WIFITECHBLOG

On Monday, I passed the CWNA (PW0-105) exam.

While I have decided to sit out v2 of the CCIE Wireless, I do not want my skills to atrophy completely.  I had considered focusing on CCNP Wireless, but since most of my certifications are Cisco-oriented, and since I had passed CCIE Written, it seemed to me like looking at 802.11 from a different perspective was a good idea.

CCIE Wireless is focused mostly on configuration.  This makes sense - the exam is designed to ensure you know Cisco's product inside and out, which means understanding their interpretation of the 802.11 protocol.  The best way to do demonstrate this is to prove that you know all the nuances of configuring their equipment.

CWNP has a different focus, though, since it is a vendor-neutral certification.  Their focus is more on ensuring that candidates have a solid understanding of the RF characteristics that underlie the vendor's implementation of 802.11.  I am hoping that by developing a better understanding of RF, I can gain valuable insight into understanding why Cisco approaches it from their perspective - and effectively gain a better knowledge of their product.

I still have the goal of reaching CCIE Wireless.  I'm just taking a less direct approach to it at this point.

Next on my radar - CWDP!

Should I use GUI, CLI, or both?!

While preparing for the Autonomous AP portion of the CCIE Wireless lab I have come across a puzzling problem - what interface to use to configure the APs!

It's not a simple question, in my mind.  I've always been a command-line guy, as I find it much quicker.  However, in preparing for a test of this nature it becomes obvious that CLI also gives you more to remember...  And while I'm used to configuring wireless bridges using CLI, almost all of the APs I configure these days use GUI (CAPWAP through WLCs).  The GUI is different enough on an autonomous AP that I get a bit lost; for them I have generally stuck to the CLI as much as possible and just referenced the GUI when I get stuck.

I am going to focus on CLI, but ensure that I am comfortable using GUI as well.  If nothing else, it is easier to study CLI on my bus trips to/from work ;)