2020 in Review

Wow! Did That Just Happen?!

What a doozy! 2020 has been a horrendously difficult year for everyone. Just as we were expecting great things to happen: to attend many conferences; bring on many new clients; and initiate new trainings, COVID-19 hit us all.

The great thing is that, if you are reading this, you are still here. So are we. We count our lucky stars because many companies in our training industry are no longer in existence. From a personal perspective, our team remains intact as well. For that, we are ever grateful. For those who have experienced loss in 2020, please accept our deepest condolences.

In 2020, we continued our co-sponsorship of the WLA – the Wireless LAN Association, which is an association for professional wireless engineers. We support its mission of providing an amazing service in the Wireless Network community. The Association is in process of creating a set of peer-reviewed standards which is backed by some of the biggest names in the industry. Additionally, it aims to create an open a dialog between the regulators and manufacturers of wireless networking equipment and the “boots on the ground” – the engineers making everything work in harmony. (A few questions have arisen over the past year and we would like to take this opportunity to clear up any misconception: although our CEO, Rie Vainstein, serves WLA as its CEO, on a voluntary basis, NC-Expert has no other affiliation with WLA. NC-Expert does not own any part the Wireless LAN Association.)

Moving Quickly to Meet Demand

As you would expect, because of COVID, we had to move quickly to shift all our training to online platforms. This has worked really well, and our students are very happy with the results. Admittedly online training, albeit live, doesn’t quite have the same effect as in-person / in-classroom training – for instance, the instructors cannot look the student in the face and see the “Aha!” moment when the student understands a concept – but, using video helps a bit.

Our vendors, CompTIA, CWNP, Cisco, etc., all moved swiftly, too. They reformatted their exams to enable PearsonVUE to incorporate them into its “test from home” program. Prior to COVID, the only option available to students was to attend a PearsonVUE location in person, to sit the respective exams. Now the exams can all be taken from the comfort of your own homes. We are grateful to the vendors for jumping into action, for the benefit of the students, and getting the problems resolved so quickly.

Cisco renewed its entire portfolio in February, which caused some confusion, but the questions were eventually resolved, and our students are happily studying the updated materials. We have continued to spend a good portion of our year working diligently with Cisco (cisco.com), to author even more of its new portfolio of classes. We are extremely excited to see the various release dates coming closer and look forward to teaching many more students and helping them progress in their chosen careers!

We are looking forward to an exciting 2021, an end to the pandemic, and expect to create more innovations to help our students achieve their knowledge goals.

May we wish you a Healthy, Successful, and Happy New Year!

…

About NC-Expert

NC-Expert is a privately-held California corporation and is well established within the Wireless, Security, and Collaboration industry certification training, courseware development, and consulting markets.

Led by its Founder and CEO, Rie Vainstein, NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers have depended on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

If you are looking for the best in IT Network Training then call us today at (855) 941-2121 or contact us by email today.

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NC-Expert Blog

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By Rie Morgan • September 16, 2026
We’ve all seen it happen: someone reports that the Wi-Fi is slow. A speed test is launched. The little needle races across the screen and, a few seconds later, an impressive number appears. “See? 600 Mbps. The Wi-Fi is fine.” Case closed. Except, of course, it isn’t. A speed test can be useful. It can tell you something about the performance experienced by a device at a particular location, at a particular moment, using a particular test server and network path. What it cannot do is provide a complete diagnosis of Wi-Fi health. That distinction matters because throughput is only one part of the user experience.

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By Rie Morgan • September 10, 2026
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