Study Update 10.28.2010

Study Update 10.28.2010

Where are we?

1. I finally finished reading my CWNA book... Too many projects and too much other stuff in the middle some might argue... um... a lot of it is luckily Wireless.

2. Let's see... I went to the Cisco Unified Wireless Networking class offered by Global Knowledge and conducted by Gigwave... totally awesome class. Only downside (major downside for most folks) was 5 people and 4 laptops with access to equipment. Looking over someone's shoulder is NOT what we go to hands-on classes for... is it?

3. I was fortunate, that aside from WCS (I used my own WCS during class to some degree - I had to re-size the hard drive to add WLCs to the 6.196.0 code) I knew how to do mostly every lab in my sleep. AP Groups was not something I has done but George has an awesome video on the subject and the instructor explained the concept very well.

4. The instructor from Gigawave is absolutely the bomb! He rocks. I'd imagine mostly everything in the class was the making of a CCIE Lab question - especially the tidbits of experience offered by the instructor and some carefully worded questions from one of the students - me!.

5. I'm getting ready to finally book my exam. I know... Sorry, this test has a lot memorization, definitions, concepts, and material in general. So it takes time to read it and understand it.

6. I've ordered my Cisco Outdoor mesh gear (LAP-1524AG's) and the poles arrived yesterday. Everything else is on back-order. Either these things are in demand or they... are not in demand.. Hmm...

7. I re-sized the VM for my WCS, added WLCs, and I just finished adding all my switches to the controller. Rogue detection on steroids!!!

8. I'm also finally completing adding 2 WLCs to the network. Time flies when you are having fun.

9. I'm going to have to survey each site I am responsible for to help ensure my heat maps are correct in WCS or at least as accurate as I can make them.

10. As you can tell I learned a lot from CUWN and am trying to implement what I learned into my own network.

11. I had to rebuild my Wireless DMZ to fix an issue I learned about in class. Did that as "Step 1" and now I have to complete the other piece of the equation.

12. I bought more gear for my own Wireless Lab. The idea is to have an autonomous lab with WDS and the WLSE and then have the LWAPP Lab with A/B/G/N with the WCS and all my various controllers. Seems mostly everything I need is in the 4000/4100's but I'm probably going to buy the 2106 to support "N" and support that AP-1252 I bought. I have my 1131's and 1242. I've got the older Airespace 1200/1250s for indoor/outdoor use and they are what I'm using to get me faster at the CLI.

I gotta run through the book one more time for a final review and get to the testing center I might be able to wrap this up. Of course, trying to juggle everything and competing priorities (work is my personal biggest challenge) is always going to be the story of my life.

Let's see I can tell that studying for the CWNA has made a tremendous impact on my ability to successfully deliver my own wireless projects and probably has saved the company several tens of thousands of dollars in consulting fees just for a project like the one I have been working on since I started studying for the CWNA.

I can further tell you that as a result of studying for the CWNA I now understand the technology, the language, the implications, and where the fast-paced wireless industry is going and where it has been. This is huge!!!!

A. It allows me to mix and max various generations of gear for my own personal use and interoperability between various vendors if/when needed.

B. When implementing any vendor's equipment, in this case Cisco, and in classes, I have a much stronger leg to stand on since I have the assurance and confidence that I have a more solid depth of understanding required to deliver a better product properly.

C. I've been offered a decent-sized local project with over 1000 users on a campus network of several acres and it is also wireless. I have been asked to audit the site and part of that audit includes a Wireless Survey of the network. Kewl! I have to admit, it's not my first wireless survey, I've been doing wireless since it was ad hoc back in 2000/2001 with Netgear Wireless NICs and I've since had a lot of experience with Cisco over the past 7-8 years more or less on well over 50-60 campus networks or enterprise networks. So not much is new, except now I'm better trained, a lot better trained thanks to the CWNA, and I actually can make more informed decisions for the benefit of my client which equates to the old adage: faster, cheaper, better. I'm not just a Wireless guy, but also a Network Engineer of a certain level and so the client gets a lot of additional value and insight from my own matrix of skills. Previously I'd have felt more comfortable farming the Wireless Survey out. Today, I can't quite say that. I'm well armed with some of the best tools in the industry to perform the job and top of the list is the skills from the CWNA.

That's it for now.

Darby

http://wwww.darbyslogs.blogspot.com