Best WiFi Certifications?

filkenjitsu

If someone wants to start learning the technology behind WiFi, starting from scratch and business goals certifications as milestones to their growth, where should they start?

CCNA Wireless?
CWTS: Certified Wireless Technology Specialist?
Planet3 Wireless Sharp (#)? (does that even exist anymore?)

Thanks!

omi2123

i'd go for CCNA Wireless cause it's more vendor specific rather than vendor neutral.....plus, it will renew ur ccna certs also

filkenjitsu

Yea, but the knowledge I am looking to build is around WiFi in general as I may need to support certain vendor systems in public places. Cisco has not been a vendor name that has come up, but troubleshooting issues with WiFi in general will be a future concern.

I will not be engineering the design that I know of, but supporting issues experienced by the users as well as outages. I figured I would get an early start and build my knowledge from the ground up on antennas, RF specific to WiFi, issues relating to 2.4 and 5 Ghz congestion and limitations, etc.

The future may have me working with hardware vendors on high level and low level network designs, etc.

Technoracer

Aruba certifications are hot for wireless, but starting off with Cisco would be great. Certifications | Aruba Networks

Cert Poor

Skip the CWTS (it's actually a good intro, but the CWNA also has the intro material and is a step up). CWNA all the way. They're coming out with a new version of the exam sometime mid-2014 that will include 802.11ac and 802.11-2013 stuff, so I'd wait till this summer when it comes out.

CWTS is good if you want a lifetime cert and ease your way into WiFi, but I already had an RF background with amateur radio, so the only thing I gained from CWTS was more details on the Layer 1 technologies like FHSS, DSSS, OFDM and stuff on 802.11w, 802.11s, 802.11r, 802.11e, 802.11i, etc. I'm sure CWNA covers all that and more.

Bokeh

Looks like new CWNA book due in July. Don't know when they will retire current exam.

CWNA: Certified Wireless Network Administrator Official Study Guide: Exam CWNA-106: David D. Coleman, David A. Westcott: 9781118893708: Amazon.com: Books

PsychoFin

I have been working with wifi for quite a some time and I have so far got the cwna and cwsp. I bought one of their promotions a couple of years ago that included all the books and one exam try per exam. The cwna is insanely detailed and gives a great introduction to 802.11 and what it really is and how it works. After the cwna ccna wireless is easy in comparison. The cwnp certifications are very in depth and tough. But you will get a thorough understanding of the subject matter for sure. The prep material is of a very high quality too. I have used almost all of the books in my daily work, especially the cwdp and cwap ones.

Go go go!

eansdad

Another vote for CWNA then Cisco: Wireless....

JustFred

This is one of those rare cases where i think a vendor neutral cert would be an asset.

rowelld

I also recommend doing CWNA. CWTS is very basic stuff. There is a big section on wireless cards where most aren't even available anymore. CWNA has lots of good material in it. The material that really counts.

Then I would go for the CCNA Wireless. It's very specific to Cisco and lacks a lot of the information that is in CWNA.

You can think of it this way.. you can learn how to manage a Cisco wireless network but you won't know the foundation of wireless. You get that with CWNA.

JDMurray

It really depends on how much computer networking, 802.11, and RF experience you already have. If you have no experience then the CWTS (and Network+) is where to start. If you've been working in WLANs or amateur radio for a while then the CWNA is more your starting level.