ( built a sample one with only 3 lines). Is it possible that you put a sample online that works? Then I can use this to check or use for my index. Thank yo in advance.
I don't know if it was just me be terms that started with a numeric value ("3 Line Defense") did not make it to the Index. I had to manually add them. Can someone confirm? Thanks.
Matthew Banuelos that’s correct. Numbers and symbols are not currently supported. I’ll be adding that feature at some point in the future.
It's neat when it works right! I'm getting stuck where, for some reason, the index works from A through letter "fF", but then lumps everything "G-Z" into a single list after that. Any ideas what could be the cause there?
Oh wait...is this the same deal as noted here? github.com/0sm0s1z/Voltaire/issues/9
@@danwelygan5647 yep that's exactly what's going on.
@@MatthewToussain The workaround noted in the bug worked a charm. Totally unstuck now. Cheers!
Is there a limit to index size? I have 240 lines in excel doc but when I build the index and goto download nothing happens. Works alright on test one I did with 20 lines.
EDIT: Worked it out, make sure no titles start with a number, ie 802.11ax would have to be something like IEEE 802.11ax
No limits on size, but it’s possible you have a weird character somewhere that’s breaking the build. I’d copy the thing to excel, and then. Delete it in the app section by section until you find the offending bit. Once you fix that you ought to be able to export the whole thing. (You can copy/paste between Voltaire and other spreadsheets by the way).
@Matthew Toussain nothing prints out for the letter Z when you indicate as a title
I had the same issue. I liked the look of the final output but I had to add the Zs in manually and had to go through the entire index again to verify it didnt miss anything else, Otherwise this tool wouldve been perfect. Still a great tool.
It looks like the video and the current version are different. The copy and paste from notepad isn't working. Was this capability removed? I am unable to import a file with descriptions, it appears the default template only allows for Title, Book, Page. However, this schema does work better for a traditional looking index.
Sure is! There's an updated version here: ua-cam.com/video/mm4MQfy7D98/v-deo.html
Matt, I test for SEC 503 on Wednesday and my index of over 2000 entries is all of the sudden gone. Is there any way to resurrect it? Any help is greatly appreciated. What's to best way to contact you?
Sure happy to help. If you go to Voltaire there is a discord link on the search bar. Could you join that and message me through there? There are three tiers of backups that I built into Voltaire, and I can walk you through them if you message me there.
Is there a new way of doing it the page looks totally different and this didnt work
i recently took the SEC504 and i think this tool can help me with my certification exam but for some reason after putting several entries in and trying to do the export i do not get the letter breakdown.in other words all entries are under # has the logic change?
It might be a bug. If you message me on Twitter I'd be happy to help you work it out. @0sm0s1z
Matthew Toussain I ended up using the manual excel method and it worked. Passed my GCIH test with a High grade. I will try to use it again for my GPEN test.
I Build my index to use this website I have two weeks to get the exam but the site is not loading my indexes. Are you doing update or I lost my entire work please help!!!
If I'm understanding correctly, when you try to login the site keeps you at the login page and never displays your index? If so try waiting a bit on the page and logging in again, or swap browsers. This happens because of a bug in Google authentication. Let me know if that helps.
Is there any suport for this? I have 5 books indexed but only about half of my entries export
Sure, I can help. Unfortunately, it can’t do special characters right now. I’d like to add those features in at some point in the future, but time’s been tight lately. What's probably happens is that you have a bunch of "Title" entries that don't start with an alphabetical character. If you remove those it should export.
Lemme know if that worked for you!
I'm not able to log into Voltaire using the link above - it takes me to the login page repeatedly - using Firefox regular mod. I tried Chrome incognito with no luck as well. Help? Also, should the labs be indexed as well? TIA!
It’s an issue with your local browser cash using another browser like Firefox or another computer generally fixes it.
can you please post tutorial on deploy voltaire since it wasn't working at all if I want to build it on my VPS
Uhhh, is there a reason why the web app isn't suitable? It's opensource, but direct code use it meant for advanced users.
If there are desired features I'd be happy to look into building on the platform or accepting any 3rd party pull requests.
I don't intend to start taking a course but what are the recommend or preferred resources for text books?
Jacob Kupres do you mean the course books?
@@MatthewToussain Yes.
Jacob Kupres the course books come with the class, I’m not sure what other ways there are to get them, but you could ask GIAC. They might be able to set you up.
I made an index but now have an issue. The "Build Index" button takes me to Index Builder which I enter Title, Export style and Index Name and hit generate. It takes me to download button and nothing happens when I select download. Please assist, would love to use this tool
You likely have an odd line in your index (perhaps with a symbol or quote?) try building smaller bits of your index until you find out which line is breaking it.
There's a brand new version of Voltaire out! All of the issues listed below should now be patched!!!
There are three common issues that have been brought up. I'll make some fixes for them in the future, but for now here are some workarounds:
Issue 1 - When I build the index letters are out of order
- The application doesn't understand lowercase titles when it sorts. Make sure all of your titles are uppercased and it will work
Issue 2 - My csv won't import, when I try to import the dialogue stays open and when I refresh the page no data is there.
- There's something up with your CSV format/syntax. If you have "," characters in your data it will break your CSV. There may be some other weird characters that are breaking the import feature. Generally, a find and replace on commas fixes the issue, but you can step through the process by importing your csv in chunks until it breaks. ie import the first 10 lines, then the first 20 lines. When it breaks you'll see what went wrong and can find and replace that error across you CSV.
Issue 3 - Build index orders words under wrong titles.
- Right now you need to have a title with every letter A,B,C... represented in your index. Sort works by ordering and then incrementing the letters. It'll get out of order if you don't have a given letter in your index. For now just add that letter (ie U) with a blank description to your index and it will fix the problem. Fix coming in the future.
Also, feel free to DM me on Twitter if you're having trouble. I'll share my email address with you so you can send me your datasheet. I'd be happy to troubleshoot it for you.
:)
- @0sm0s1z
Thanks Matthew for sharing this video. It's very useful. I'm preparing for GSEC exam and want to build my index using your web application. I'm wondering if the above issues that you mentioned has been fixed especially the lower case one?
lost all my progress i added last night to it :( got to start over now.
When I import my csv and try to generate an index, nothing happens. If I create everything in Voltaire and genereate the index it seems to work fine. Is there something not working in the page anymore?
You’re csv may be formatted improperly. Shoot it to me at mtoussain@gmail.com and I’ll take a look.
When I imported my csv data, I lost all of the information I had previously put in. Is there any way to get it back? I don't want to have to go back and redo 209 terms...
So sorry to hear that! I'm afraid that the import feature overwrites does the existing data to give you a clean build and I can't actually recover that for you. I've been meaning to add in a warning message to the import feature.
@@MatthewToussain aww shoot. I was hoping you could do a rollback on the file through firebase somehow. Thanks for the information and I will be sure to back up in the future!
Great tool! but I can't seem to login with firefox or safari, only Edge. I must have some setting blocking it but I don't know where to start. Any advice?
Saw someone had the same issue, Cleared cache with no effect. I'll just use a different browser on my other device.
Use edge?
Hey Matthew, I just completed a SANS course CloudSecurity and our Instructor gave us the Voltaire link, but it is not letting us in to the platform. Can you help me out?
Sorry, I’ve been on Australia time lately so I’ve been out of touch. Are you still having trouble? I just checked and it appears to be online.
By chance is there a particular browser that works better? Th import dialog box wont go away.
Jason Butkus I've only used it in chrome on Windows and Android. Having compatibility issues? I could try to fix it if you're having trouble.
Ah, the import box, I forgot to add a close button. The hack to get around it is to refresh the screen. My bad, I'll fix that soon!
@@MatthewToussain Still no dialogue box close button or is it a browser thing?
@@XxSoBeHaLLxX it actually has to do with improperly formatted CSV data. Try importing fewer lines at a time to find out which lines are breaking it.
I'm working on a new major release to launch over the holidays that is a lot smarter about these kinds of things and has 3 dimensional backups! ;)
Noticing the export and import functions no longer work. Tested in chrome and firefox.
I ran into the same situation. But when you are on your "Configure Index" page (where you enter title, description, page and book), click on the "Build Index" on the top right hand corner. This will navigate you to a new window, where you can export as word, json, pdf or csv file types. You can also choose to remove features from the default template. Let me know if this works.
@@HemishPtl Thank you but I have since moved on to another method.
I have tried to log in with three different emails and just end up with an error message "Unable to process request due to missing initial state. This may happen if browser sessionStorage is inaccessible or accidentally cleared."
Have tried with Firefox and Microsoft Edge.
Try with Chrome or with another device if possible. Firefox generally works as well. The issue is that your browser’s local storage has cached something from a different site that is conflicting with the session cookie of Voltaire.
@@MatthewToussain Thanks. I tried clearing cache and cookies just to be sure, didn't help. The new browser was able to log in.
What is the site?
Voltaire.publickey.io
I understand alphabetizing everything but Do you take the pages out of each book and sort them alphabetically?
I don’t personally. I’m actually not sure how that would even work as each page could have any number of topics In it’s notes section. Let us know if you come up with a cool strategy though! I’m always looking for new tricks to improve!
@@MatthewToussain that was my thought. I just wasn’t sure how you kept your tabs in order? I probably am doing a poor job of explaining what I’m trying to ask lol sorry
@@William-Welch Oh! I might have a tip for that actually. What your describing sounds a bit similar to a technique I’ve seen Lesley Carhart use. On the Voltaire site there’s a page called “Resources” with links to a bunch of things like this video. One of those is a blog called hacksforpancakes. Lesley tabs out her actual books with content markings. Her blog post on the topic even has a bunch of pictures to show how she goes about doing it.
@@MatthewToussain thank you! I’ll definitely be trying this out for my upcoming courses
Great idea, but too many issues to have to try to walk through all those lines to figure out issues. I thought I had it when I had a comma with a space in front of it, but that didn't work. I tried 6 lines and it didn't work. Then I tried line by line and it would work with those 6 lines. Then I would try the 6 lines again and it wouldn't work!!! Frustrating to say the least :((
Had a weird numbering scheme on a few numbers and changed that and allowed me to import. Now it won't let me export. It just gives the # at the top of the page.
I had switched from Chrome when I had the other issues. Working now...
Got an error Html Webpack Plugin: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory. I can check back on the Voltaire website later.
Check out my Twitter account @0sm0s1z I’m posting live updates on Voltaire status. We’re going through a big update right now.
@@MatthewToussain Thank you sir!
Really appreciate the effort here; but I can't use this tool at all. The import CSV doesn't work. I tried making a separate index manually. Spent hours doing it then tried to Export and it didn't work. I've spent so much time trying to use this tool and have gotten no value from it at all. I'm so frustrated with it at this point I'm just completely giving up on it.
I’m sorry to hear that. Did you ever try using the Discord support channel? It’s linked on every page for a reason.
@@MatthewToussain I hadn't. Part of my issue is that I don't understand GitHub structure.
I'll take a look at that. Thanks for the reply!
is this being change or something? is not letting me import .csv anymore! i just used it couple a weeks ago..
jose garcia it did just get a major update! I’m working on a new UA-cam video right now, but here’s a link to the livestream I did on it yesterday. twitter.com/0sm0s1z/status/1248703144722198528?s=21
The short answer to your question is this. You can now import from the main index creation page (next to the log out button). You can also now import excel spreadsheets too so you don’t need to make and paste raw csv anymore. Voltaire can now smartly read real spreadsheet data! Enjoy!
@@MatthewToussain Thanks for the reply. I really appreciate the time and effort you put on this.
I notice the different options for import and output, but for some reason is not working. I tried uploading .csv / .xlsx with no success. Finally, I tried manually with the add row option 440 times to be able to copy and paste from the sheet.
Then for output I notice that its supposed to have different options like DOC PDF JSON CSV. I tried those to test but it doesn’t matter what I choose, it’s always a .doc output. When I check the word doc is missing some items after the letter X and I don’t see the items with numbers. I really like this tool because it really helps for formatting an index. I guess I will wait till is ready again.
jose garcia email me your spreadsheet so I can take a look? (Mtoussain@gmail.com)
Thanks for pointing this out, looks like we found our first bug in this version of Voltaire! It's now patched and working as intended.
Hey Matthew, is this open source?
It sure is. If you like code, check it out on my Github: github.com/0sm0s1z/Voltaire
Anyone successfully importing a csv file? I'm using chrome on windows. Understand there is no close button, but when you refresh screen, it doesn't keep you're data. This is a great tool. It will be even better with a close button.
The window will close if the data import was successful. I imagine there's something off about your car format? Check the GitHub issues page to see if that helps otherwise message me on Twitter and I'd be happy to troubleshoot your csv for you.
Hi Matthew, I had the same issue. I tried on Chrome, Firefox and Edge but it didn't work. Thanks for the support!
@@mamane007 it's not a browser issue. There's likely something wrong with your CSV syntax. On the Voltaire GitHub the issues page has two common problems with tips. If you want to you can DM me on Twitter and I'll be happy to take a look at your csv directly and troubleshoot it for you.
Matthew, I cleaned the file and IT WORKED! The import window was closed after the validation.
Is there any limitation on the number of lines?
Not working for me and the whole interface is different now than your video from 2018. Appreciate your effort but very buggy. Excel option spits out Word format. App doesn't load in Safari. Form for Index Name doesn't let you type and you can't store these online or at least there's no option for it. Gonna go back to drawing board and do it manually. no worries, thanks for your efforts!
It is very different than 3 years ago. Many upgrades since. Hop on the tool discord. There’s actually discussion there about everything you mention.
The app does NOT support Safari btw. It is in fact specifically unsupported. I know all Safari issues. They are in the “will not fix” pile feel free to consult Apple on why they built such a garbage product nearly equivalent to Internet Explorer.
Outside of that I’d love to actually fix any issues you’re having we update the tool regularly and the discord community is my nexus into what to do next. Thanks for the feedback though!
The import tool does not work properly it imports the stuff but the import box doesn't go away and when i edit the html to remove it. Try to build the index after it doesnt build anything and when i go back to the index everything i imported is gone.
I tried doing one line as well
I understand. This is a known issue. The import tool is working, but it's not particularly smart. Your CSV is improperly formated. There are likely special characters in your csv (such as additional commas) that are breaking the import. The next version will add additional quality of life feature around this, but for now there are two options: import your index one section at a time untill you find the error or add a bunch of lines by clicking add row and then paste your index in from cells in Excel/sheets.
There's a brand new version of Voltaire out that should solve your issues!
@@MatthewToussain Hey Matthew, Firstly, thank you for this tool and all the work i can see you've put in to further enhance it. I've been using the new version but i'm having trouble when it comes to exporting to Word. I imported my CSV file without issues but when i click on the "cog" none of the buttons on the next page work. I.e. when i click "export", "Build Index" or even "Templates" nothing happens. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Solved: You have to click on the "Build Index" button on the top right hand corner and select your options and hit generate. Sorted. Big thanks again for the tool.
How many google credentials are you harvesting?
That’s just not how google auth works (or any oauth for that matter). Couldn’t do it even if I wanted too.
Voltaire doesnt work anymore. I clicked export and it deleted all of my work and didnt export anything. Sad day. the tool needs to be updated and get rid of those bugs
I apologize that you haven’t had a good experience with the tool. I’d give ya refund, but... it’s free... I’m not sure what you did... the export feature certainly has no chance of deleting your work. That said, I added a backup feature last month to help people like you. Would you like help recovering your work?
Voltaire wouldn't generate an index from my notes
I don’t understand what you mean, but I’m happy to help if you’re having trouble.
The website is currently down
@Matthew Toussain
It seems to be working for me. It might be your ISP or your browser causing the issue. You may want to try it from your phone to help you diagnose the issue.
@@MatthewToussain yes.. it was a problem with the ISP... Thanks!
The site won't work for me.
If it's an authentication issue try using Firefox. Some users have reported issues with Google Chrome since their most recent update.
Thanks I'll give it a go and let you know.
I see Voltaire website but does not work - is it down? voltaire.publickey.io/
It's been working for me... Maybe try it again later? Your service provider may have been having an outage.
no aintvsfghhhhit