Passed CWNA after 16 days

Chris:/*

I would agree the only reason I am not pursuing such a course is because I would have to renew another test. Currently the only way to keep from renewing both CWAP and CWSP is to become a CWNE and I cannot justify enough enterprise wireless experience to apply for it. The CWNA and CWSP have outstanding resources that have taught me an enormous amount of information.

Best of luck to you and let me know if I can help.

Bl8ckr0uter

Chris:/* wrote: »

I would agree the only reason I am not pursuing such a course is because I would have to renew another test. Currently the only way to keep from renewing both CWAP and CWSP is to become a CWNE and I cannot justify enough enterprise wireless experience to apply for it. The CWNA and CWSP have outstanding resources that have taught me an enormous amount of information.

Best of luck to you and let me know if I can help.

Thanks. It won't be until at least March for the CWNA but I will be rolling out the wireless network much sooner than that. Who knows I might change my order up so I will go for the CWNA around the same time as my network roll out.

Chris:/*

Just educate yourself before you get the network up else it will cost you and your company a lot more money than necessary. Between the CWNA and CWSP had I attempted to truly set up an Enterprise network before studying for them I believe I would have done more harm than good.

Bl8ckr0uter

Chris:/* wrote: »

Just educate yourself before you get the network up else it will cost you and your company a lot more money than necessary. Between the CWNA and CWSP had I attempted to truly set up an Enterprise network before studying for them I believe I would have done more harm than good.

I will truly keep that in mind. Thanks!

Bl8ckr0uter

Better late than never. I have been plugging through the CWTS books and plan to start the CWNA next week or so. Have you had a chance to look at the CWAP book?

Chris:/*

I have not I would probably review it in the future, not for the cert so much but for the knowledge.

SteveO86

I've got the CWAP book. Goes very much in depth with the packet level. Are you curious about anything specific within the book?

Bl8ckr0uter

Chris:/* wrote: »

I have not I would probably review it in the future, not for the cert so much but for the knowledge.

That's exactly what I am thinking. After CWSP if I feel like doing CWAP, it would shock even me lol. I guess it depends on how much I like the material.

SteveO86 wrote: »

I've got the CWAP book. Goes very much in depth with the packet level. Are you curious about anything specific within the book?

I want to know how deep it does into it. I don't have a hardware analysier or anything (yet) but I have been playing with kismet and a few other tools in a few days. I am thinking about picking up that book very soon.

SteveO86

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

I want to know how deep it does into it. I don't have a hardware analysier or anything (yet) but I have been playing with kismet and a few other tools in a few days. I am thinking about picking up that book very soon.

Depending your WLAN card you should be able to place it in monitor mode and sniff packets with wireshark. (And you'll get the management/control/data frames.

That was with the latest Ubunto build with wireshark.

Than you can use aircrack to decrypt WEP/WPA/WPA2 to see the actual data. Takes a little bit to get use to but it can hold you over till you get Omnipeek or AirPCap for Windows.

As far as how in-depth CWAP, I'll have to give the book a glance over when I get back in the office and I'll post back. I've only skimmed through the book on a few occasions.

Bl8ckr0uter

SteveO86 wrote: »

Depending your WLAN card you should be able to place it in monitor mode and sniff packets with wireshark. (And you'll get the management/control/data frames.

That was with the latest Ubunto build with wireshark.

Than you can use aircrack to decrypt WEP/WPA/WPA2 to see the actual data. Takes a little bit to get use to but it can hold you over till you get Omnipeek or AirPCap for Windows.

As far as how in-depth CWAP, I'll have to give the book a glance over when I get back in the office and I'll post back. I've only skimmed through the book on a few occasions.

My wireless card has the capabilities that I need but I thought the book was based on fluke?

As a person who has more experience in wireless than I do (much more I am sure) from what you did read, did you feel is was worthwhile information for a "typical" engineer or was it more SME type stuff? Either one is fine by me, I am just curious.

SteveO86

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

My wireless card has the capabilities that I need but I thought the book was based on fluke?

As a person who has more experience in wireless than I do (much more I am sure) from what you did read, did you feel is was worthwhile information for a "typical" engineer or was it more SME type stuff? Either one is fine by me, I am just curious.

The CWNP books show images from AirMagenet, Wireshark/AirPCap, Omnipeek (and probably a few others I don't recall) so it's not really being tied down any particular vendor. (I'm pretty sure the CWAP is the same way, but I don't have the book in front of me to verify 100% I'll check on Monday and post back)

I can easily see a typical network engineer getting CWNA/CWSP (For security sake). After all who talks about Wireless but doesn't mention security?

I've skimmed through both CWDP and CWAP books. They contain some extremely useful information, and they both go much, much, much more in depth. When I get past my CWNA I plan reading the books cover to cover but I am not planning on getting those 2 certifications anytime soon. The CWSP is also going to be far off in the future for me (probably an end of the year time frame). For me, this is one situation (CWDP/CWAP) were I will learn the material but I will probably not pursue the certification. If my job role was solely wireless (and only wireless) I probably would.

(Of course depending on how my latest interview went, I might leaving the world of wireless.. which raises some mixed feelings for me, I've found wireless to very interesting and I've dedicated much time to it over the years, so if things move quickly enough I might not even finish off my CWNA)

Corndork2

How would you rate this test compared to the CWTS? I work for an ISP and work with wireless equipment in mass daily. I just started going down this cert track. I passed CWTS with a 52/60 (86%) score in 48hrs.... Would you think that it is realistic to think that it is possible for a technician with wireless experience to pass the exam with a week of study?

Chris:/*

I have not taken the CWTS so I can not speak to that, but the concept of the CWNA test is like the CCNA test. Just because you have experience doing the work does not mean you have experience with the breadth of the domain to pass the test. I believe you will quickly grasp the concepts to pass the test but two weeks to a month is a much more realistic timeline. Of course it is all dependent on the number of hours you spend each day studying.

That all being said JD would be a better person to answer your question.

SteveO86

When I took the CWTS, I passed with a 90%. I found the test very underwhelming for my experience.

I've actually been through a lot of CWNA material, and as Chris:/* mentioned the CWNA covers various topics, I did pick up on a few things from the CWNA material. However I don't think I will be taking the CWNA exam (as much as I would like to) since I not sure if my new position will have any dealings with Wi-Fi technology my time will be better spent learning other technologies.

If your interested in picking up the CWNA Certification I would get the official guide from CWNP's site and go through the material to get familiar with it depending on how you feel with the material in the book you can book the exam at your own pace. Just my thought process.

lelerenee31

What book did you study from?

Chris:/* wrote: »

Hey all,

I just passed my CWNA exam, I am not as happy with my score as I would like to be but considering I studied for 16 days I cannot be that critical.

Radio Frequency (RF) Technologies 75%
IEEE 802.11 Regulations and Standards 80%
IEEE 802.11 Protocols and Devices 78%
IEEE 802.11 Network Implementation 60%
IEEE 802.11 Network Security 100%
IEEE 802.11 RF Site Surveying 71%

Totatl Score: 76%

Tools Used:
OnlineExpert.com : CWNA videos by Tom Carpenter
CWNA/CWSP : For Technical references (will write a review later)
CWNA Official Study Guide : Outstanding for providing exam knowledge and theory lacking in other areas (will write a review later)
GT Hill's Study Guide : Great quick overview of facts (will not help you understand exam questions)

Next: CWSP, VCP 4 and CEH through October and November

Chris:/*

The official study guide. Steve086 linked it in his last post.