Grrr Wireless!!!

jryerson

Ok this question is for all you that have taken this test. How much emphasis is put on wireless technology and wireless security? I have the syngress book and in chapter 4 it covers wirless. This book went very deep into it and I'm not really sure I understood all of it. I know this is important as far a security goes but I'd like to know if Comptia test you in depth on the subject. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

RussS

wireless .... yes I agree that the Syngress book went very much indepth on that subject. However I think that the author over emphasised this psrticular subject.

Comptia objectives list

2.6 Recognize and understand the administration of the following wireless technologies and concepts

WTLS (Wireless Transport Layer Security)
802.11x
WEP / WAP (Wired Equivalent Privacy / Wireless Application Protocol)

Vulnerabilities
Site Surveys

How many questions you get is debateable. Operational/Organisational security is supposed to be 15% of the exam, however when I sat it the 2nd time this area was more like 40%.

As far as Wireless I am thinking that WTLS, 802.11x and WEP/WAP are the areas that you should be conversent with.

jryerson

Thanks RussS. I was getting a bit nervous about how in depth the syngress book went. Although, I'm nowhere near ready to take the exam it takes a weight off knowing that I don't have to know wireless that intimately.

RussS

As I said - the problem with Sec+ is more the range of the materials and the emphasis Comptia put on certain areas - coupled with sloppy question writing.

The thing with books like the Syngress book was that they were written early on in the piece. I guess the author sat the beta and then wrote a book based on the objectives and what he seen in the beta. the book would have been rushed out to be on the market when the exam came live. I am not sure what Robert Shimonski has written except for the Sec+ book and a set on Server, but for me his style just does not suit, and I personally have an issue with the way Syngress lays their books out. I found the Sybex book a lot easier to understand and the author covered most of the objectives in a deep enough manner. I also think that because his book was a bit later he was able to evaluate things a little deeper. Second editions of these books should be closer to the mark. Kind of why I like Tcats pdf - updated all the time and up to the play with the exam.

jryerson

I have been reading tcat's pdf also (the free one). Did you purchase the full version one and if so what exactly do you get?

RussS

One very good study resource. Tcats free pdf was what he put out prior to the beta exam going live. Since then he has added to it, changed it, updated it, corrected it, modified it to fit the objectives. That makes it quite a bit more relevent than many other resources out there. Not bad for $20, plus you get any updates free. I think it is being held at about 700 pages as that is about the biggest you can have bound at your local copy centre - real handy as I hate reading off the screen. Personally I think Tcat & Helen have really looked hard at the objectives and are pretty much on the mark.

Tcat has also just produced a neat free pdf designed to aid with study.

I do however think that he may have some competition one day soon as the first of webmasters study notes on Sec+ impressed me in the way he presented them - would be cool to see him published as the study notes here are awesome

jryerson

I do agree that webmaster does some really nice work. I am also considering purchasing the full version of the pdf. I am hearing great reviews and yours added on top pretty much make it a no brainer. Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.

Webmaster

Thanks guys, I hope I'll be able to write good notes for the remaining objectives as well. I'll see if I can finalize the Authentication TechNote soon... not looking forward to the 'policies' though Might even need a freelance author/tech writer to write those parts, but we'll see when I come to that point.

kevin_stevens

I agree with a couple of posts here. I just passed S+ with an 820 this afternoon, using the Syngress book as a primary reference, and the final Tcat/Helen study books (I have Books 24x7) and test guide as a secondary, after studying for a couple of weeks.

The Syngress book IMHO does go too deeply into wireless for the exam, though I appreciate their "body of knowledge" approach. I found flat errors in both the Syngress and the ExamInsight/Examwise books - both typos and factual errors. They both suffer from being rushed out the door. I think the Syngress sample tests are more like the exam, but like the Examwise book better overall.

Really, though, you need a lot of exposure to different presentations. This is one of the very worst tests I've ever taken (BNE, CNE, MCSE, CCNA) , due to the breadth and lack of specificity of the subject matter. Fine, SSH is port 22; that's straightforward, but a lot of the risk analysis and relative mitigation value stuff is very subjective. I finished the first pass through the test with 14 questions marked for review, and only two or three of those were cases where I really didn't know the subject matter. All the others were subjective, and judging from the score, I guessed right on about half of them. (shrug)

To some degree it's the nature of the subject, but frankly if it didn't cost so much it would be a lot quicker to browse through any of the books and simply take the test two or three times. I'm sure I studied the material in much greater detail than was productive. Since I'm going on to CISSP and working in the field it's not a problem, though.

KeS

kevin_stevens

BTW the time pressure isn't significant given the pass level - I finished in about 45 minutes. If you're agonizing over enough questions to make the time limit an issue you're unlikely to pass anyway (see above post) .

KeS