Darby Weaver Weekly Report 05.16.2010 #3

Darby Weaver Weekly Report 05.16.2010 #3

Chapters 3/4/5/ Progress Check:

Catching up from last week was my goal this week.

I had to make last minute plans to go to Delaware (where I'm writing for tonight) and this meant taking care of a few things on the home front.

I've been active on the "Ask The Expert CCIE Wireless Forum" asking some questions I knew, others I'd like answered, and some that were in the middle since it seemed like no one else was going to ask.

For CWNA I'm chugging on a long. It was announced this week that I won first prize on the www.cwnp.com for the most posts during the contest period. So that means I won the TrainSignal DVD set and they arrived last week. I won the Ultimate CWNA Study Package and that meant a CWNA Voucher too.

So a free Voucher and a free retake - all I have to do is hurry and finish studying. Easier said than done. I've been working my tail off at work.

No one ever said being a lead network engineer was easy. It's actually a lot of work, meetings, paperwork, discussions, research, and everything else that goes into making everything just "work".

That's just like. It's the life we choose. So I had to make a flight.

So while on the trip I'm doing to some Wireless experiments too and having some observations:

1. I'm taking moments to gaze at some of the various wireless towers I see standing everywhere. Not a biggie but my reading pointed it out and so I'm taking more than a peek. I have an ex-girlfriend from high school who works on setting these puppies up and you know they have a video and I think it has some of Van Halen's "Might As Well Jump" in there too. Not my idea of a good time, but hey I'm sure it is exhilarating. Anyway the video stresses how exciting setting up those towers can be and all the training, professionalism, and safety measure those folks take to get the job done right. Really Kewl!!!

2. I finally decided to use a Wireless GPS System. Kinda neat. Of course I had to turn in the first one it was DOA, and then I had to figure out I'm really not that great with French so of course, I found myself on a crash course on configuring the proper language. After all that, it got me where I was going and here I am.

3. I've been playing with my Sniffer a bit for Wireless. I broke out my Laura Chappell Video Training Course on "Introduction to Wireless LANs" and who's the instructor? None other than Keith Parsons. Keith seems to be rather promiscuous and gets around. I put it on my must study list and look forward to it asap. Small world. Keith also did the Fluke course too and who knows what else. Quite a guy!

4. Before I left the house I upgraded a small mountain of Cisco switches to the latest IOs - I don't know maybe 20 of them and I setup the OS of my Cisco ACS Server - I just opted for Windows 2000 SP4 and it'll work. It's just ACS. I did opt for the version of Windows 2000 that supports clustering - hmm... it fits with my other labs and my load balancing labs to come later - a bit OT for CWNA.

So where am I?

I read chapter 3, 4, and 5 this weekend. I've found I needed to read a couple chapters again. I have to do my exercises and read some more.

My goal will be to be at least up to chapter 6 by the end of the week and this means:

1. Reading assignments.2. Master all RF Math Formulas - this is a valuable task by itself.3. All definitions for all chapters so far - I hand type and look these up one by one.4. Complete all questions - I write these out too. Excellent for memory.5. Complete all chapter quizzes - these are electronic.6. Complete my hand written notes.7. Go over the three sets of electronic flash cards at least twice before the end of the week.

I was traveling so I could not make the conference call the guys wanted to have today.

I'm finding it challenging to grasp everything as quickly as I like. I'm fortunate that I'm already proficient in many of the practical aspects of setting up, configuring, and troubleshooting wireless networks. Whew! Not to mention my experience with the infrastructure itself that is required to fully support most of the initiatives and features implemented by wireless technologies.

My CWNA learning experience is making a lot of things I took for granted make a lot more sense.

FYI - I love the math formula presented by Keith Parsons on the CWNA's CD for the Rules of 10's and 3's. I have to admit I needed to walk slowly through the examples to see the pattern and then it made more sense when I started looking at the logarithmic functions - reminds me of Nuke school back in the 80's when I was about 18...

After reading the book and seeing yet more formulas (which apparently are not tested on the CWNA) I figured I better slow down and do some exercises.

I also watched the RF Math video from Ed Lieberman on the TrainSignal DVD and found the chart and a couple of other explanations and it helped drive the patterns home.

I almost have it now. I few more practice exercises and it is cement.

The milliWatt and the dB took me some extra time too to work out. The TrainSignal Video helped me here also.

Ok. It's 1:30am and I gotta go in early tomorrow and figure out how I'm going to get on premise.

Darby Weaverdarbyweaver@yahoo.comhttp://www.darbyslogs.blogspot.com