NC Expert

The 3 Pillars of the CIA Triad… Plus Two

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 19:17:58 GMT

When people first start working with wi-fi security, or enter the cybersecurity arena, they quickly hear about something called the "CIA Triad". (No, not that CIA!) In cybersecurity, the CIA Triad stands for:

Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability .

These three principles form the foundation of information security. Nearly every security control, policy, and technology decision can be traced back to protecting one (or more) of these pillars.

But in real-world IT environments, there are two additional principles that deserve seats at the table:

Authenticity and Non-Repudiation .

Together, these five ideas provide a practical framework for understanding what security is actually trying to achieve. Let’s walk through them...

Pillar 1 - Confidentiality: Keeping Secrets, Secret

Confidentiality means making sure information is only accessible to people who are allowed to see it. That sounds obvious. But in practice, it’s surprisingly easy to get wrong.

Examples of confidentiality in action include:

encrypting wireless traffic
protecting passwords
restricting access to HR records
using VPNs on public Wi-Fi
preventing unauthorized database access

Think of confidentiality as controlling who gets to look inside the envelope. Without confidentiality, sensitive data becomes visible to the wrong people: attackers, competitors, vendors, or sometimes just the wrong department down the hallway.

And yes, sometimes the biggest confidentiality risks come from internal mistakes rather than external attackers.

Pillar 2 - Integrity: Making Sure Data Stays Correct

Integrity means ensuring information hasn’t been altered in an unauthorized way. It answers a simple but critical question: Can I trust this data?

If someone changes a financial spreadsheet, modifies configuration files, or alters access permissions without authorization, integrity has been compromised.

Examples include:

file hashing
digital signatures
change control processes
configuration monitoring
version tracking

Imagine downloading software updates. Confidentiality protects the download. Integrity ensures the file hasn’t been modified by someone along the way. Both matter, but integrity is what tells you the update is still what it claims to be.

Pillar 3 - Availability: Making Sure Systems Work When Needed

Availability ensures systems and data are accessible when users need them. This pillar often gets less attention from beginners because it doesn’t always feel like “security.” But in many organizations, availability is security:

If a hospital cannot access patient records, availability becomes critical.
If a factory cannot access control systems, availability becomes urgent.
If a company cannot access email, availability becomes very noticeable very quickly.

Availability protections include:

redundancy
backups
load balancing
patch management
protection against denial-of-service attacks

Security isn’t just about stopping attackers. It’s about keeping systems usable while stopping attackers. A perfectly secure system that nobody can access isn’t very helpful.

Pillar 4 - Authenticity: Knowing Who (or What) You’re Talking To

Authenticity means verifying identity. When a system claims to be a server, authenticity confirms that it really is that server. When someone logs in, authenticity confirms they really are that person.

This principle supports:

user authentication
certificate validation
device identity verification
secure wireless access
multi-factor authentication

Authenticity answers the question: Is this actually who they say they are?

Without authenticity, attackers can impersonate users, systems, or services... sometimes without being noticed immediately. And computers are very polite. If something introduces itself confidently enough, they tend to believe it unless configured otherwise.

Pillar 5 - Non-Repudiation: Preventing “That Wasn’t Me!”

Non-repudiation ensures that someone cannot later deny performing an action. It’s the cybersecurity equivalent of a signed delivery receipt. If a user sends a message, approves a transaction, or changes a configuration setting, non-repudiation helps prove they really did it.

Examples include:

digital signatures
audit logs
transaction records
certificate-based authentication
secure time-stamped logging

Non-repudiation becomes especially important in environments involving:

financial systems
legal documentation
administrative changes
compliance requirements

Because sooner or later, someone will say, “I didn’t do that.” Non-repudiation helps answer that question calmly and confidently.

Why These Five Principles Matter to New IT Engineers

Early in your career, security tools can feel like a huge, long list of technologies:

firewalls
encryption
authentication systems
endpoint protection
monitoring platforms

It’s easy to think that security is all about learning products, but security is really about understanding what you are protecting and why .

These five pillars give you a simple mental checklist:

Who should see this data? (Confidentiality)
Can I trust this data? (Integrity)
Can users access it when needed? (Availability)
Do I know who is connecting? (Authenticity)
Can actions be traced if necessary? (Non-repudiation)

If you keep those questions in mind while designing, configuring, or troubleshooting systems, you’re already thinking like a security professional. And that’s a strong foundation for everything that comes next!

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Learn More

If you want to learn more about our wireless training and wireless networks, visit our training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks #Cybersecurity

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About NC-Expert

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

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Enterprise Wi-Fi Network Security

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 20:18:00 GMT

Wi‑Fi security is no longer just an IT checkbox; it is a business risk issue that affects data protection, uptime, customer trust, and compliance. Strong wireless security helps businesses keep unauthorized users out, protect sensitive traffic, and reduce the chance that a single compromised access point (AP) becomes a wider network breach.

Why Wi-Fi Security Matters

A business wireless network often carries email, file access, cloud applications, point-of-sale traffic, and employee logins, so weak protection can expose far more than internet browsing. Without security, APs could be accessed by anyone, which makes wireless networks a direct target for attackers.

The business impact can be severe. According to Cisco's 2026 wireless report, 85% of organizations surveyed experienced at least one wireless security incident in the last 12 months, and 58% reported financial losses from wireless security incidents. This makes Wi‑Fi security both a technical control and a financial safeguard.

Common Risks

Unsecured or poorly configured Wi‑Fi can lead to a number of negative events, potentially including activities such as unauthorized access, malware delivery, and data theft. An unsecured network can expose the enterprise to a major risk of incursion. In practical terms, this could mean a guest device wandering into internal systems, a stolen password being reused, or an attacker intercepting traffic.

Small businesses are especially vulnerable because they often rely on a few APs, simple passwords, and limited monitoring. Even one weak configuration can create a route into their business systems, especially when guest and employee traffic are not separated. Guidance from the U.S. Department of Defense emphasizes segmentation and avoiding weak configurations. They also recommend even simple security measures, such as hiding the SSID.

Core Protections

The most important step to protecting your environment is by using current encryption and authentication standards. WPA3 is the most recent Wi‑Fi security standard and is designed to improve protection over older methods. The Wi‑Fi Alliance's WPA3 specification includes enterprise modes, and notes that WPA3-Enterprise 192-bit mode is suited for sensitive environments such as government, defense, and industrial deployments. For businesses, WPA2-Enterprise or WPA3-Enterprise with 802.1X is a strong baseline.

Network segmentation is also advisable. Separating guest Wi‑Fi, employee devices, and sensitive internal systems limits damage in case one segment is compromised. CISA-related guidance and enterprise security sources recommend segmenting networks and pairing access with continuous verification, not just a one-time password check.

Another security measure is to keep infrastructure updated. Router and AP firmware updates often patch security holes, and vendors consistently recommend regular updates and monitoring connected devices. Practical hardening steps include: firmware updates; using strong passwords; disabling WPS; and regularly reviewing connected devices.

How Businesses Can Strengthen Their IT Environment

A strong Wi‑Fi security program should include a number of operational habits:

• Use WPA3 or WPA2-Enterprise, not outdated WPA or open networks.

• Change default admin credentials and use unique, strong passwords.

• Disable remote management unless there is a specific business need.

• Create separate guest, employee, and device-specific networks.

• Update firmware and security patches on a fixed schedule.

• Monitor for unknown devices, rogue APs, and unusual activity.

It also helps to treat Wi‑Fi as part of a broader security strategy. This means using firewalls, endpoint protection, VPNs for remote work, and access controls that limit what each user or device can reach. Additionally, using encryption, firewalls, and private access controls are practical ways to reduce exposure.

Business Value

Secure Wi‑Fi is not just about stopping attacks, it also improves reliability, supports remote work, and protects customer experience. For retail, healthcare, finance, and office environments, secure wireless access helps employees stay productive while reducing the chances of downtime or a reportable incident. Wi‑Fi security is often framed as a combination of encryption, authentication, segmentation, and monitoring rather than a single product feature.

Wi‑Fi security protects the enterprise network that the business relies on to function, along with the information that moves across it. Businesses that invest in wireless security measures are better positioned to support more devices, scale safely, and reduce costly surprises.

Features like MLO and 320 MHz channels demand a solid understanding of RF behavior, spectrum planning, and protocol interactions. Troubleshooting increasingly requires packet analysis and performance modeling, not guesswork.

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Learn More

If you want to learn more about our wireless training and wireless networks, visit our training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks #Cybersecurity

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Coverage vs. Capacity in Wi-Fi Design: Two Sides of the Same Wireless Coin

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 23:46:07 GMT

If you’ve ever set up Wi-Fi at home, you know the goal is simple: get all your devices online and ruin your neighbor’s day by having a faster signal! But when you move into the professional world of Wi-Fi design, particularly for offices, schools, stadiums, or coffee shops with way too many laptops, that simple goal morphs into something far more complex.

Every Wi-Fi design engineer quickly learns the eternal truth of wireless networking: coverage and capacity are not the same thing. They might sound like twin siblings, but they behave more like cousins who only get along at family reunions. Understanding the difference, and designing for both, is what separates an average Wi-Fi deployment from a user experience meltdown.

Let’s break it down.

What is Coverage?

Coverage is the easy part to visualize. It’s where the Wi-Fi signal reaches: The area where your device can detect and connect to an access point (AP). Think of it like Wi-Fi’s version of a spotlight. If you’re standing in the light, you can see (or in this case, connect). Step out of the beam, and everything goes dark... or your Zoom call freezes mid-sentence.

For Wi-Fi design engineers, the goal of coverage planning is making sure that every part of the intended area (every office, classroom, hallway, and maybe even that sneaky stairwell) gets an adequate signal. Adequate doesn’t mean just any signal, though. The received signal strength indicator (RSSI) should typically be better than -67 dBm for most enterprise applications, to ensure reliable performance.

In the early days of Wi-Fi, “coverage everywhere” was the holy grail. Designers would slap a few APs around the building, check for signal, and call it a day. And yes, users could connect but, once more people joined, performance tanked faster than your home router on movie night when everyone’s streaming their own show.

That’s because coverage alone doesn’t account for how many devices are connecting, or how much data they’re demanding. Enter, capacity...

What is Capacity?

Capacity is where Wi-Fi design moves from “Can I connect?” to “Can I stay connected *well* while everyone else does too?”

Capacity is all about how much data the network can handle in a given area. It’s concerned not with where the signal reaches, but how many clients are using it and how much traffic they’re generating. For instance, a classroom with 30 students all streaming educational videos (and probably a few non-educational ones) has wildly different capacity needs than an empty hallway that just requires occasional coverage for a tablet-based inventory app.

It’s similar to roads and traffic. Coverage is having roads everywhere; Capacity is having enough lanes so traffic doesn’t back up. You can have full geographic coverage of a city with one-lane roads, but during rush hour, it will be chaos. The same goes for Wi-Fi: too many users, not enough wireless “lanes,” and everything slows down.

That’s why capacity planning looks beyond just signal strength. Engineers need to consider:

• Number of concurrent users in the area.

• Types of devices (laptops, smartphones, tablets, scanners).

• Application bandwidth requirements (such as streaming, video conferencing, or VoIP).

• Network throughput and spectrum utilization.

• AP hardware capabilities and channel width.

If coverage makes sure everyone’s invited to the party, capacity ensures there’s enough pizza for everyone.

Why Both Matter

You can’t design a Wi-Fi network based only on coverage: that would be like building a hotel with enough rooms but only one tiny elevator. (And, yes, I’ve lived through that experience!) Conversely, focusing on capacity and forgetting coverage would be like putting a massive elevator in one corner of the building and expecting everyone to somehow find their way to it.

Here’s how they complement each other:

• Coverage ensures connectivity: devices can detect and reach a Wi-Fi network wherever they need to work.

• Capacity ensures performance: the network can handle all connected devices smoothly, even during busy times.

A great Wi-Fi design balances both, ensuring signals blanket the right areas, and that each area can support the expected client load.

This is why modern Wi-Fi design tools (like Ekahau and Hamina) don’t just show colorful maps of signal strength. They also include capacity simulations that predict user experience under load. It’s not enough to color the map green... you’ve got to make sure it stays green when 300 people simultaneously start watching funny cat videos!

Common Mistakes in Wi-Fi Design

Even new IT engineers, eager to see those clean signal maps, can fall into some of the following traps:

• Over-relying on AP transmit power.

Turning up the power doesn’t solve capacity issues. It often creates interference problems.

• Ignoring channel planning.

Overlapping channels cause contention, degrading capacity (even if the RSSI looks strong).

• Using too few APs.

Saving money upfront might mean User complaints later.

• Designing for best-case scenarios.

Real-world environments change: they may add people, furniture, or new devices... causing performance shifts.

The moral of this story? A good Wi-Fi design needs to encompass both science and skepticism: always question whether your design plan handles both coverage area and client load.

Wise Words...

So, the next time someone asks if your Wi-Fi network has “good coverage,” politely smile and say, “Yes, but let’s also talk about capacity.” Because great Wi-Fi design is not just about where your signal goes... it’s about what happens when the crowd shows up.

For new IT engineers, the sooner you internalize that Coverage and Capacity are co-stars (not competitors), the better your Wi-Fi designs will be, and the fewer angry “the Wi-Fi sucks!” tickets you’ll have to troubleshoot!

After all, in the world of wireless, signal strength gets you connected... but capacity keeps you happy. :)

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Learn More

If you want to learn more about our wireless training and wireless networks, visit our training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks #Cybersecurity

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Riding the Wi‑Fi Waves: Understanding Signal-to-Noise Ratio

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:29:39 GMT

If Wi‑Fi were a party, Signal‑to‑Noise Ratio (SNR) would tell you how well you can hear your friend talking over the background music. Too much noise and you'll start yelling, guessing, or worse: talking to the wrong person entirely!

In networking terms, SNR is what helps determine whether your wireless connection is crisp and clear, or whether it is a glitchy mess that makes you want to throw your router out the window!

For new IT engineers, understanding SNR isn't just about avoiding bad connections, it's about troubleshooting, designing smarter networks, and keeping users from sending "the Wi‑Fi sucks" emails.

So, grab your coffee, let's unpack what SNR really means.

What Exactly Is SNR?

Signal-to-Noise Ratio measures the strength of your wireless signal compared to the amount of background noise. It's expressed in decibels (dB). The higher the number, the better the connection quality.

The formula looks simple enough:

SNR (dB) = Signal Strength (dBm) − Noise Floor (dBm)

Think of it like comparing a singer's voice (signal) to the cheering crowd (noise). If the singer is louder than the crowd, you can understand the lyrics. If the crowd is screaming louder than the singer, all you'll likely catch is the beat... and frustration.

RSSI: The Signal Strength Piece

Before you calculate SNR, you need to know the signal strength, often measured as Received Signal Strength Indicator, or RSSI. RSSI measures how strong a signal is when it reaches your device. It's also expressed in dBm, but here's the catch: it's always a negative number.

Yep, negative numbers. Welcome to the strange world of radio frequency engineering.

The closer the RSSI value is to zero, the stronger the signal. For example:

• An RSSI of -35 dBm is excellent – nice and clear: here, you're practically sitting on the access point!

• -65 dBm is decent – good enough for HD streaming and stable browsing.

• -85 dBm is borderline painful – you should expect dropped connections and slow speeds.

• -90 dBm, or lower, means your Wi‑Fi has effectively left the building!

So, when you see RSSI values improving (getting less negative), your signal's strength is increasing. But RSSI alone doesn't tell the whole story.

The Sneaky Culprit: Noise Floor

Now meet the troublemaker: the “noise floor”. This is the background "radio chatter" that all wireless signals must shout over, to be heard. It includes interference from other Wi‑Fi networks, Bluetooth devices, microwaves, cordless phones, and even that ancient baby monitor you keep forgetting to unplug. It’s like the general mumble of chatter in a meeting room or at a party.

Noise floor values also appear in dBm and are negative too. Common values land between -90 dBm (very quiet) and -70 dBm (pretty noisy).

A lower (more negative) noise floor means the airwaves are cleaner and your Wi‑Fi has room to breathe. Higher (less negative) noise floors mean the environment is crowded, like trying to talk in a packed bar after a concert.

Putting It Together: SNR in Action

Once you know both RSSI and noise floor, you subtract the two to get SNR. Let's run a quick example:

• RSSI: -65 dBm

• Noise Floor: -90 dBm

• SNR: (-65) - (-90) = 25 dB

25 dB SNR is considered pretty solid. Your Wi‑Fi should "hum along" nicely.

If your SNR drops below about 20 dB, you'll start to notice sluggishness and retries. Below 10 dB? Expect chaos: packets drop; latency spikes; and users start muttering dark things about IT.

Here's a simple rule of thumb:

SNR (dB) Connection Quality

40+ Fantastic

25-40 Good

15-25 Fair (watch for drops)

<15 Poor (expect trouble)

Why Wi‑Fi Engineers Care So Much

Wi‑Fi engineers are basically sound engineers for invisible radio waves. Their job is to keep the signal loud and clear while minimizing the noise. SNR drives key design decisions, such as where to place access points (APs), how to set transmit power, and which channels to use.

Here's why it matters so much:

• Performance tuning: A high SNR means higher data rates and fewer retries, which boosts throughput. Poor SNR means wasted airtime and grumpy users.

• Capacity planning: Understanding noise helps engineers predict how many APs can coexist in a space without interfering with each other.

• Interference management: By measuring noise sources, engineers can track down rogue devices, non‑Wi‑Fi interference, or even misconfigured APs.

• Roaming behavior: Devices naturally cling to stronger signals. If an area's SNR drops too low, users may drift toward another AP... or just lose connection mid‑Zoom call.

Think of SNR as the "mood ring" of wireless health. Happy networks have high SNR. Unhappy ones have engineers crawling on ceilings with spectrum analyzers.

Practical Tips for New IT Engineers

Here are a few, helpful, "rule-of-thumb" tips:

• Survey before you deploy. Always measure signal and noise levels before placing APs. Free tools like Wi‑Fi analyzers can give quick insights.

• Mind your channels. Overlapping channels cause self-inflicted noise. Stick to non‑overlapping ones whenever possible (like channels 1, 6, and 11 on 2.4 GHz).

• Reduce interference. Turn off or relocate devices that emit RF noise: microwave ovens, Bluetooth speakers, and even some LED lights!

• Don't rely on bars. That "three bars" icon on your phone? It hides all the metrics that actually matter. Always check SNR or RSSI directly.

In Summary...

Signal-to-Noise-Ratio might sound like arcane tech jargon, but it boils down to a simple question: “Can your network hear itself think?”

For Wi‑Fi engineers, SNR isn't just a number: it's the pulse of the network, the difference between smooth connectivity and jittery chaos.

So, next time someone complains about slow Wi‑Fi, resist the urge to reboot everything. Instead, grab a tool, check that SNR, and see who's really yelling louder: the signal or the noise?

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Learn More

If you want to learn more about our wireless training and wireless networks, visit our training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

CWNA vs Network+: Which Certification Should You Choose First?

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 20:57:16 GMT

If you’re building a career in networking, two certifications often appear early on the roadmap: the CompTIA Network Plus (Network+) and the CWNP Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA).

Both are respected, vendor-neutral credentials, but they serve slightly different purposes and support different career directions.

So how do they compare? Should you choose one before the other? And are they both worth your time? Let’s explore...

What Is Network+?

Network+ is widely considered the foundation-level certification for networking professionals. It introduces the essential concepts that every network engineer, administrator, or IT support professional, should understand.

Typical topics include:

• Network architecture and topologies

• IP addressing and routing basics

• Switching fundamentals

• Network security concepts

• Troubleshooting methodology

• Cabling and physical infrastructure

Because it covers both wired and wireless networking at a conceptual level, Network+ is often the first structured networking certification many IT professionals pursue.

It helps learners answer questions such as, “How does a network actually work?”

This makes it particularly valuable for early-career engineers, helpdesk professionals moving into networking roles, and anyone transitioning into infrastructure-focused IT positions.

What Is CWNA?

The CWNA certification focuses specifically on Wi-Fi networking. Rather than treating wireless as just one topic among many, CWNA explores wireless networking in technical depth.

Core areas include:

• RF fundamentals

• Wi-Fi standards (802.11 family)

• WLAN design principles

• Antennas and propagation

• Site survey methodology

• Security considerations

• Performance troubleshooting

CWNA answers a different question “How do wireless networks really work, and how do you design them properly?”

As wireless connectivity becomes mission-critical across enterprises, healthcare, logistics, education, and manufacturing, this expertise is increasingly valuable.

Key Differences Between CWNA and Network+

The most important difference is scope:

Network+ provides breadth and helps you understand networks overall.
CWNA provides depth (in wireless) and helps you understand Wi-Fi professionally.

Here’s a very basic and simple comparison:

Network+ CWNA

Broad networking foundation Specialized wireless expertise

Covers wired + wireless basics Focuses entirely on Wi-Fi

Entry-level friendly Intermediate technical depth

Ideal first networking certification Ideal wireless specialization step

Recognized across all IT roles Highly valued in wireless-focused roles

Neither replaces the other. They complement each other.

Should You Take Network+ Before CWNA?

In most cases, yes.

Network+ builds the foundational vocabulary and conceptual understanding that makes CWNA easier to learn and apply. Topics like switching, subnetting, and troubleshooting methodology provide context that strengthens your wireless studies later.

A common progression could be: Network+ → CWNA → Advanced wireless certifications

However, there are exceptions: if your role already focuses heavily on Wi-Fi (perhaps in enterprise WLAN support, field engineering, or wireless deployment) starting with CWNA might make perfect sense.

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How Network+ Supports Your Career

Network+ helps open doors. It demonstrates that you understand the essential mechanics of modern networks and can work confidently in infrastructure environments.

Career benefits include:

• Strong entry point into networking roles

• Useful foundation for cybersecurity pathways

• Supports progression toward advanced certifications

• Recognized by employers globally

• Builds troubleshooting confidence early in your career

For many professionals, Network+ marks the transition from general IT support into networking specialization.

How CWNA Supports Your Career

CWNA positions you differently. Rather than simply proving you understand networking basics, it shows that you can design, analyze, and troubleshoot wireless networks professionally. This matters because Wi-Fi is no longer optional: it is core infrastructure.

CWNA helps professionals:

• Support enterprise wireless environments

• Participate in WLAN design discussions

• Perform or interpret site surveys

• Improve network performance and reliability

• Move toward advanced wireless certifications (like CWSP or CWDP)

In organizations where wireless supports voice systems, clinical devices, logistics tracking, or industrial automation... this expertise is highly prized.

Are Both Certifications Valuable?

Absolutely and, together, they are especially powerful!

Network+ demonstrates networking competence.

CWNA demonstrates wireless specialization.

Employers increasingly look for engineers who understand both.

Modern networks are no longer primarily wired environments with wireless added later. Instead, wireless often is the primary access layer. That makes engineers with structured WLAN knowledge stand out.

Holding both certifications signals:

• strong networking fundamentals

• real wireless expertise

• commitment to professional development

• readiness for infrastructure-focused roles

This combination strengthens credibility early in a networking career.

(You can right-click the image and select "Open Image in New Tab" to read image contents more comfortably.)

Which One Should You Choose First?

Here is a practical guideline:

Choose Network+ first if you are:

• new to networking

• moving from helpdesk into infrastructure

• planning a cybersecurity pathway

• building general technical confidence

Choose CWNA first if you are:

• already working with Wi-Fi regularly

• supporting enterprise wireless environments

• interested in WLAN design

• planning a wireless engineering career track

Many professionals ultimately complete both and benefit from doing so.

In Summary

Network+ builds your foundation .

CWNA builds your specialization .

Together, they create a strong platform for careers in networking, wireless engineering, and cybersecurity.

If your goal is to become a confident, capable network professional in today’s wireless-first world, combining both certifications is not just valuable... it’s strategic!

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Learn More

If you want to learn more about CWNP wireless training and wireless networks, visit our CWNP training portfolio page here

If you want to learn more about CompTIA training and wireless networks, visit our CompTIA training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks #CWNP #CompTIA

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Entry to Expert: How Wireless Certifications Accelerate IT Careers

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 21:49:41 GMT

In today’s fast-evolving IT landscape, professionals who continuously expand their technical capabilities stand out in increasingly competitive promotions and job markets. Among the areas experiencing explosive growth, wireless networking has emerged as a cornerstone of modern infrastructure.

From enterprise Wi-Fi deployments, to mission-critical IoT systems, and pervasive mobile connectivity, wireless skills are now indispensable for ambitious IT engineers.

Earning certifications in wireless networking doesn’t just validate your knowledge, it catalyzes your career progression by opening doors to higher-level roles, deeper specialization, and accelerated professional recognition.

In this blog, we’ll explore how wireless certifications, especially those from CWNP and CompTIA, help IT engineers develop from fundamental understanding to true experts in wireless technologies.

Why Wireless Expertise Matters for IT Engineers

Wireless networks are no longer optional; they’re essential. Modern enterprises rely on Wi-Fi for daily operations in offices, retail environments, hospitals, campuses, and logistics centers.

Technologies like Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 are pushing performance and reliability to new heights, while trends such as IoT, industrial automation, and edge computing broaden the scope of wireless connectivity. This rapid growth has created a global demand for professionals who can design, secure, troubleshoot, and optimize wireless networks.

As organizations prioritize mobility, reduce hardware overheads, apply digital transformation initiatives, and implement high-density connectivity, engineers equipped with wireless expertise are increasingly valuable.

Certified professionals not only understand the theory but can apply it in real-world environments: a difference that employers are willing to reward with better roles, more responsibilities, and higher compensation.

Laying the Foundation: CompTIA's Training Pathways

For many IT engineers, a strong wireless career starts with mastering the foundational building blocks of IT. Recognizing this, the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) offers an industry-recognized suite of vendor-neutral certifications that provide essential knowledge across core IT domains.

Core CompTIA Certifications

· CompTIA Administrator+ (A+) is a foundation level certification addressing hardware, software, networking basics, and troubleshooting. It’s considered an industry standard for entry-level IT roles and helps professionals learn the fundamentals upon which more advanced skills are built.

· CompTIA Network+ focuses on networking concepts, protocols, and configurations (including wireless networking basics) preparing professionals to design, manage, and troubleshoot both wired and wireless networks.

· CompTIA Security+ centers on core security principles, including securing network infrastructure and wireless environments, making it a valuable next step for engineers interested in safeguarding wireless networks.

These certifications not only provide essential knowledge but also serve as proof of your technical competence to HR professionals and hiring managers. Employers increasingly include CompTIA certifications on job descriptions, for promotions and new roles, because they signal your commitment to ongoing learning and mastery of key technologies.

Impact on Career Growth

Earning CompTIA certifications early in your career can accelerate entry into networking or support roles, give you the confidence to undertake specialized study, and serve as building blocks for advanced wireless certifications down the line. Their vendor-neutral nature means that the skills you learn transfer across technologies and platforms which is a valuable advantage in diverse IT environments.

The Wireless Specialist Path: CWNP Certifications

Once you’ve built a solid IT foundation with certifications like CompTIA’s Administrator Plus and Network Plus, going deeper into wireless networking requires more specialized credentials.

This is where Certified Wireless Network Professional (CWNP) certifications come in.

CWNP is a globally recognized, vendor-neutral certification program dedicated to wireless networking excellence. It offers a clear, progressive path from fundamental wireless knowledge to expert-level mastery.

The CWNP Certification Tiers

CWNP’s structured certification track is designed to progressively expand your expertise in wireless technologies:

Administrator Level

CWNA (Certified Wireless Network Administrator): This is the foundational wireless credential that covers RF behavior, WLAN architecture, installation, configuration, and basic security for wireless LANs. It provides a solid foundation in wireless networking and is the springboard for more advanced CWNP certifications.

Professional Levels

CWSP (Certified Wireless Security Professional): Focuses on securing wireless networks, threat detection, authentication, encryption, and best practices for protection.
CWAP (Certified Wireless Analysis Professional): Dives deep into protocol analysis, troubleshooting, and performance optimization.
CWDP (Certified Wireless Design Professional): Equips professionals with the skills to plan, design, validate, and deploy efficient and scalable wireless networks.

Expert Level

CWNE (Certified Wireless Network Expert): This certification is reserved for elite professionals, this prestigious credential demonstrates mastery over all aspects of wireless networking, including advanced design, security, analysis, and real-world applied experience. There is no CWNE exam, instead, the candidate completes an application package, which is peer-reviewed by members of the CWNP Board.

Each examination level builds on the last, creating a stackable and progressive journey that enhances both your knowledge and your credibility. Employers looking for deep wireless expertise, especially in enterprise environments, often prioritize professionals with CWNP credentials because they reflect real-world readiness and mastery.

How Certifications Translate to Career Progression

Wireless certifications offer tangible career advantages beyond the intrinsic value of learning:

Competitive Differentiation

In highly competitive job markets, certifications help candidates stand out. For example, two engineers with similar work experience may be evaluated differently, but the one with a recognized certification such as CWNA or Network+ signals a deeper commitment to professional growth.

Higher Earning Potential

Industry research shows that certified professionals, particularly in niche areas like wireless networking, often command higher salaries than their non-certified peers. Employers recognize that wireless experts deliver measurable value by optimizing network performance, reducing downtime, and solving complex connectivity problems, all of which positively impact business outcomes.

Expanded Role Opportunities

Certifications expand the range of roles you can pursue. Wireless specialists open doors to jobs like Wireless Network Engineer, Wireless Security

Analyst, Network Architect and, ultimately, senior leadership roles responsible for enterprise network strategy.

Professional Credibility & Recognition

Achieving industry-recognized certifications demonstrates mastery to colleagues, clients, and managers. Certifications like CWNE, in particular, communicate that you’ve achieved elite status in your field which is a powerful differentiator in opportunities for consulting, contracting, and leadership roles.

Real-World Skills That Matter Most
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Training for certifications isn’t just about passing exams, it’s about internalizing skills you’ll use every day in real job scenarios. Strong wireless certification training empowers you to:

Understand complex RF behaviors that influence coverage, interference, and performance.
Design efficient wireless networks based on predictive models and real-world variables.
Secure networks against modern threats with advanced encryption and access control.
Analyze traffic and protocol interactions to troubleshoot deep-rooted connectivity issues.
Seamlessly integrate wireless infrastructure with evolving technologies like IoT and Wi-Fi 6 and/or 7.

This practical expertise accelerates your ability to contribute meaningfully to projects and leadership conversations which is a hallmark of senior-level IT professionals.

When and How to Approach Certification Training

Why Choose “Vendor Neutral” Training?

V endor-neutral certifications offer IT engineers a powerful advantage: skills that transfer across technologies, platforms, and environments. Rather than focusing on a single manufacturer’s tools, they emphasize underlying principles: networking theory, RF behavior, security models, and design best practices - that apply universally. This broad perspective enables engineers to adapt quickly as vendors, hardware, and standards evolve.

Certifications from organizations such as CompTIA and CWNP also carry strong industry credibility because they reflect real-world problem-solving, not product familiarity. For professionals seeking long-term career growth, vendor-neutral credentials future-proof skills and maximize career flexibility.

Start with Fundamentals

For aspiring professionals new to networking and wireless, you may want to begin with core certifications such as:

CompTIA A+ - Builds your foundation in computing and networking hardware essentials.
CompTIA Network+ - Introduces network design and troubleshooting, including wireless basics.
CWNA - Introduces network design and troubleshooting, including wireless basics.

This sequence prepares you for specialized wireless study by ensuring you understand the broader networking concepts upon which wireless technologies depend.

Advance with Wireless Specialization

Once comfortable with networking fundamentals, dive into CWNP certifications. Make sure to start with CWNA before advancing to professional and expert levels, such as CWDP's Design (CWDP) and Security (CWSP) certifications.

Given the complexity and depth of wireless topics, it’s wise to leverage formal training resources such as instructor-led classes, structured learning, hands-on labs, coupled with official study guides.

A Final Word of Wisdom...

The path from fundamentals to expert in wireless networking is not just a career journey, it’s a strategic evolution of your professional identity.

Certifications from trusted bodies like CompTIA and CWNP provide clear, structured milestones that validate your skills, open career pathways, and accelerate your growth as an IT engineer.

Whether you’re looking to move into the Wireless team, maybe you’re seeking promotion or, perhaps, aiming to become a wireless authority, embracing certification training will elevate your technical mastery and empower you to make impactful contributions throughout your career.

The future of IT engineering belongs to those who learn continuously, and wireless certifications are one of the most effective vehicles for lasting professional success.

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Learn More Empty heading

If you want to learn more about our training options, visit our

CompTIA training portfolio page here

or our

CWNP training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks #CWNP

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About NC-Expert Empty heading

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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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Understanding RSSI in Wi-Fi: Useful Signal, Misunderstood Metric

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:44:36 GMT

If you spend any time around Wi-Fi engineers, you’ll quickly hear someone say something like: “What’s the RSSI there?”

RSSI is one of the most commonly referenced measurements in wireless networking, and also one of the most misunderstood. New engineers often treat it as the signal quality metric. In reality, it’s more like a clue rather than a conclusion.

Let’s unpack what RSSI really is, what it isn’t, and how to use it properly in real-world Wi-Fi engineering...

What RSSI Actually Means

RSSI stands for Received Signal Strength Indicator . It represents how strong the received RF signal appears at a wireless client or access point.

Most Wi-Fi tools display RSSI in dBm, which is a logarithmic measurement of signal power referenced to 1 milliwatt.

Typical Wi-Fi RSSI values look like this:

• -30 dBm → Extremely strong signal (standing next to the AP)

• -50 dBm → Excellent signal

• -60 dBm → Very usable signal

• -67 dBm → Often considered the VoIP/design target

• -70 dBm → Still usable for many applications

• -80 dBm → Borderline reliability

• -90 dBm → Mostly wishful thinking

Notice something important: RSSI values are negative . That’s not because your Wi-Fi is bad, it’s because received RF power is typically below 1 milliwatt.

Closer to zero = stronger signal.

Why Engineers Care About RSSI

RSSI helps answer several important design and troubleshooting questions:

· Is the client close enough to the AP?

· Is coverage sufficient in this area?

· Will roaming occur soon?

· Is transmit power balanced correctly between cells?

In site surveys, RSSI is often the first indicator used to determine whether coverage meets design goals. But <<and this is critical>> RSSI, alone, does not determine performance!

Think of RSSI like the volume knob on a radio. Loud audio doesn’t guarantee clear audio.

RSSI Is Not the Same as Signal Quality

One of the biggest early-career mistakes Wi-Fi engineers make is assuming: Strong RSSI = good Wi-Fi, but that’s not necessarily true.

Imagine this scenario:

Your client reports -55 dBm RSSI. It sounds excellent, but the performance is terrible. Why?

Because RSSI measures signal strength, not signal clarity.

For clarity, we look at:

• SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio)

• interference levels

• channel utilization

• retries

• contention

RSSI tells you how loud the signal is. SNR tells you how understandable it is. Both matter.

RSSI Depends on Who Is Measuring It

Here’s something subtle but important: RSSI is not standardized across vendors.

Different chipsets may calculate RSSI slightly differently. This means:

• AP RSSI readings

• laptop RSSI readings

• phone RSSI readings

…may not perfectly match even in the same location.

So, if one device reports -65 dBm and another reports -68 dBm, don’t panic. That’s normal. Simply treat RSSI as a guideline measurement, not a precision instrument.

RSSI and Wi-Fi Roaming

RSSI plays a major role in roaming behavior. As a client moves away from an AP, RSSI drops. Eventually the device decides: “This AP and I are drifting apart emotionally and physically.” So, it searches for a better candidate AP.

Many enterprise designs use approximate roaming trigger zones such as:

• roaming begins around -67 to -70 dBm

• disconnection often occurs near -75 to -80 dBm

Exact behavior depends on the client (which is famously independent-minded).

Designers create cell overlap intentionally, so that roaming happens smoothly before performance collapses.

RSSI and Data Rates

Higher RSSI generally enables:

• higher modulation rates

• fewer retries

• better throughput

• lower latency

Lower RSSI forces:

• slower modulation schemes

• more retransmissions

• increased airtime usage

• reduced performance

This is why Wi-Fi design targets often specify minimum RSSI levels, for instance:

• -67 dBm for voice

• -65 dBm for collaboration/video

• -70 dBm for general data

RSSI helps determine whether the physical layer can support the expected application experience.

RSSI in Site Surveys

During predictive or validation surveys, RSSI is often used as a primary coverage metric.

Example targets might include the following for coverage:

• -67 dBm primary coverage

• secondary AP visibility at -70 dBm

• tertiary AP visibility at -75 dBm

This enables:

• reliable connectivity

• seamless roaming

• redundancy

• location services (when needed)

If RSSI falls below thresholds, users start noticing problems, even if they can’t explain why.

They’ll usually say, “The Wi-Fi feels slow.” Which is engineering language for, “Something somewhere is below a design threshold.”

RSSI Is a Starting Point, Not the Destination

Professional Wi-Fi engineers don’t stop at RSSI. They usually combine it with:

• SNR

• Retry rates

• Channel utilization

• Spectrum analysis

• Application performance

RSSI answers questions such as, “Can the client hear the AP?” Whereas other metrics may answer questions like, “Can the client communicate efficiently?”

Learning to interpret RSSI correctly is one of the first steps toward thinking like a wireless engineer instead of a signal-bar observer. And once you start seeing RSSI as part of a bigger RF story <<not the whole story>> you’re well on your way to designing Wi-Fi networks that behave the way users expect them to behave.

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Learn More

If you want to learn more about our wireless training and wireless networks, visit our training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Wi-Fi 7 in 2025: Adoption, Real-World Impact, and What’s Next

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 23:32:00 GMT

For more than two decades, Wi-Fi has quietly evolved from a convenience technology into a mission-critical utility. Now we’re in 2026, we can look back at 2025 and review wireless connectivity which underpinned nearly every digital experience: from enterprise productivity and cloud services to healthcare, education, retail, manufacturing, and smart infrastructure. Against this backdrop, Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) has emerged as the most ambitious leap forward yet.

But as with every new wireless generation, the real story of Wi-Fi 7 in 2025 was not just about theoretical speeds or marketing headlines. It was about adoption, operational reality, and practical impact, and what IT engineers needed to understand as networks transitioned from Wi-Fi 6/6E into the next era.

What Makes Wi-Fi 7 Different? A Quick Recap Empty heading

Wi-Fi 7 builds directly on the foundations laid by Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, but introduces several transformative enhancements designed for high-density, low-latency, and high-reliability environments.

Key technical advancements include:

320 MHz channel widths in the 6 GHz band, doubling available bandwidth compared to Wi-Fi 6E
Multi-Link Operation (MLO) , allowing devices to transmit and receive data simultaneously across multiple frequency bands
4096-QAM (4K-QAM) modulation, increasing peak data rates
Deterministic latency improvements , critical for real-time applications such as AR/VR, industrial automation, and immersive collaboration

On paper, Wi-Fi 7 promised multi-gigabit throughput, lower jitter, and improved consistency, especially in congested environments. But the question engineers asked throughout 2025 was simple: how much of this translates into real-world value?

Wi-Fi 7 Adoption in 2025: Where We Really Are Empty heading

By the end of 2025, Wi-Fi 7 adoption can best be described as strategic, rather than universal.

Enterprise Uptake

Enterprises have largely taken a measured approach. Early adoption has been strongest in environments where performance guarantees mattered more than raw speed:

Large campuses and high-density offices
Healthcare and clinical settings
Higher education lecture halls and dormitories
Manufacturing floors with time-sensitive systems
Event venues and stadiums

For these organizations, Wi-Fi 7’s ability to deliver predictable performance under load, rather than speeds, has been the real driver.

Consumer and SMB Adoption

On the consumer side, Wi-Fi 7 routers and devices became widely available in 2025, but adoption has been uneven. Many households still rely on Wi-Fi 6 or 6E, which remains “good enough” for typical usage.

Small and medium businesses, meanwhile, often waited for price stabilization and proven interoperability before upgrading.

This mirrors the pattern seen with previous Wi-Fi generations: the technology matures, first, in demanding enterprise use cases before trickling down.

The Real-World Impact: Beyond Speed Tests Empty heading

One of the most important lessons of Wi-Fi 7 in 2025 was that speed is no longer the primary metric of success.

Multi-Link Operation Changes Everything

MLO has quietly become Wi-Fi 7’s most impactful feature. By enabling simultaneous use of multiple bands, such as 5 GHz and 6 GHz, networks gain:

Improved reliability through path diversity
Reduced latency during interference events
Smoother roaming experiences for mobile devices

In practice, this means fewer “mystery drops,” more stable voice and video calls, and better performance in RF-challenged environments which are outcomes that deeply matter to IT teams and end-users alike.

Latency Becomes the New KPI

Applications in 2025 increasingly demanded consistent, low latency, rather than peak throughput:

Cloud-hosted desktops
Extended reality (XR) and spatial computing
Real-time collaboration tools
Industrial IoT and robotics

Wi-Fi 7’s deterministic improvements, especially when paired with modern wired backhaul, have made wireless viable for workloads that were once considered for wired-only.

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Infrastructure Reality Check: The Hidden Costs of Wi-Fi 7 Empty heading

Despite its promise, Wi-Fi 7 adoption has brought some hard truths about infrastructure readiness to the surface.

Backhaul Bottlenecks

Many organizations discovered that upgrading APs alone was insufficient. They learned that multi-gigabit wireless quickly exposes weaknesses in:

Legacy switching infrastructure
Insufficient PoE budgets
Outdated cabling

In 2025, successful Wi-Fi 7 deployments were typically accompanied by 2.5/5/10 GbE upgrades, modern power delivery, and careful RF design.

Design Complexity Increases

With wider channels and multi-link behavior, RF design has become more complex, not simpler. Engineers must now consider:

Channel reuse strategies in 6 GHz
Coexistence with Wi-Fi 6E networks
Client capability mismatches
Spectrum availability and regulatory constraints

This has elevated the importance of professional wireless design and analysis skills.

Security in the Wi-Fi 7 Era Empty heading

From a security perspective, Wi-Fi 7 continues the industry’s shift toward secure-by-default networking.

WPA3 adoption has become mainstream in enterprise environments
Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) is increasingly common for open networks
Device onboarding and identity-based access control are now expected, not optional

Wi-Fi 7 itself did not introduce radically new security mechanisms, but its adoption has coincided with a broader recognition: performance without security is “operational risk”.

As wireless networks carry more sensitive and mission-critical traffic, security expertise is inseparable from performance expertise.

What Wi-Fi 7 Has Changed for IT Engineers Empty heading

Perhaps the most significant impact of Wi-Fi 7 in 2025 is how it has reshaped expectations of wireless professionals.

Wireless Is No Longer “Best Effort”

Organizations now expect wireless networks to deliver predictable, engineered outcomes. This shifts the role of the Wi-Fi engineer from installer to architect, analyst, and strategist.

Deeper RF Knowledge Is Essential

Certifications and Structured Learning Matter More

As complexity increases, many engineers are turning to formal wireless certification pathways to stay current. Vendor-neutral programs such as CWNP provide deep coverage of RF fundamentals, design, security, and analysis, while foundational certifications like CompTIA Network+ and Security+ ensure engineers understand how wireless integrates into the broader IT ecosystem.

Lessons Learned from 2025 Deployments Empty heading

By the end of 2025, several clear lessons had emerged:

Wi-Fi 7 delivers its greatest value in high-density and latency-sensitive environments
Infrastructure readiness matters more than access point selection
Design and analysis skills are the primary success factors
Backward compatibility remains a challenge during transition periods
Wireless expertise is increasingly a strategic capability, not an operational afterthought

These lessons will shape enterprise wireless strategy for years to come.

Looking Ahead: What Comes After Wi-Fi 7? Empty heading

Even as Wi-Fi 7 gains momentum, early industry discussions are already forming around Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn) and beyond. The focus appears to be less about raw speed and more about:

Extreme reliability
Ultra-low latency
Deterministic performance guarantees
Seamless coexistence with cellular and private 5G

For IT professionals, this reinforces a key truth: wireless evolution is accelerating, not slowing down.

Wrapping It All Up Empty heading

Wi-Fi 7 in 2025 represented a pivotal moment in the evolution of wireless networking. While its technical capabilities were/are impressive, its true significance lies in how it has shifted expectations from best-effort connectivity to engineered, performance-driven wireless infrastructure.

For organizations, Wi-Fi 7 is a strategic enabler. For IT engineers, it is both an opportunity and a challenge: an opportunity to lead next-generation connectivity initiatives, and a challenge to deepen skills in RF design, security, and analysis.

As wireless continues to underpin nearly every digital experience, one thing is clear: the future of IT is wireless, and Wi-Fi 7 is just the beginning of its next phase...

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Learn More Empty heading

If you want to learn more about our wireless training and wireless networks, visit our training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks

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About NC-Expert Empty heading

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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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Top 10 Wi-Fi Skills Sought by Employers - and How CWNP Training Delivers Them

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 15:41:50 GMT

Nice to Have vs. Essential Empty heading

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Wireless networking is no longer a “nice to have” skill... it’s mission-critical. From healthcare and education to enterprise, manufacturing, and public safety, organizations depend on reliable, secure, and high-performing Wi-Fi. As a result, employers are looking for professionals who don’t just know Wi-Fi, but understand how to design, deploy, secure, and troubleshoot it effectively.

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So, what specific skills are employers looking for, and how can professionals demonstrate they have them?

Below are the top 10 Wi-Fi skills in demand today, and how CWNP® (Certified Wireless Network Professional) training helps deliver each one.

1. RF Fundamentals and Propagation Knowledge Empty heading

Wi-Fi lives and dies by radio frequency/ies (RF). Employers want professionals who understand frequency behavior, attenuation, reflection, absorption, and interference.

How CWNP delivers:
CWNP training starts with RF theory and builds practical understanding of how RF behaves in real-world environments. Candidates learn not just what RF does, but why... a critical differentiator when designing or troubleshooting networks.

2. Wireless Network Design Skills Empty heading

A poorly designed Wi-Fi network leads to coverage gaps, performance issues, and unhappy users. Employers value professionals who can design networks based on requirements, not purely on guesswork.

How CWNP delivers:
CWNP coursework emphasizes requirements-based design, capacity planning, site surveys, and validation. Students learn how to design Wi-Fi networks that meet business, application, and user needs.

3. Troubleshooting and Problem Isolation Empty heading

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When Wi-Fi breaks, downtime costs the company money. Employers want engineers who can quickly identify root causes, and remedy them... not simply reboot the access points.

How CWNP delivers:
CWNP training teaches structured troubleshooting methodologies, packet analysis, spectrum awareness, and client behavior analysis – all skills that enable faster, more accurate problem resolution.

4. Security Awareness and Best Practices Empty heading

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Wireless networks are a common attack surface. Employers need professionals who understand authentication, encryption, and modern wireless security risks. Wireless networks are a common attack surface. Employers need professionals who understand authentication, encryption, and modern wireless security risks.

How CWNP delivers:
CWNP training covers Wi-Fi security in depth, including WPA3, 802.1X, EAP methods, and common attack vectors. This ensures professionals can design and maintain secure wireless environments.

5. Understanding of Wi-Fi Standards and Technologies Empty heading

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From 802.11n to Wi-Fi 6E and beyond, employers expect candidates to understand modern standards and their real-world implications.

How CWNP delivers:
CWNP courses go deep into IEEE 802.11 standards, explaining how features actually work - not just listing them. This knowledge helps professionals make informed decisions about hardware, configurations, and upgrades.

6. Client Device Behavior Knowledge Empty heading

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Wi-Fi is a shared medium, and client devices play a major role in performance. Employers want engineers who understand that APs don’t control everything.

How CWNP delivers:
CWNP training emphasizes client behavior, roaming decisions, power management, and driver differences. This is critical knowledge for solving real-world Wi-Fi performance issues.

7. Performance Optimization Skills Empty heading

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Beyond basic connectivity, employers want Wi-Fi professionals who can optimize networks for voice, video, and high-density environments.

How CWNP delivers:
CWNP training covers QoS, airtime efficiency, contention management, and high-density design principles, thus preparing professionals to support demanding applications and environments.

8. Validation and Testing Expertise Empty heading

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Deploying Wi-Fi isn’t the finish line. CWNP Professionals understand that validation matters. Employers look for professionals who can verify performance and compliance.

How CWNP delivers:

CWNP teaches post-deployment validation, performance testing, and documentation best practices, ensuring networks meet design expectations and business requirements.

9. Vendor-Neutral, Transferable Knowledge Empty heading

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Employers value professionals who understand general Wi-Fi fundamentals as opposed to a specialization in a single vendor’s interface.

How CWNP delivers:
CWNP is "vendor-neutral". The skills gained apply across all Wi-Fi platforms, making CWNP-certified professionals adaptable, versatile, and valuable in any environment.

10. Professional Credibility and Continuous Learning Empty heading

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Certifications signal commitment, credibility, and a desire to stay current - qualities employers actively seek.

How CWNP delivers:
CWNP certifications are globally recognized and respected. The program encourages lifelong learning and progression, helping professionals grow from foundational knowledge to advanced expertise.

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Why CWNP Training Stands Out Empty heading

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CWNP training doesn’t just prepare candidates to pass exams, it prepares them to succeed “on the job”. By focusing on theory, real-world application, and vendor-neutral principles, CWNP equips Wi-Fi professionals with the exact skills employers are looking for today.

Whether you’re hiring wireless talent or looking to advance your own career, CWNP training provides a clear path to mastering the skills that matter most in modern Wi-Fi networking.

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Learn More Empty heading

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If you want to learn more about CWNP wireless training and wireless networks, visit our CWNP training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks #CWNP

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About NC-Expert Empty heading

Empty heading

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Certification Training Study Tips

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 19:46:00 GMT

Certification Training Study Tips

You have chosen to be the master of your future IT career and that is admirable. Now that decision
has been made, the implementation phase begins, so here are some certification training study tips, to ensure you make the make the most of your time and efforts

You have decided which career-/industry-oriented certifications you want to take. You may even
have already attended class. Congratulations. You have taken great steps.

If you haven’t yet decided on a class, take a look at some of the courses we have on offer .
If you are not quite sure, contact us to chat about what you are looking for.

Now you have to put in some study time to prepare yourself to sit the exam(s). How on earth are you going to do that? Hopefully, this blog and our certification study tips will give you some inspiration and save you from this…

Study Tip 1 – "Old Father Time" Empty heading

Finding time to study is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks. I think I would be very rich if I had been paid just one penny for every time I have heard the phrase “I don’t have time to study”.

Our lives, today, are so busy and demanding. Our bosses want more than a day’s worth of work for each day in the office. Our families want us to be available to pay them attention, or to do chores/jobs around the house, or attend family events. Our friends want to socialize. We are being pulled in so many different directions all the time. How can we possibly find any extra time for career-related study? Life is already so busy – there is no extra time left!

This is where you have got to be super-organized. During the time you are studying, you may need to schedule everything out and stick to it… but you have to be realistic in your expectations of yourself.

First and foremost, in order to be effective, you must get enough sleep. Of course, you can stay up late to study, and be tired in the morning, but this is really not a good, long-term solution.

When we skip sleep, we are far less effective at work and at life. Our thought processes slow down and even our physical and mental health can be adversely affected.

A solution? Get up a little earlier. Maybe 1 hour. This is a good goal. That 1 hour is often referred to as the “golden” hour and can be worth so much more than the sum of a mere 60 minutes. Those precious 60 minutes can be used for quiet study because the “insanity” of the day has not yet begun: your family/roommate/dog/boss/distraction-causer is still tucked up in bed fast asleep. You will have successfully created the quiet time to sit and dig deep into your study.

Your body will even get used to the routine after a week or two and you may find that you do not need an alarm clock! The summer months, when the sun rises early, are great… winter is a little harder because it is dark, but your body will still know when it is time to wake up.

This has a number of added benefits: you would be studying when your brain is most awake; you are not as likely to be disturbed; and you won’t be late for work!

Study Tip 2 – Stake Out Your Territory

Even if it is a simple table in a corner, it is important to have a little area that is your “haven” in which you can set down a book or two and shut yourself off from the hubbub of everyday life.

You need to be able to sit comfortably, in a well-lit area, and to concentrate. If you are surrounded by noisy people moving around and disturbing you, you might want to rethink your choice of territory.

As with all territories, if you choose to study in a location where other people are nearby, your “territory” may need to be “defended” every once in a while. If people see you sitting and reading, they may think it is acceptable to come over and start chit-chatting with you. This can completely break any level of concentration! (We have heard that the “silent, expressionless stare” works well in this circumstance. LOL)

Study Tip 3 – Create a Schedule

This is an effective tool, but you have to work backwards to go forwards!

What am I talking about? Determine your endpoint. What date are you going to sit your exam?
That is your schedule’s starting point.

Next you need to determine how much study you actually need to do. There are multiple parts to this:

This is your “ideal” certification training study plan.

Compare the number of days before sitting your exam, to the amount of study you need to do.
What is the result? Do you have enough available time?

Now ask yourself some questions:

Now solidify your Certification Training Study Schedule plan. Physically write down the section/chapter/module numbers that you need to cover during each study period. Check them off as each study period goal is accomplished. If you can get ahead of schedule, do so. Don’t let the schedule slow you down but try to not fall behind.

Now you have created the plan: stick to it! Empty heading

Additional Certification Training Study Tips

Make sure to reward yourself for reaching each study period goal (no matter how small)!

Check out these useful links that could help you in your planning:

If you are looking to advance your IT career and would like to learn more about how we can help, contact NC-Expert today.

The post Certification Training Study Tips appeared first on NC Expert .

CWNP vs. CompTIA's Network+: Which Wireless Certification is Right for Your Career?

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 22:14:04 GMT

Which to Choose? Empty heading

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If you’ve been working in IT or networking for a year or two, you’ve probably reached an inflection point. You understand the basics, you’re more comfortable troubleshooting real-world issues, and you’re starting to think seriously about specialization and career growth. Certifications are often part of that conversation... and when wireless networking is involved, two names come up quickly: CompTIA Network+ and CWNP .

Both certifications offer value, but they serve very different purposes . Choosing the right one depends on where you are now... and where you want your career to go.

Understanding the Big Picture Empty heading

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Before comparing the two, it’s important to understand what each certification family is designed to do.

CompTIA Network+ is a vendor-neutral, foundational networking certification . It covers a broad range of networking topics including routing, switching, security, troubleshooting and, yes, some wireless concepts. Its goal is to validate that you have an overall understanding about how networks actually work.

CWNP (Certified Wireless Network Professional) certifications, on the other hand, are deeply specialized . They focus almost entirely on Wi-Fi technologies including: RF behavior; design; security; analysis; and troubleshooting. CWNP certifications are widely recognized as the “gold standard” for enterprise wireless expertise.

In short: Network+ is about breadth; CWNP is about depth.

What CompTIA Network+ Offers to Early-Career Engineers Empty heading

For engineers with 1–2 years of experience, Network+ can still make sense... especially if your role touches multiple parts of the network.

Network+ helps you:

Solidify core networking concepts
Understand how wireless fits into the larger network ecosystem
Build a strong foundation for future certifications
Demonstrate well-rounded networking knowledge to employers

If you’re working in a help desk, as a junior network admin, or in a general IT role, Network+ can help fill in gaps and provide structure to what you’re already learning on the job. It’s also often used as a stepping-stone to more advanced certifications like Security+, CCNA, or Cloud networking credentials.

However, Network+ only scratches the surface of wireless. You’ll learn terminology, standards, and basic configuration concepts... but not how to design or troubleshoot complex Wi-Fi environments.

What CWNP Brings to the Table

CWNP certifications are built specifically for engineers who want to work with wireless networks at a professional level .

The CWNP track starts with CWNA (Certified Wireless Network Administrator) and branches into more advanced specializations such as:

CWDP (Design)
CWSP (Security)
CWAP (Analysis)
CWISE (Wireless and IoT)

Even at the CWNA level, the depth is significantly greater than Network+. Topics include:

RF fundamentals and signal behavior
802.11 protocols (in detail)
Antennas, propagation, and interference
Wireless security mechanisms
Real-world design and troubleshooting scenarios

For engineers already supporting Wi-Fi - whether in enterprise offices, healthcare, education, or public venues - CWNP knowledge quickly becomes practical and applicable. Empty headg
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Career Impact: Generalist vs. Specialist Empty heading

One of the most important questions to ask yourself is: Do you want to be a Generalist or a Specialist?

Network+ supports a Generalist path. It’s ideal if you want flexibility, are still exploring different areas of IT, or need a broad credential to support a role that spans multiple technologies.

CWNP supports a Specialist path. Wireless engineers with strong CWNP credentials are often trusted with:

Enterprise Wi-Fi design projects
Performance and roaming optimization
High-density and mission-critical deployments
Advanced troubleshooting (with which others may struggle)

As organizations rely more heavily on wireless-first networks, experienced Wi-Fi engineers are increasingly in demand... and CWNP certifications clearly signal your expertise.

Which Should You Choose? Empty heading

For engineers with 1-2 years of experience, the choice often comes down to your current role vs. your near-term goals:

Choose Network+ if:
You want a solid networking foundation
Your job covers many aspects of IT
You’re not yet focused on wireless as a specialty

Choose CWNP (starting with CWNA) if:
You already regularly work with Wi-Fi
You want to specialize and stand out
You’re aiming for roles such as network engineer, wireless engineer, or architect

In most cases, the best path is both ... starting with Network+ to reinforce fundamentals, then moving into CWNP to build deep wireless expertise.

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Final Thoughts Empty heading

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Certifications don’t replace experience, but they can amplify it. For early-career engineers, the right certification can accelerate learning, increase confidence, and open doors to more challenging projects.

If wireless networking is something you enjoy and see yourself doing long-term, CWNP is an investment in specialization that pays off. If you’re still building your foundation, Network+ provides a strong platform from which to grow.

The key is aligning your certification choice with the career you want... not just with the next exam you can pass.

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Learn More Empty heading

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If you want to learn more about wireless and wireless networks, visit our Wireless training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks #CWNP #CompTIA

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About NC-Expert mpty headingmpty heading

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Wi-Fi Sensing: Is “Big Brother” Really Watching Us?

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 23:55:05 GMT

Connecting the Dots?

Wi-Fi Sensing just hit the headlines in a big way, reportedly as the latest technological invasion into our lives. Many people were horrified about the threat of being spied on in their own homes. In this blog, we investigate the reality of the technology and determine how far the “Big Brother” myth actually goes. Phrases like, “Your Wi-Fi can detect movement,” can strike fear into the heart, that our every move is being watched and tracked... but is it really as bad as it seems?

What is Wi-Fi Sensing?

Wi-Fi Sensing uses the Radio Frequency (RF) signals that are already being transmitted by Wi-Fi devices. When these signals propagate through space, they interact with everything in the environment: people, pets, furniture, walls, etc.

When a person, or pet, moves through a room, they cause a measurable disturbance in the wireless signals propagating through that room. Wi-Fi Sensing simply uses algorithms (mathematical calculations) to infer presence, motion, or patterns (such as when you walk across a room) based on measurements of those disturbances.

It is important to understand that this is done without cameras or microphones - it is based purely on something affecting the wi-fi signal: something existing in a space, or something that is moving within or through an environment.

Simple Signal Analysis

One of the biggest misunderstandings about Wi-Fi Sensing is that people believe they are being surreptitiously watched and monitored for nefarious purposes. This is not the usual case.

I’m sure you have at one time or another seen a movie where a technician is looking at a sonar or radar scanner – the thing that goes around in a circle and bleeps – “Captain, they’re coming straight at us!” The technician cannot tell who or what it is, the size of the object, its color, its markings, or any significant detail about it. They can't tell for sure that it is a giant megalodon, but an educated guess might help. The equipment can detect an entity and monitor its movement (range and direction), because that’s what sonar and/or radar does.

Simply put, this is how Wi-Fi Sensing works: it detects presence and motion, but that’s it.

So, Why is it Being Developed?

Wi-Fi Sensing facilitates a plethora of important use cases where current technology falls short.

Some important use cases:

· Security : Monitoring a space for unauthorized movement. It’s midnight on a Saturday. If the building is supposed to be empty, why is someone moving around?

· Elder Care : Detecting falls or inactivity. Has grandma gotten up to get her breakfast like she usually does at this time of day? (Moving from one room to another.) If not, is she OK?

· Energy Efficiency : Smarter management of devices (based on occupancy). Has everyone left the building? If so, the automated system can turn down the A/C and turn off the lights.

· Home Automation : (similar to Energy Efficiency at work) Turning lights off, or on, or adjusting A/C based on who, if anyone, is in the house.

· Healthcare : Potential monitoring of breathing and heart rate without attaching sensors to the body. This information can be sent to the nurse’s station, so that they can keep an eye on the patient.

This can all happen without transmitting video or audio and, for the most part, without collecting identity-related data. (Obviously, if a patient is in a healthcare setting, the devices need an identifiable baseline with which to compare readings, so that an alert can be sent if a result falls outside of a patient’s normal parameters.)

Privacy Matters

In a world where connected devices are commonplace, sometimes, it can feel as though we no longer have any privacy. “What kind of data is being collected?" "Where is my data going?” and "Can I control my own data?" These are completely reasonable questions. For a start, Wi-Fi Sensing is an “opt IN” feature. It isn’t usually, automatically, set to “on”. You have to actively enable it.

The general recommendation is that, if you are not entirely happy with the answers to your questions, don’t enable it. As we saw earlier, there are certain use cases where it can be a great help. If grandma wants to stay in her own home, rather than entering a retirement facility, this system could give her children a level of peace of mind. If she’s up and pottering around, they don’t need to worry about her.

Many Mesh wi-fi routers and smart home hubs already possess this feature. You simply have to switch it on. Through your device’s administrator interface, you can control whether (a) it is enabled, (b) what data is logged and shared, and (c) you can disable features, review data, and set permissions. Many systems that use Wi-Fi Sensing process the data locally, so no data gets sent outside your network.

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Cautious Optimism

It is natural to feel a little uneasy about being monitored, whether at school, in your home environment, or at work. But this system isn’t watching you, specifically. It is simply gathering ambient intelligence. (Remember the sonar?) It can help to make places safer, more energy efficient, and be more responsive to the needs of people, all without sacrificing privacy.

So, next time you see a router advertising “motion detection” or a smart home system offering “presence awareness,” relax. It’s just physics being applied in an innovative way. Don’t think of it as “Big Brother” watching over you, rather, think of it more in terms of a loyal watchdog that is making sure you are comfortable and safe... and it might even save you money on your energy bills in the process!

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Learn More

If you want to learn more about wireless and wireless networks, visit our Wireless training portfolio page here

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#WiFi #WirelessNetworks

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

The Importance of Using a VPN

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 20:08:12 GMT

A Digital Shield for Your Online Adventures

As tech professionals, we often spend a good chunk of our lives navigating the digital realm. Whether you’re troubleshooting a network, coding a new app, or just binge-watching the latest series, one thing is clear: your connection to the internet is a double-edged sword. It’s both incredibly convenient and, if not properly secured, a potential vulnerability.

Enter the VPN (Virtual Private Network) our trusty, digital bodyguard. If you’re not already using one, or if you’re not entirely sure why you should, let’s walk through some of the reasons why a VPN is essential for anyone working in IT and, frankly, for anyone who uses the internet.

What Is a VPN?

In simple terms, a VPN creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet. It allows your data to travel securely, masking your IP address, and ensuring that no one (be it hackers or nosy advertisers) can track or intercept your online activity. Think of it as your personal “cloak of invisibility” in the digital world!

1. Enhanced Security

One of the biggest perks of using a VPN is the enhanced security it provides. As IT professionals, we know that unsecured networks, such as public Wi-Fi in cafes, airports, or hotels, are prime targets for hackers. Anyone can set up a “free Wi-Fi” network and, once you connect, your data is exposed. With a VPN, your internet connection is encrypted, rendering your data unreadable to anyone trying to intercept it.

Picture this: You're working on your laptop in a busy coffee shop, surrounded by the faint hum of chatter and the aroma of espresso. You hop on the free Wi-Fi and start sending sensitive project files. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, right? Without a VPN, that hacker sitting across from you could easily intercept your data and walk away with your confidential info. With a VPN, though, you’re safe. It’s like being locked inside a digital vault.

2. Privacy Protection

Privacy is a fundamental concern for many tech professionals. We all know that browsing the web without a VPN is akin to walking through a mall with a neon sign above your head, proclaiming, “Here’s everything that I’m doing online!” Websites, advertisers, and even your internet service provider (ISP) can track your online movements, building detailed profiles based on your behavior.

By using a VPN, your true IP address is masked, making it much harder for anyone to trace your online actions back to you. Whether you're researching the latest security protocols, browsing social media during your lunch break, or trying to access resources for your next big project, a VPN ensures your activities remain private.

3. Accessing Geo-Restricted Content

As anyone who’s tried to access content in, or from, another country can attest: geo-blocking is real. You may have encountered the frustration of trying to watch a video or use a service, only to be greeted with a message saying, “Sorry, this content is not available in your region.” It’s annoying, especially when you know that the content is just a few clicks away.

A VPN solves this problem by allowing you to connect to a server in a different country. This makes it appear as if you’re browsing from that location, granting you access to geo-restricted content. Whether it's accessing an overseas service ( e.g. , news), gathering research that’s only available in another region, or simply watching your favorite Netflix show (when you're out-of-town), a VPN is your passport to the unrestricted web.

4. Bypassing Censorship*

In some regions of the world, the internet is heavily censored. Sites and services that we take for granted might be blocked entirely. For IT professionals working in international teams or conducting research, this can be a significant barrier. A VPN can help bypass these restrictions, providing a secure tunnel that lets you access information freely, no matter where you are.

While some administrations and organizations try to monitor and restrict access to certain types of content, using a VPN can help you to bypass these limitations. This is particularly useful for professionals who need to access global research, or communicate with colleagues from around the world without restrictions.

*Please note: we are, by no means, advocating illegal activity. If accessing certain sites/information is considered to be illegal in your country - simply don't do it.

5. Improved Remote Work Flexibility

As remote work becomes more common, a secure connection is more important than ever. Whether you’re working from home, or while traveling, a VPN can ensure that your connection to your company's network is encrypted and secure. This not only helps you stay productive but also ensures that sensitive company data remains protected from potential breaches.

Without a VPN, your connection to company servers could be compromised, making it easier for hackers to infiltrate your corporate network. By using a VPN, you can connect securely and access important files and resources without fear of being exposed.

6. Avoiding Bandwidth Throttling

Have you ever been streaming a video, only to have the quality suddenly drop, or buffering begin just as you’re getting to the good part? In some cases, this may be due to your ISP intentionally slowing down your connection. This is known as “bandwidth throttling”. ISPs may throttle your connection when they detect high data usage when, for example, you are streaming videos or online gaming.

A VPN can help mask the data you're transmitting, making it more difficult for your ISP to detect and throttle your connection. This means fewer interruptions and smoother, less interrupted online experiences.

A Small Investment for Big Returns

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, security, privacy, and flexibility are paramount. For IT professionals, using a VPN is more than just a best practice; it’s an essential tool to protect yourself and your work. It’s like wearing a seatbelt - something you may not always think about, but definitely something you’re glad you have when it matters most.

So, if you're not already using a VPN, what are you waiting for? Your digital self will thank you!

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Finally...

For a bit of fun, we released the following video (on April 1) - but we've placed it here, because it has an important message...

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Learn More

If you want to learn more about online and network security, visit our Security training portfolio page here

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#VPN #Cybersecurity #Security

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Troubleshooting Wireless Networks with Ekahau

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:45:05 GMT

Troubleshooting Wireless Networks with Ekahau: A Professional Engineer’s Guide

Wireless networks have become the backbone of modern business infrastructure. From office environments to large-scale enterprises, ensuring a seamless wireless experience is essential for productivity. However, despite advancements in Wi-Fi technology, network performance issues often arise, ranging from signal interference and dead zones to capacity overloads and channel mismanagement.

To tackle these issues efficiently, professional engineers rely on powerful tools. One such tool, Ekahau AI Pro, has become a gold standard in the wireless industry for troubleshooting and optimizing Wi-Fi networks.

This blog delves into troubleshooting wireless networks using Ekahau tools, providing practical examples and technical insights to guide professional engineers in improving network performance.

Ekahau AI Pro

Understanding Ekahau Tools

Ekahau offers a suite of software and hardware tools designed for wireless network design, analysis, and troubleshooting. Two primary products - Ekahau AI Pro and Ekahau Sidekick 2 - are the workhorses of wireless network optimization:

• Ekahau AI Pro : This software provides a robust platform for Wi-Fi site surveys, spectrum analysis, and network troubleshooting. It allows users to visualize coverage, signal strength, channel interference, and other network metrics in real-time.

• Ekahau Sidekick 2 : This hardware tool is an advanced, calibrated RF measurement device used in conjunction with Ekahau tools for conducting high-precision site surveys and troubleshooting.

These tools provide engineers with detailed data, allowing for better decision-making when addressing wireless network problems.

Ekahau Sidekick 2

Identifying Common Wireless Network Issues

Before diving into troubleshooting with Ekahau, it's essential to understand the typical wireless network issues that engineers face:

• Coverage Gaps: Often caused by physical obstructions (walls, furniture), poor placement of access points (APs), or insufficient AP density.

• Interference: Both co-channel interference (CCI) and adjacent-channel interference (ACI) can degrade Wi-Fi performance. Interference can come from other wireless devices, such as Bluetooth, microwave ovens, or even neighboring Wi-Fi networks.

• Channel Overlap: Misconfigured AP channels can overlap, causing congestion and degraded throughput. Typically, this occurs in 2.4GHZ when not restricting channel width to 20MHz and channel usage to 1,6,11. However, degradation can still occur in 5 and 6 GHz networks, due to misalignment of channel bonding and primary channel selection. The result can cause an Overlapping BSS condition to occur, causing sub-optimum usage of the Wi-Fi channels.

• Capacity Issues: Overcrowded APs, especially in high-density environments (conference rooms, offices), can lead to slow speeds and dropped connections.

• Roaming Issues: Poor roaming behavior, where clients don’t switch to the optimal AP, can lead to dropped connections or poor performance.

Step-by-Step Troubleshooting with Ekahau Tools

1. Initial Survey and Network Mapping

Before troubleshooting any issues, a site survey is the best way to understand the current state of the wireless network. Ekahau AI Pro, along with a Sidekick 2, provides a comprehensive survey feature that allows engineers to map out network metrics easily and quickly within a given area.

Practical Example : Suppose an engineer receives reports of poor connectivity in a particular area of the office. The first step would be to perform a survey. This will help visualize the current signal strength across different locations, highlighting potential dead zones or areas with weak signals. With this data, the engineer can reposition access points or add new ones to improve coverage.

• Signal Strength: The engineer can look for areas where signal strength is too low for good connectivity and address these gaps.

• Data Rates: The heatmap can also visualize the maximum supported data rates in each area, helping the engineer ensure that the network meets performance requirements.

2. Spectrum Analysis for Interference

Wi-Fi networks operate in the 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz bands, but these frequencies could be used by many other devices. Identifying and mitigating interference is critical to ensure reliable performance.

Ekahau AI Pro integrates spectrum analysis capabilities, enabling engineers to view real-time RF interference levels. The tool can detect interference from non-Wi-Fi devices such as microwave ovens, cordless phones, Bluetooth devices, video cameras, radar transmissions and other interferers

Practical Example : In a troubleshooting scenario where users report slow speeds and disconnections, the engineer can use Ekahau AI Pro’s spectrum analysis tool to scan for potential sources of interference. If a large spike in the 2.4 GHz band corresponds to a nearby microwave or other interfering device, the engineer may recommend moving APs away from this interference, changing channels or switching clients to the less-congested 5/6 GHz bands.

• Co-Channel Interference (CCI): This occurs when multiple APs, in close proximity and on the same channel interfere with each other. The tool can detect this by analyzing overlapping channels.

• Adjacent-Channel Interference (ACI): This happens when APs are configured on channels that are too close together (e.g., 1, 3, 5), causing overlap that degrade performance. Ekahau will show the channels in use and their interference levels.

• Overlapping BSS (OBSS): This condition occurs when neighboring APs overlap channels with different width settings (e.g. 20/40/80 overlapping), and they use different primary channel selection.

3. Channel Planning and Optimization

Channel planning is crucial for optimal Wi-Fi performance, especially in environments where multiple APs are deployed in close proximity, such as office spaces or warehouses. Ekahau AI Pro allows for detailed channel planning and optimization to minimize overlap and interference.

Practical Example : In a multi-story office building, an engineer might notice performance degradation on certain floors. Using Ekahau AI Pro, they can visualize the current channel assignment and find that several APs are using overlapping channels, or maybe an OBSS, leading to sub-optimum performance. The engineer can then use adjust the channel assignments, accordingly.

4. Roaming Troubleshooting

Roaming issues, where clients fail to switch to the best AP as they move through the environment, are common in large Wi-Fi networks. This can lead to slow speeds or dropped connections as devices stay connected to distant or low-performance APs.

Practical Example : In a large office, an employee walks through several areas but notices that their device degrades. An IT engineer may notice the cause of this degradation if that the client doesn’t switch to nearby APs with a better signal strength. Using Ekahau AI Pro, the engineer can analyze wireless data and leverage it to understand client roaming behaviors. Adjusting AP location, operation and configurations (e.g., enabling 802.11k, 802.11r, or 802.11v) or tweaking the power levels of neighboring APs can help resolve roaming issues.

5. Post-Troubleshooting Analysis and Reporting

Once troubleshooting is complete, Ekahau AI Pro allows engineers to generate detailed reports that can be shared with stakeholders. These reports often include heatmaps, spectrum analysis graphs, channel plans, and recommendations for network optimization.

Practical Example : After resolving an interference issue or optimizing AP placement, the engineer can create a comprehensive report showcasing the before-and-after performance improvements. This serves as valuable documentation for both the engineering team and management.

Wrapping It All Up

Wi-Fi troubleshooting can be complex, especially in environments with numerous variables affecting network performance. However, with tools from Ekahau , professional engineers can conduct in-depth analysis, identify underlying issues, and implement effective solutions.

By leveraging the advanced capabilities of Ekahau AI Pro and Ekahau Sidekick 2 , engineers can ensure that wireless networks are optimized for both performance and capacity, resulting in a smoother and more reliable experience for users. Whether addressing coverage gaps, minimizing interference, or enhancing client roaming behavior, Ekahau provides the data-driven insights necessary for a successful troubleshooting process.

In the fast-paced world of enterprise networking, Ekahau tools empower engineers to stay ahead of the curve and resolve wireless network issues efficiently, making them indispensable in the toolkit of any network professional!

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Ekahau also provides award winning training that teaches you how to use these tools, and move from Wi-Fi novice to expert in easy-to-digest steps!

To learn more about Ekahau , or get a Demo , click here: https://wifi.ekahau.com/demo-phil/

To learn about NC-Expert Consulting Services , to help you design and manage Wi-Fi networks, click here

See you next time!

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#General #Ekahau #EkahauAIPro #EkahauSidekick2 #NetworkDesign #TroubleshootingNetworks #WiFi

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Post-Quantum Cryptography: The Future of Digital Security?

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 23:11:12 GMT

Futureproofing Our Security

In our increasingly connected world, the security of digital information has never been more critical. From banking transactions to private communications, our data is constantly transmitted and stored across the internet.

The current systems that protect this data rely on cryptography, a branch of mathematics that helps keep information secure by encoding it in ways that are difficult to decode without the proper key. However, with the rise of quantum computers, traditional cryptography is facing new and significant threats. This is where Post-Quantum Cryptography comes into play.

What is Post-Quantum Cryptography?

Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) [1] refers to cryptographic algorithms that are specifically designed to be secure against the power of quantum computers.

Quantum computers, once they become practical, will be capable of solving complex mathematical problems much faster than classical computers. This will render many of the encryption methods we rely on today [such as RSA (Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman – initials of the inventors) and ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography)] vulnerable to attack.

Quantum computers operate on quantum bits, or “qubits”, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously, unlike classical bits that are either a zer (0) or one (1). This allows quantum computers to perform certain calculations exponentially faster than classical computers. For example, in a matter of seconds, a quantum computer could potentially break an RSA key, which is considered secure by today’s standards. As quantum computing technology advances, the need for PQC becomes even more urgent.

The Potential Threats Posed by Quantum Computers

Quantum computers present a serious threat to the existing infrastructure of digital security.

It is widely accepted that, at the core of this threat, is Shor’s algorithm [2] - a quantum algorithm that can efficiently solve integer factorization (the problem behind RSA encryption) and the discrete logarithm problem (which ECC relies on). With this capability, a quantum computer could easily break the public-key cryptography that supports much of the world’s internet security.

The most immediate concern, once quantum computers become widely available, is the possibility of data being intercepted and decrypted by malicious actors. Sensitive data, including government communications, financial transactions, and medical records, could be exposed. The danger for the future is that, once quantum computers become powerful enough to break the encryption, encrypted information stored today may become vulnerable.

Another major concern is the potential for “harvesting” data today for future decryption. Even though quantum computers are not yet capable of cracking encryption, adversaries could start collecting encrypted data now with the intention of decrypting it later, when quantum computers become viable. This is often referred to as “harvest-now, decrypt-later” attacks[3].

Why is Post-Quantum Cryptography Important?

The importance of PQC lies in its potential to secure our digital future. As we move closer to a reality where quantum computers become powerful enough to threaten current encryption methods, PQC offers a solution to this impending challenge.

By developing cryptographic algorithms that are resistant to quantum attacks, PQC ensures that our data remains secure in a world where quantum computing would (by then) be commonplace.

PQC is not about simply preparing for a future problem: it is about addressing a threat that is becoming increasingly tangible. Worldwide, governments, financial institutions, and healthcare corporations are already beginning to invest in PQC research to develop and standardize algorithms that, they hope, will head off this impending threat.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)[4] has already launched a project to evaluate and standardize post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, which will likely provide a blueprint for the future of digital security.

Potential Victims of Quantum Computing Threats

The potential victims of quantum computing threats are wide-ranging. Anyone who relies on encrypted data for security could be affected. Potential targets could include:

Governments: Sensitive government data, national security information, and diplomatic communications could be decrypted, potentially compromising national security.

Financial Institutions: Banks and other financial institutions (including insurance companies) rely heavily on encryption to secure transactions, protect customer data, and maintain trust. Quantum attacks could put billions of dollars at risk.

Healthcare Providers: Medical records are sensitive and often contain private health information. If compromised, this could lead to identity theft or blackmail.

Corporations/Businesses: Any enterprise that stores personal or financial information could be targeted.

As you can appreciate, any incursion into the backend systems of these types of organizations could have devastating effects!

Expected Benefits from Investing in Post-Quantum Cryptography

There are a number of reasons for organizations to invest into PQC. These reasons include...

Future-Proof Security: Investing in PQC today ensures that systems are resilient to the threats posed by quantum computing in the future. This proactive approach to security helps mitigate the risk of having to urgently upgrade or overhaul systems when quantum computers become operational.

Collaboration and Innovation: The development of PQC algorithms requires collaboration between researchers, cryptographers, and engineers from various fields. This collaboration promotes innovation, leading to the creation of new technologies and security solutions that can benefit society as a whole.

Protection of Sensitive Data: With the potential for quantum computers to break encryption, PQC offers a way to protect sensitive data, such as classified government communications, financial transactions, medical records, personal information, and intellectual property. By adopting PQC algorithms, organizations can ensure that their data remains secure, as quantum computing develops.

Economic and Competitive Advantage: As the world moves toward quantum-safe encryption, early adopters of PQC will have a competitive edge. Organizations that invest in PQC will be seen as leaders in securing their systems, which can enhance their reputation and trustworthiness. This is particularly valuable for industries that handle sensitive or confidential information, such as government, finance, and healthcare.

Possible Disadvantages of Investing in Post-Quantum Cryptography

On the other hand, there are a few negative aspects to consider regarding investing in PQC...

Uncertainty and Evolution: Quantum computing is still in its infancy and, while progress is being made, the exact timeline for the development of practical quantum computers is uncertain. Some experts expect it to take decades before quantum computers could be capable of breaking current encryption methods. This timeline disparity causes significant uncertainty. In turn, this uncertainty raises the question of whether investing in PQC now is premature, or whether we are acting wisely by preparing for an inevitable future threat.

Complexity of Implementation: PQC algorithms are often more computationally intensive and complex than traditional cryptographic methods. Implementing PQC may require significant changes to existing systems, which could be time-consuming and resource-intensive. These technical challenges could delay the widespread adoption of PQC.

Incompatibility with Current Systems: Integrating PQC into existing infrastructures may present compatibility issues, especially with older systems or devices that were not designed with quantum-resistant algorithms in mind. Transitioning from classical to quantum-resistant cryptography will require careful planning and coordination across industries and sectors.

Over-Engineering: In the rush to develop quantum-resistant systems, there is a risk of over-engineering solutions. Some organizations may invest in PQC before the technology is fully matured, resulting in wasted resources, or the adoption of algorithms that, ultimately, prove to be unnecessary.

Viable Remedies

To mitigate the risks posed by quantum computers, it would be wise to begin transitioning to Post-Quantum Cryptography as soon as possible. And w hile fully quantum-secure systems may not be practical yet, there are steps that organizations can take to start their preparations now:

Monitor Research and Developments: Stay updated on the latest developments in PQC research, as new algorithms and standards are continually being tested and refined.

Start Planning for Transition: Organizations should begin planning their migration to quantum-resistant algorithms. This could include evaluating current encryption methods, identifying potential vulnerabilities, and developing a roadmap for future-proofing systems.

Gradual Integration: As PQC standards evolve, organizations can begin implementing hybrid systems that combine traditional cryptography with quantum-resistant algorithms. Working with experts in the field can help to ensure that any potential transition to PQC will be smooth and effective. Using a hybrid approach can help ensure that systems will remain secure during the transition period.

The Future?

Post-Quantum Cryptography looks as though it is going to be an essential part of the future of digital security. As quantum computers evolve, traditional encryption methods may no longer be enough to protect sensitive data.

By investing in PQC, organizations can safeguard themselves against the potential threats posed by quantum computing and ensure that their digital systems will remain secure in the future.

While the road to quantum-safe encryption is not without its challenges, the benefits far outweigh the risks. By beginning the process now, organizations can ensure a secure digital future.

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Resources / Further Reading:

[1] https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2022/07/05/prepare-new-cryptographic-standard-protect-against-future-quantum-based-threats Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. July 05, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2025.

https://csrc.nist.gov/News/2024/postquantum-cryptography-fips-approved NIST Computer Security Respource Center. August 13, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2025.

https://www.dhs.gov/quantum Homeland Security. January 28, 2025. Retrieved February 18, 2025.

[2] Shor’s Algorithm (explained) – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvTqbM5Dq4Q

Shor’s Algorithm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor%27s_algorithm

[3] Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_now,_decrypt_later

[4] https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/08/nist-releases-first-3-finalized-post-quantum-encryption-standards National Institute of Standards and Technology. August 13, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2025.

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#Cybersecurity #Cryptography #PostQuantumCryptography

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Designing a Wi-Fi Network

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 17:33:20 GMT

Designing a Wi-Fi Network

This is the first in a series of blogs on Wi-Fi operation, design, and troubleshooting.

Designing a Wi-Fi network is much easier if you have the right procedures and tools in place.

First you must collect data about the network:

What are the requirements of the network?
What is the goal of the new network?
What is it meant to achieve?
Are there any constraints you have to overcome?

Next you have to decide what wireless vendor is being used? One of the most important things to get is an accurate map (or plan) of the site and the various floors.

Now you need to validate the map(s), and confirm the accuracy. This usually involves a site visit. During your site visit, you may take measurement to test the walls, to see what they are made of, and check their dB loss for use in your model.

Your goal now, is to build a model, to simulate the environment, so you can see how signal propagates, and how the network will perform.

Next you test and validate the model, and plan AP positions.

To collect accurate data, and build an accurate model, the right tools are necessary. Ekahau provides a suite of tools that are invaluable for Wi-Fi network design:

Ekahau AI Pro
Ekahau Connect subscription
Ekahau Sidekick 2 (hardware)

When used together, these give you the ultimate toolset for designing Wi-Fi networks!

These packages include tools that run on local PC's, or mobile devices for easy data collection. They include cloud systems for advanced 3D simulation and modeling, along with advanced optimization and insights. They also include packet capture tools for analysis and troubleshooting.

You can easily use these tools to design a network model simulating the operation of your proposed network. They are so powerful, you can even capture data from your current network, build a model, and simulate how newer APs will operate.

One of the most amazing features is that you can capture a 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi 5 or 6 network today, with your current AP equipment, and build a model, that can be leveraged to show how a brand new set of 6GHz Wi-Fi 7 APs will perform in a new network design! This is truly amazing!

Once you have designed your network model, you can order the equipment and create an installation plan.

Now you simply install the network, power it on, and then validate its operation again with the same tools, making fine tweaks and adjustments if necessary.

Then, as if by magic, “hey presto”, you have a wonderful Wi-Fi network that just works great!

Ekahau also provides award winning training that teaches you how to use these tools, and move from Wi-Fi novice to expert in easy-to-digest steps!

To learn about NC-Expert Consulting Services , to help you design and manage Wi-Fi networks , click here

To learn more about Ekahau , or get a Demo , click here: https://wifi.ekahau.com/demo-phil/

See you next time!

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#General #Ekahau #NetworkDesign #WiFi

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About NC-Expert

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Boost Your Career with IT Industry Certifications

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:54:10 GMT

Critical Component for Your Future Empty heading

In today’s ever-evolving tech landscape, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. IT certifications not only validate your expertise but also help open the doors to better career opportunities and advancement. Whether you’re just getting started, or looking to advance, certifications from industry leaders like CWNP , CompTIA , and Cisco can be game-changers for your career.

Why IT Certifications Matter Empty heading

IT certifications are a proven way to prove your skills and knowledge to employers. As businesses increasingly rely on technology for daily operations, they need professionals who can navigate the complexities of IT infrastructure, networks, and security. A certification can give you a competitive edge, help you land higher-paying roles, and keep you on the cutting edge of the tech industry and undergoing IT certification training is a way to help you achieve your goals.

Here’s a look at some of the top certifications that can elevate your career:

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1. CWNP: Wireless Networking Excellence Empty heading

When it comes to wireless networking, CWNP (Certified Wireless Network Professionals) is the name to know. CWNP offers a series of certifications that cover everything from basic wireless networking to advanced security and troubleshooting.

Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) : This foundational certification covers the fundamentals of wireless networking and is perfect for those who want to start their journey in wireless technology.
Certified Wireless Security Professional (CWSP) : If you’re focused on wireless security, CWSP is the certification for you. It dives deep into wireless security protocols and best practices to keep networks safe from threats.

With the rise of IoT devices and the increasing reliance on wireless technology, CWNP certifications ensure that you have the skills needed to manage and secure networks in a wireless-first world.

2. CompTIA: The Gateway to IT Empty heading

CompTIA certifications are some of the most widely recognized across the IT industry. Whether you're fairly new to IT, or are an experienced IT professional, CompTIA offers certifications that cover a broad range of areas including network management, cybersecurity, and more.

CompTIA Network+ : For those looking to specialize in networking, the Network+ certification validates your knowledge in network architecture, operations, and security.
CompTIA Security+ : As cybersecurity becomes a top priority for organizations, this certification proves your understanding of risk management, encryption, and network security fundamentals.

CompTIA’s certifications serve as great knowledge verification for anyone in IT, to prove you “have what it takes”, and they help keep your skills fresh as technology continues to evolve.

3. Cisco: Networking and Beyond Empty heading

When you think of networking, Cisco is likely one of the first names that come to mind. Known for their top-tier networking solutions, Cisco also offers a variety of certifications that can solidify your position as a networking professional.

Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) : This entry-level certification is essential for anyone working with Cisco networking equipment. Among other concepts, it covers networking fundamentals, IP services, and security basics.
Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) : As you advance in your networking career, Specialist or CCNP(professional)-level certifications are the next step. These certifications dive deeper into routing and switching, security, and network troubleshooting.

Cisco’s certifications are respected globally, and earning one can help you stand out in a competitive job market, especially in networking and systems administration.

Ready to Take the Next Step? Empty heading

IT certification training is a powerful investment in your future, offering you the expertise needed to succeed in today’s fast-paced tech environment. Whether you’re looking to specialize in networking, wireless communications, or cybersecurity, certifications from CWNP , CompTIA , and Cisco provide the skills and credentials employers are looking for.

Don't Wait - Launch Your Certification Journey Today! Empty heading

The tech industry is booming, and certified professionals are in high demand. Get started on your certification path today and unlock a world of opportunities. Your future in IT starts now!

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How We Can Help

We offer training for you or your employees to help them understand the power they possess to manage and protect your environment - from engineers just starting out on their journey, through to advanced IT professionals.

We offer standard training classes from established vendors (CWNP, CompTIA, and Cisco, among others) and training that is customized specifically to your needs and your team... all while working with your budget to get the most for your money. We offer certification training which is aimed at helping your employees gain industry certifications, and training which is aimed at enhancing your team's deeper understanding of a specific technology.

Our trainings are delivered by expert instructors, for individual employees (in our public classes) or for private groups, virtually/online (in real time) or at your location. Contact us for details.

To learn more about our available options, visit our website homepage: https://www.nc-expert.com/

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#General #Upskilling #ITCareerBoost #ITCareerGrowth #ITCareerSuccess #ITCertifications #ITCertificationTraining

===

Empty heading

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

If you are looking for the best in IT industry training then call us at (855) 941-2121 or  sales@nc-expert.com  today.

The Realities of Transition Mode

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 19:43:50 GMT

The Grim Realities of Transition Mode

Summary of a recent experience relating to Transition Mode.

I have been quite vocal of my hatred of Transition Mode (for WPA3).

We have a solution for this - dual SSIDs: https://wifisecuritywizard.com/general/problems-with-wpa3/

IMHO - Transition Mode is dumb! Turn on WPA3, and for everything that doesn’t support it, create a second SSID for now... while you upgrade everything!

I have actually said “it’s 2025 for goodness sake, how many devices do you have that don’t do WPA3?!”

Well, the other day, the universe decided to mess with me...

I arrive on site, I upgrade the system, 5GHz only WPA3, everything is working great!

I do one last check, and one of the users mentions, “Oh, the Brother color laser printer isn’t working.” (It’s a nice little device. Prints really well. Cheap to run.)

Oh, of course, I’d changed the SSID name and password!

H’mmm... it doesn’t see the Wi-Fi SSID (obviously I have enabled 5 GHz only, since it’s 2025).

I enabled 2.4GHz to see if that was the problem, and it was. Oh... so the Brother printer only supports 2.4??? I’m disappointed!

Ok... well, let’s connect it then…

Brother asks me to enter the WEP key, “I am sorry? What, now? WEP key?”

To cut a long story short, I eventually realize the Brother printer doesn’t understand WPA3. (Obviously, I have enabled WPA3 only, since it’s 2025).

So, I turn on WPA2 Transition Mode, and... Bingo! It works again!

I am not one to be disillusioned easily, so I think “Let’s just plug this into ethernet” Oops! No ethernet port!

I remember after we’d bought the printer were installing it, we found it had no ethernet port! (It was a good-priced laser printer that they needed in the office. We had just experienced some irritating issues with an HP Laser Jet, and decided to try Brother for the first time – since they were cheaper.)

So, I am stood there (in 2025, remember), with a printer that’s only 3 or so years old, that won’t do WPA3, and doesn’t have a 5GHz capable radio! (Sigh)

Now to be fair to Brother, I never tried to upgrade the firmware, but now I am really disappointed!!! No Transition Mode for us. I create a second SSID, 2.4GHz only, nice secure long password, and we are done. Turn Transition Mode back off on the original SSID (I really do hate it)!

Next job: searching for a new laser printer for the remote office. Back to HP it is!!!

My advice: make sure your printer supports WPA3 - it'll save you many headaches!!

Published with permission. Original post here: https://wifisecuritywizard.com/uncategorized/the-realities-of-transition-mode/

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#General #Security #TransitionMode # WiFi #WPA3

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About NC-Expert

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.

So, remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Frame Size and Wireshark

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 18:26:18 GMT

Frame Size and Wireshark

This blog is a write up of what was discussed at our first AMA session:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM70jXEsFsk

In Wireshark, when you look at the frame sizes, by viewing the “Length” field, it reports a number to you. This is the frame length. You can view this by looking under the Frame section of Wireshark.

You can of course add this as a column in Wireshark.

Well, it’s lying to you. Everyone knows that ACKs are 14 Bytes, not 70!

What? Why? How?...

Well, this is actually quite simple. Wireshark is reporting the size of the frame, INCLUDING the radiotap header.

The radiotap header is added by the capturing device, and it gives you all sort of information about the frame when it was captured.

Different capturing devices, and software, do this differently. While there are standard formats for storing this information, different applications will do this differently. Also, it depends on which protocol you are capturing. So, essentially, different protocols have different frame sizes based on information that different applications store!!!

So, a capture made with one capturing device, may use different frame sizes than a capture made on a different tool. Also, these numbers depend on what protocol is being captured 802.11n, ac, ax, or be, etc.

This number is essentially the frame size in the pcap file, including the radiotap header.

Can you turn this off, or adjust it?

Simple answer: NO!

However, there is a little trick you can do, and that is to display the radiotap header size next to the length.

Simply add the Radiotap Header > Header Length as a column, and you can see what you need to see!

Then you can do a quick math sum, and work out the real size of the frame!

70-56 = 14 just like it should be!

See you next time!

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#General #WiFi #WirelessFrames #Wireshark

===

About NC-Expert

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

The Importance of Training for IT Industry Certifications

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 01:52:23 GMT

An Important Task

The IT industry is one of the most competitive and dynamic sectors in today’s swiftly evolving technology landscape. Whether you are a seasoned professional seeking to advance your career, or a newcomer seeking to enter into the field, obtaining IT certifications can have a substantial impact on your trajectory.

However, earning certifications is not just about passing exams, an important factor is the study and practice that goes into getting ready to sit the exam. Training for IT industry certifications is a critical investment, offering both technical and professional benefits that can pay dividends throughout your career.

Enhancing Technical Expertise

At its core, IT certification training is designed to deepen your understanding of critical technologies and concepts. Whether it's network administration, design, cybersecurity, or analysis and optimization, each certification offers an opportunity to master a specialized area within the IT environment. By engaging in structured training programs, you not only learn the theoretical aspects of a technology but also gain hands-on experience in applying it to real-world scenarios.

For example, pursuing certifications like CWNP’s Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA), CompTIA’s Network+, or Cisco’s Certified Network Associate (CCNA) requires you to develop a solid foundation in network management, administration, and troubleshooting. This level of expertise is often beyond what you would learn on the job without formal training, giving you the ability to perform tasks more efficiently and with greater confidence.

Boosting Career Opportunities

In the competitive IT job market, having industry-recognized certifications can make you stand out to your employer, when they consider promotions and lateral transfers. Certifications signal to managers that you possess both the knowledge and the commitment required to stay current with industry standards. Certifications can be the difference between getting the role or being overlooked in favor of more qualified candidates. Certifications really can open doors to promotions, raises, and specialized roles that may otherwise be out of reach.

Certifications also give you the flexibility to pivot to different areas within IT. For example, you could start with a certification in networking and later transition into cybersecurity or project management. With technology playing such an integral role in every business sector, certified professionals have a higher degree of job security and are often sought after for their expertise.

Demonstrating Commitment to Professional Growth

Training for certifications requires dedication and a willingness to invest time and effort. This process demonstrates to employers, colleagues, and clients that you are committed to your professional development. Employers value employees who are proactive in their career advancement because it shows they are invested in remaining competitive and proficient in their field.

IT certification training encourages continuous learning. With the pace of technological change, staying certified requires keeping up with the latest developments in your area of expertise. This mindset not only benefits your career but also fosters a culture of lifelong learning that is vital in the fast-paced IT industry.

Ensuring Compliance and Reducing Risk

For many industries, regulatory compliance and security are critical concerns. Companies often require certified staff to meet industry standards and regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of data breaches and ensuring that they adhere to best practices.

For example, industries such as healthcare, finance, and government rely heavily on IT certifications to ensure compliance with laws such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR. Certification training helps IT professionals understand these frameworks and apply them in practical situations, thus mitigating potential legal and financial risks for their employers.

Wrapping Up

In an era, where technology drives business success and innovation, IT certifications are more than just credentials, they are essential tools for career growth, skill enhancement, and industry credibility. Training for IT certifications equips professionals with the technical expertise needed to navigate the complexities of modern IT environments, while also providing long-term benefits like job security, networking opportunities, and career advancement.

Investing in certification training not only improves your chances of landing your next role or promotion but also ensures that you remain at the cutting edge of the IT industry. Whether you’re just in the beginning stages of your journey, or looking to specialize in a niche area, training for IT certifications can set you on the path to success in one of the most exciting fields in the world today.

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How We Can Help

We offer training for your employees to help them understand the power they possess to manage and protect your environment - from engineers just starting out on their journey, through to advanced IT professionals.

We offer standard training classes from established vendors (Cisco, CompTIA, EC-Council, etc.) and training that is customized specifically to your needs and your team... all while working with your budget to get the most for your money. We offer certification training which is aimed at helping your employees gain industry certifications, and training which is aimed at enhancing your team's deeper understanding of a specific technology.

Our trainings are delivered by expert instructors, for individual employees (in our public classes) or for private groups, virtually/online (in real time) or at your location. Contact us for details.

To learn more about our available options, visit our website homepage: https://www.nc-expert.com/

===

#General #ITCareerBoost #ITCareerGrowth #ITCareerSuccess #ITCertifications #ITCertificationTraining #Upskilling

===

Empty heading

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

If you are looking for the best in IT industry training then call us at (855) 941-2121 or  sales@nc-expert.com  today.

Why ILT is Better Than Self-Study for IT Professionals

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 22:56:08 GMT

Choosing a Path to Learning

In the fast-evolving world of Information Technology (IT), professionals must continually upgrade their skills to stay relevant and competitive.

While self-study has become a popular, cheap, and convenient way for many IT professionals to learn new technologies, Instructor-Led Training (ILT) remains one of the most effective and reliable methods for acquiring new skills and knowledge.

This blog explores why instructor-led training remains superior to self-study - particularly for IT professionals.

The Benefits of Instructor-Led IT Training

There are a number of benefits to be gained from using an instructor to guide your learning, as opposed to studying alone:

1. Structured Learning

One of the greatest challenges of self-study is the lack of structure.

IT professionals often juggle multiple responsibilities, making it difficult to maintain a consistent learning path. Self-study can quickly become overwhelming when trying to decide which concepts to prioritize or how to approach a complex subject.

Instructor-led training, on the other hand, provides a well-organized curriculum designed by experts. The training is typically divided into manageable modules or sections, each building on the previous one. This structure ensures that learners don’t miss critical concepts and can follow a logical progression that enhances understanding.

The instructor's guidance ensures that the material is presented in a way that is both coherent and digestible, preventing the confusion that can arise from piecing together information from multiple sources.

2. Access to Expert Knowledge

While self-study resources like online tutorials, books, and videos are valuable, they cannot replicate the expertise and experience of a skilled instructor.

In an ILT environment, instructors bring years of hands-on experience and specialized knowledge to the table. They can provide real-world examples, explain complex topics in layman's terms, and offer insights that may not be found in textbooks.

For IT professionals, this level of access to expert knowledge can be invaluable. Instructors often have an in-depth understanding of current industry trends, best practices, and troubleshooting techniques that are crucial for career advancement. They can also clarify nuances and offer tips that are not always covered in self-study resources.

3. Real-Time Interaction and Support

A significant advantage of instructor-led training is the ability to engage in real-time discussions and receive immediate feedback.

IT concepts, especially in areas like network design, cybersecurity, or even determining which parameters to enter when setting up a switch, can be highly technical and sometimes confusing. In a self-study environment, learners are left to their own devices to solve problems, which can lead to frustration, delays, and errors.

With an instructor leading the course, learners can ask questions on the spot, seek clarification, and even engage in group discussions. This interaction not only helps to solidify understanding but also provides the opportunity to learn from peers who may have different perspectives or experience levels. The ability to receive immediate answers to questions helps prevent gaps in understanding from developing, which can be a common issue in self-directed learning.

4. Accountability and Motivation

One of the key obstacles to successful self-study is maintaining motivation. Without a structured environment, learners can easily become distracted, procrastinate, or lose focus.

IT professionals, often busy with demanding jobs, may find it difficult to carve out time for uninterrupted study.

Instructor-led training provides built-in accountability. The presence of a scheduled class times, assignment deadlines, and expectations from both instructors and fellow students encourage commitment. Many learners find that having a structured schedule with set goals helps them stay motivated and on track, ultimately leading to better learning outcomes.

5. Collaborative Learning and Networking Opportunities

Learning in a group setting – whether in person or virtual – provides an invaluable opportunity for networking and collaborative learning.

In an instructor-led course, IT professionals can interact with colleagues from different organizations, industries, and backgrounds. These interactions can lead to new ideas, career opportunities, and professional connections that might not be available in a self-study environment.

Moreover, collaborative learning fosters a deeper understanding of complex topics. When discussing challenging concepts with peers, learners are often able to approach problems from new angles, which can lead to better problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

6. Practical Hands-On Experience

While self-study resources often focus on theory, instructor-led training frequently includes practical, hands-on exercises.

These exercises allow learners to apply what they've learned in a real-world context, which is particularly important in IT fields where practical skills are as important as theoretical knowledge.

Instructors can guide learners through simulations, lab exercises, and case studies that mimic real-life challenges, providing invaluable experience that will be useful in the workplace. These hands-on sessions ensure that IT professionals not only understand the theory behind a technology but also gain the practical experience needed to implement it effectively.

The True Cost

While self-study can be a useful tool for IT professionals, it often lacks the structure, expertise, support, and hands-on experience that instructor-led training offers.

Saving a Penny - But at What Cost?

While self-study may appear less costly at first, it can ultimately prove to be considerably more expensive, due to the potential for misunderstanding of concepts, or the necessity of retaking failed exams. When a student searches for an answer online and encounters numerous responses, how can they be sure which one is accurate? Furthermore, self-directed study enables a student to engage with the content at their own preferred speed; nevertheless, as previously discussed, there is a propensity for distractions arising from professional obligations and personal life. ILT mitigates these distractions. In the IT sector, professional training has been optimized for maximum efficiency, thus ensuring the best utilization of a student's time.

The Numbers Don't Lie

In a study performed and reported in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, a massive 93% of instructor-led learners scored in the high performer category, compared to only 65% of self-paced learners! The conclusion indicates that instructor-led methods are much more effective at helping learners understand and retain knowledge than self-paced approaches.

Knowing Your Worth

For IT professionals looking to stay ahead in their careers, instructor-led training provides a comprehensive, engaging, and efficient way to acquire new skills and knowledge. By combining expert instruction, collaborative learning, and real-time question resolution, instructor-led training helps professionals gain a deeper understanding of complex technologies, stay motivated, and apply their learning in practical scenarios.

In an industry as dynamic as IT, investing in instructor-led training can be a game-changer for career growth and success.

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How We Can Help

In all our training classes we provide an experienced industry professional as the instructor. By being seasoned real world experts themselves, our instructors can share their experiences and provide real examples of how they overcame the kinds of challenges that the students may meet in their professional lives. These experiences are shared with a view to helping our students understand concepts more deeply and become better professional engineers themselves.

Although our training is delivered virtually, we don't use pre-recorded videos to deliver our training classes. All our training classes are run in real time, by live expert instructors. You can speak and interact with the instructor, and with the other students, as if you were in the room with them.

Our trainings are delivered by expert instructors, for individual employees (in our public classes) or for private groups, virtually/online (in real time) or at your location. Contact us for details.

To learn more about our available options, visit our website homepage .

===

Empty heading

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

If you are looking for the best in IT industry training then call us at (855) 941-2121 or sales@nc-expert.com today.

Is IT Training for Employees a Worthwhile Investment?

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 18:48:53 GMT

IT Advances

In the current climate of swiftly advancing digital landscapes, enterprises are increasingly dependent on technology to maintain efficiency and competitiveness. IT systems and software are essential to daily operations, regardless of the organization's size, from the smallest startup to the largest conglomerate. Consequently, it is imperative to ensure that your personnel are adequately prepared to utilize these technologies for sustained performance. Nonetheless, for numerous firms, the question persists: Is employee IT training, or upskilling, a prudent investment?

The Growing Importance of IT Skills

With technology advancing at a breakneck pace, having a technologically-knowledgeable workforce is no longer just a “nice-to-have” - it is a necessity. Many of the most common tools used in modern businesses, from customer relationship management (CRM) software to enterprise intrusion prevention systems (IPS), require specific technical skills to use efficiently. Without proper training, employees may struggle to navigate these tools, resulting in inefficiencies, errors, and lost productivity.

Moreover, with cyber threats becoming more sophisticated, security protocols, password management, and data privacy knowledge are essential skills for every employee - not just your IT department. Just one single employee falling victim to a phishing attack, or unintentionally breaching security protocols, could have catastrophic consequences for your business.

The Benefits of IT Training

There are a number of benefits to be gained from investing in training for your IT team:

1. Increased Productivity and Efficiency

The most obvious benefit of IT training is improved productivity. When employees understand the software and systems they use, they can complete tasks more quickly and with fewer errors.

Take, for example, an employee setting up a router or switch without fully understanding its features. They may waste time searching for information or entering parameters incorrectly. With proper training, they can navigate the system with ease, allowing them to focus on higher-value work.

Furthermore, well-trained employees are more likely to identify time-saving features and shortcuts that enhance efficiency. This reduction in wasted time can add up significantly over the course of the year, translating to measurable gains in business performance.

2. Reduced Downtime and IT Support Costs

When employees are untrained in using specific software or hardware, they often require support from the IT department or external vendors when issues arise. These support requests can lead to costly downtime and delays in work, which can affect productivity across the board. By investing in proactive IT training, businesses can reduce the number of support calls and troubleshooting instances, freeing up IT staff to focus on more strategic tasks.

Additionally, IT training can help employees recognize and address minor issues before they escalate into major problems, potentially preventing costly downtime and system failures.

3. Improved Employee Morale and Retention

Employees appreciate the opportunity to learn new skills and grow professionally.

Providing IT training can be an excellent way to show your team that you’re invested in their development, which can boost morale and job satisfaction.

It can also help them feel more confident in their abilities, reducing frustration when using new systems or technologies.

Moreover, when employees feel supported and are afforded opportunities to enhance their competencies, they are more likely to stay with the company for the long-term. Elevated turnover rates can incur significant costs and investing in your employees’ education can help you retain that talent.

4. Enhanced Security and Compliance

As cyberattacks become more frequent and sophisticated, cybersecurity training for all employees has become critical.

A large portion of cyber incidents are the result of human error, whether through phishing emails, weak passwords, or unsecured networks, these are common points of entry for hackers. Training employees in best practices for security can dramatically reduce the likelihood of a successful attack.

In addition, depending on the industry you operate in, compliance with regulatory standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS may be required. Proper IT training ensures that your employees understand and adhere to the necessary protocols, thus mitigating the risk of costly fines and reputational damage.

5. Scalability and Future Growth

As your company grows, so will your technology needs.

IT training is a long-term investment that ensures your team can keep up with changes in software, hardware, and IT infrastructure.

Familiarity with your systems allows your employees to easily adapt to new tools and updates, thus minimizing service interruptions during transitions and enabling the business to scale efficiently.

The ROI of IT Training

While IT training requires an upfront investment of money and time, the return on investment (ROI) can be substantial.

According to studies, companies that invest in training see a significant increase in productivity, efficiency, and employee satisfaction... not to mention increased customer satisfaction!

Training also helps mitigate the risk of costly errors, system failures, and security breaches, all of which can have far-reaching financial consequences for the business.

Remember: the cost of NOT investing in IT training can be huge! Businesses risk falling behind competitors, dealing with unnecessary downtime, and exposing themselves to security threats that could cripple normal operations.

In the long run, the benefits of a well-trained workforce far outweigh the investment.

Final Thoughts

Offering your employees IT training is not just an optional benefit, it is a strategic investment in your company that can yield significant returns in terms of productivity, efficiency, security, and employee retention.

Equipping your team with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate the ever-evolving technological landscape, you are seeing the big picture and setting your business up for sustained and long-term success.

In an age where technology is central to everything, investing in IT training is an investment in your company’s future.

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How We Can Help

We offer training for your general (non-technical) employees to help them understand the power they possess to protect your environment - through to advanced IT professional training.

Our trainings are delivered by expert instructors, for individual employees (in our public classes) or for private groups, virtually/online (in real time) or at your location. Contact us for details.

To learn more about our available options, visit our website homepage: https://www.nc-expert.com/

===

Empty heading

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

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

Quantum Computing and AI: the Future

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 01:12:52 GMT

Quantum Computing and AI

Quantum computing is no longer the stuff of science fiction. With advancements accelerating in recent years, it is poised to revolutionize various fields, from cryptography to drug discovery.

Most of us have seen at least one of the many apocalyptic-style movies, where the world is taken over by superintelligent machines. In the next years we may see the myth start to become the reality... or will we?

One of the most exciting prospects for the future of computer technology lies in the intersection of quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI). While AI has made incredible strides over the past decade, quantum computing holds the potential to unlock new possibilities that could catapult AI into a new era of capabilities.

Understanding Quantum Computing

At its core, quantum computing harnesses the principles of quantum mechanics (specifically, superposition and entanglement) to process information in fundamentally different ways than classical computers.

Unlike classical bits, which represent data as either 0 or 1, quantum bits (qubits) can exist in multiple states simultaneously, thanks to superposition. Moreover, qubits can be entangled, meaning the state of one qubit can be instantaneously linked to another, regardless of distance. This opens up the potential for parallelism and exponential computational power.

Where classical computers process information sequentially, quantum computers can perform many calculations at once. This ability allows them to tackle problems that are currently deemed incredibly difficult for even the most powerful classical supercomputers.

How Quantum Computing Can Transform AI

AI, particularly machine learning (ML), relies on processing vast amounts of data to recognize patterns, make predictions, and optimize decision-making.

However, the computational demands of training complex models often require immense processing power. Classical computers have limitations in handling the vast amounts of data and intricate algorithms that modern AI techniques require.

This is where quantum computing comes into its own. With its ability to perform multiple calculations simultaneously, quantum computers could significantly speed up AI training and optimization.

Quantum computing could enhance neural networks, the backbone of deep learning, by allowing for faster and more efficient training. This could lead to breakthroughs in areas like natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, and reinforcement learning. It could also provide a more efficient way to explore the common challenges found in optimization problems such as supply chain management, drug design, and financial modeling.

The Challenges Ahead

Despite its potential, quantum computing is still in its early stages. Building a scalable, reliable quantum computer that can outperform classical computers in real-world applications remains as a huge challenge.

Current quantum computers are highly sensitive to noise and errors. In addition, quantum algorithms are still being developed and practical general-purpose quantum AI applications are not yet a reality.

Researchers are exploring hybrid approaches that combine quantum and classical computing, using quantum systems to handle specific tasks while relying on classical systems for others. This could be a promising way to gradually integrate quantum computing into AI workflows.

A Quantum Leap for AI

Looking forward, the integration of quantum computing and AI could open up new frontiers in science and technology. In time, AI might develop the capacity to predict our likes, dislikes, and may be able to help advertisers market their products and solutions. It may be trained to spot the nuances of developing health issues from scans and other data, faster than humans. It might be able to determine more efficient methods of manufacture that will improve efficiency.

Quantum-powered AI could accelerate drug discovery by simulating molecular interactions at a level of detail that classical computers cannot achieve. In materials science, it could help design new materials with specific properties, potentially leading to breakthroughs in energy storage, electronics, and manufacturing.

There are so many areas where quantum computing combined with AI could propel our knowledge and our capabilities into the future, and help improve society and our lives faster than we could otherwise have done, but we are not quite at that point... yet.

Bringing it All Together... and Into The Future

it’s time for a reality check: at this point in time, Quantum computers are prohibitively expensive and will likely only be owned by governments and huge corporations. AI is still in its infancy.

But, even though both AI and quantum computing are relatively new technological concepts, the possibilities they offer together are immense. As quantum technology matures, we are likely to see rapid progress in AI capabilities, with quantum computers unlocking new levels of performance and innovation.

The future of humanity could very well be inextricably intertwined with AI in the quantum sphere.

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How We Can Help

We provide either standard industry training classes or can customize a program to suit your specific needs and budget. Our trainings are always delivered by certified, expert instructors, virtually/online in real time.

You can view our AI Training portfolio here: https://www.nc-expert.com/training-classes-by-vendor/ai-training

You are welcome to enroll individual employees into our public classes. We can accommodate private groups virtually or in person at your site. Contact us for details.

You are welcome to visit our website homepage: https://www.nc-expert.com/

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About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

If you are looking for the best in IT industry training then call us at (855) 941-2121 or sales@nc-expert.com today.

Cyber Security: An Uphill Battle?

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 18:18:58 GMT

Cyber Security: An Uphill Battle?

We are all aware of the need for securing our electronic, or cyber, environment. But not everyone is aware of how widespread the threat has become.

What/Who are Threat Actors?

Threat actors are unscrupulous individuals in the cybersecurity landscape. They are always looking for a way to gain access into our networks.

Threat actors can come from a variety of sources: they can simply be computer-literate individuals who love the challenge; they may be disgruntled employees who are annoyed at being separated from their company; they might be protestors who are angry about a corporate stance on a topic; they might be criminals who are intent on stealing data and selling it to make money; or the threat might come from a foreign state, through an organized program.

What Do They Want?

Your organization likely possesses or generates valuable data. Data is always of some value – whether it is customer contact information lists, specifics about manufacturing a product, know-how for a particular concept, corporate strategy, or anything else that can be gathered and sold to, or used by, others.

You may have limited cybersecurity protection, or you may have invested in a state-of-the-art system. Regardless of what you have or how well protected your data is, it isn’t going to stop the bad actors trying to get at it.

Who the threat actors are, determines what they might want. Their desired outcome can run the entire spectrum: they may want the excitement of trying to “break in” to your system – just to see if they can do it; they may be mad at the company and want to cause disruption to get revenge; or perhaps they are on a crusade and want to be an inconvenience your company in order to gain attention; they may simply want to sell your data for money; or they could have a more nefarious purpose.

How Can They Hurt My Organization?

For the most part, the standard high-level process of the way threat actors act may seem to be somewhat similar: they hunt to see where you are weak, they get in, they do their damage, and leave with their desired outcome.

You’ve seen ants. The insect. They are opportunists. They send their scouts off, alone or in twos, to hunt for tasty morsels of food. Once they find something that fits the bill, they report back and, before you know it, your kitchen is inundated with a thousand of the little critters! You will notice, however, that they all follow the scent trail left by the original scout.

So, too, do threat actors. The trail they follow isn’t scent, it is of weaknesses in your security posture. They follow the trail to access your environment, sometimes, without you even knowing they are there. They sneak in through the little hole in your baseboard and gobble up their desired tasty morsel before disappearing off again.

The trick to cyber security is in figuring out where the holes under your baseboards are located, and in watching carefully for any signs of little ant feet coming out from under them. You may have systems in place to alert you to the fact that the threat actors (ants) are on their way or already there. That’s great, but your job is to prevent them from getting their desired outcome - the “tasty morsel”.how they interrelate with any compliance requirements that must be met by the company.

What is Their Process?

To put it very succinctly, they generally follow a 4-step procedure*:

[1] Reconnaissance: this is the process of scanning your system to see where the weak areas are located. Weaknesses might be found in the software, the hardware, the physical environment, or even in the people.

[2] Infiltration: this is where the actual methods – the “techniques” – can be significantly different. According to IBM _[1] “Attackers have a historical inclination to choose the path of least resistance in pursuit of their objectives.” This means that they will take advantage of any slip-up you make in your cybersecurity efforts. It only takes one instance of not implementing a security measure, due to either action or inaction, and they’ll be inside your environment doing things you may not be able to detect... until it is too late.

According to the MITRE ATT&CK _[2] database, there are about 50 documented techniques, along with even more sub-techniques, of how they can gain access. The list includes things like phishing, drive-by compromise, brute force, man-in-the-middle, to name just a few.

[3] Activities: once they are inside your environment, what actions they take in can significantly differ, depending on their desired outcomes. They may move laterally to gain additional access privileges. They may place software that can be triggered at a later time. They may initiate a backdoor, so they can access your system whenever they want. The list of what they can do is pretty long.

In fact, the MITRE ATT&CK _[2] database informs us that there are over 100 main documented activities, with an additional list of sub-techniques in which they can engage while they have access to your system.

[4] Then we arrive at their desired outcome. While they are in your environment, they could lock or encrypt your entire computer system until a ransom is paid. They might grab and download data to sell. In fact, there are over 40 categories of additional activities that MITRE ATT&CK _[2] tells us that the bad actors can perform, ranging from account access removal, to firmware corruption, to system shut down, to data destruction.

Quite frankly, it is amazing that threat actors have been so busy in finding ways to access and manipulate our environments for negative purposes. Imagine how awesome things would be if they were working for us, on our side?!

*What threat actors actually do can be much more complex than the four steps noted above - but this is simplified for illustration purposes.

How Can We Stop Them? What Can We Do to Strengthen Our Security Posture?

This is a very positive question. A whole industry has evolved around stopping the threat actors from accessing environments that belong to other people: from hardware; to specialist software; to training humans and machines (including AI); to be aware of the environment and to detect when activities seem suspicious or deviate from the norm. There is a lot that can be done.

IBM _[1] further noted, “84% of attacks could have been stopped with best practices and security fundamentals, such as asset and patch management, credential hardening, and the principle of least privilege.”

OWASP is an organization that aims to improve security and help protect applications from cyberattacks. From OWASP’s most recent report, one of the top 5 causes of incursion was security misconfiguration. When a security practitioner is under time pressure, perhaps while wearing multiple hats, mistakes are easily made. Unfortunately, bad actors are likely to be sitting behind the baseboards, watching, and waiting to capitalize on those mistakes so they can get their desired morsel.

Take Heart: You CAN Win

However, don't be too dismayed - the situation isn’t as grim as it seems. With preparation and thought you can help to fortify your environment against encroachment if you follow the basic principles of cyber security.

With the use of Generative AI to help develop scripts, which aid in speeding up the detection and response process, your time can be better spent in actively investigating suspicious activity.

If you aren’t confident in your knowledge, or need to brush up what you once knew... take a class. It will certainly help you feel better about the relevance of what you know and might give you some new ideas that you hadn’t thought of!

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Sources:

[1] IBM XForce Threat Intelligence Index 2024

[2] MITRE ATT&CK https://attack.mitre.org/

[3] OWASP https://owasp.org/Top10/

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How We Can Help

You can view our Security Training portfolio here: https://www.nc-expert.com/training-classes-by-track#NetworkSecurity

You are welcome to enroll individual employees into our public classes. We can accommodate private groups virtually or in person at your site. Contact us for details.

You are welcome to visit our website homepage: https://www.nc-expert.com/

===

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About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

If you are looking for the best in IT industry training then call us at (855) 941-2121 or sales@nc-expert.com today.

AI - Why All the Hype?

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 17:40:23 GMT

AI - Why All the Hype?

What is AI? How Can it Help Us?

We’ve all heard about Artificial Intelligence, or AI, but many of us don’t really know what it is. In this blog, I shall give a very brief, high-level overview of some examples of AI to help draw back the proverbial curtain.

What is AI?

Artificial Intelligence is exactly what it says on the label: intelligence that is artificial (from a machine) and not from a human source. However, humans have got to set up the machine in the first place, to initiate it.

You could think of AI a bit like a human making a snowball and rolling it down a hill. As it rolls down the hill it gets bigger (or learns) and human input is no longer needed to continue the snowball’s motion. Occasionally, the snowball might veer off the path and get stuck in a bush, at which point the human has to rescue it and get it rolling again, but I think you get my “drift”? (snowdrift – see what I did there?!)

When Did AI Start Being a "Thing"?

Well, AI has actually been a concept for centuries. The stories tell us that the ancient Greeks created a giant automaton, called Talos, to protect them against invasion. (You may have heard of Cisco’s cyber security team, which is also called Talos – now you have a little talking point for your next party!) In the 10 ^th Century Yan Shi created a set of early robots that could independently move. Others in the BCE timeframe, including Aristotle, wrote about algorithms that encapsulated the logic for mechanical thought.

So, the idea has been around for a very long time but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the idea was made more concrete by contemporary scientists such as Alan Turing and John McCarthy.

What Makes AI?

Basically, the term “AI” is the umbrella under which all other mechanical thought technologies are covered.

Without getting caught up in too many weeds, because this whole field of technology is expanding at an ever-increasing speed (remember the snowball!), the following are a few of the catchall headings...

Let’s Start With a Quick Note About Data.

Nothing works without data. If you don’t have some form of input, even the most powerful computer will simply sit there, quietly, doing nothing. Data is the foundation for all types of AI.

There are lots of types and sources of data. Data can come in the form of numbers, letters, tables (or spreadsheets), text, images, and audio files. We could get into the differences between structured and unstructured data, but we’ll leave that for another time. Suffice to say, AI wouldn’t work without Data.

Data can lead to new insights and new knowledge – it all depends on how it is treated.

How is Machine Learning Related to AI?

Underneath the umbrella of AI is Machine Learning.

The most foundational kind of Machine Learning is called Supervised Learning, where an input (A) is given to a computer, and the machine provides output (B). This is known as A-to-B mapping. The reason it is called “supervised” is because you, the machine learning engineer, need to teach the computer what you want it to map, by showing it almost every possible iteration of input (A), so the computer recognizes it, and correctly maps it to output (B). It seems simpler to do it yourself, because of the amount of work involved in teaching the computer, doesn’t it? However, once the computer gets the “hang” of the input-to-output mapping, it can do the task so much more quickly, efficiently, and correctly than can a fallible human.

One example is in visualizing defects in a manufacturing scenario, or Visual Inspection. Let’s say you manufacture pen lids. If you show the computer images of all possible variations of the lids you create, along with images of defective ones, eventually, the computer will be able to watch all the pen lids coming off the production line, down the conveyor belt, and push out the defective ones – the ones that are too small, or too big, or misshapen. It would be able to do this much more efficiently than a human, thus leading to improved accuracy, cost savings, and fewer customer complaints about defective objects.

On a more complex level, supervised learning can be used for a spam filter, speech recognition software, or even, on a much more complex level, a self-driving car!

Neural Networks

Scientists love to create exciting terms to describe their work. You may have heard Neural Networks and perhaps even Deep Learning. These terms are fairly interchangeable and refer to the same field of technology however, Deep Learning is often used to describe a much more complex Neural Network.

What is a Neural Network? In its absolutely basic simple form, it is input X being manipulated by a mathematical equation, resulting in output Y. If you think back to your childhood school days, you likely sat in an algebra class. Your teacher would write on the chalkboard X +3 = Y The input X, being affected by the mathematical function “+3”, equals output Y. You could input anything in the place of X and, after the function has had its effect on that input, Y is revealed as the output. For example, 15 +3 = 18 or 1,021 +3 = 1,024. In a Neural Network there could be ten, hundreds, or thousands of functions, or algorithms, that operate on the input. The Neural Network might also take in multiple inputs and work on them in different ways, before combining them to create an output. Neural Networks can be incredibly complex, but can be amazingly rewarding in their ability to create useful output.

If you want to play with... sorry, let’s be professional, if you would like to “test” a basic Neural Network, you can go online to the following URL (for which we will take no responsibility, “at your own risk”, you’re on your own, etc.)... http://playground.tensorflow.org and set up and watch a Neural Network operating in a sandbox-like environment.

Generative AI

The term Generative AI seems to be popping up all over the place at the moment, but what is it? Generative AI is able to take your input, in the form of a “prompt”, and output a text file, or images, or audio files.

Text

ChatGPT and Google Bard are examples of Large Language Models (or LLMs) that can take the input of a prompt, that you provide, and output a text file. As an example, using ChatGPT ( https://chatgpt.com/ ) we can enter the prompt “write me a 4 line poem about an elephant”. While writing this blog, I did exactly this, and the output from ChatGPT is as follows:

In the wild where shadows play,
An elephant roams, gentle and gray.
With a trumpet and a heart so grand,
He wanders through the ancient land.

This is pretty good, don’t you think?

Images

Let’s look at a free AI image generator (there are quite a lot to choose from). For this example, I am using https://magicstudio.com/ai-art-generator/ I entered “moon with meteor shower" as the prompt, and here is the result:

I think you would agree that this is rather pretty. I’d certainly be happy to pay this place a visit, if it was real. The software simply generated an image based upon my Input. (Note: as you can see, it's not perfect: there are some meteor shower trails present, but you really have to look for them. However, the beach, the sea, the clouds, and the moon were all added by the tool, “automagically”).

Audio

As for audio files, you are limited by your imagination. I can’t put an audio file into this blog, but I can tell you where I went and what I did.

Music : I went to https://www.vidnoz.com/ai-music.html I Input a prompt of the kind of music I wanted to hear, “peaceful, beach, sunset” and set the music length for 30 seconds before clicking “Generate”. It did a pretty good job of creating a little tune. If you do a quick online search, you will see that there are loads of ai music generators for you to choose from.

Text to Voice : My colleagues and I use an application called Speechelo ( https://speechelo.com/ ), for which we pay a subscription. By typing in text, it can generate a human-sounding voice which speaks the typed words and outputs an audio file. A great use case is for a video voiceover. Depending on how much you pay for your chosen service, the quality could increase exponentially.

These are all examples of Generative AI.

Robotics

AI comes into its own in the case of robotics. One of the leading development companies in the world is Boston Dynamics. Since the early 1980s Boston Dynamics has been developing robotic technology. Their robotic technology can be used in multiple industries, for multiple purposes. For me, personally, I think their most impressive robot is their Atlas humanoid robot: https://bostondynamics.com/atlas/

Among a multitude of other uses, robotics can be used (as I mentioned earlier) to visualize manufactured products and inspect for defects, for the automated picking-and-pulling aspect within a warehouse facility, and robots can be sent into areas where safety is an issue such as in the case of search and rescue operations following a natural disaster.

A Word of Advice

Although there is a lot of hype about AI, along with the impending fear of being “left behind” if you don’t adopt it, implementing AI needs to be done using logic that is not impacted by emotion. Before investing in AI, hiring a team, and so on, you need to make sure that your project is (a) doable – that AI is capable of giving you the output you want (since AI is still fairly limited in what it can do, regardless of all the theoretical hype), (b) that you have a source from which to obtain relevant and accurate Input data, and (c) the project is likely to provide you a good Return on Investment (ROI).

Obviously, the excitement of finding out what AI is capable of, and the race to get there first, needs to be tempered with a cool business head and foresight, with a view to reality, output value, and, of course, maintaining some level of control of the snowball (since we’ve all seen the movie "Terminator")!

To summarize, AI is here to stay, so we need to learn what we can, thoughtfully implement it, and use it to improve:

- our businesses – to drive innovation and revenue

- our lives – we can all do with things being made a bit easier for us, can’t we?

- and our communities – ultimately helping make life better for everyone.

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How We Can Help

To begin the process of becoming more conversant with AI, NC-Expert provides a 1-day starter training seminar session: AI Foundations. ( https://www.nc-expert.com/training-classes-by-vendor/ai-training )

In this training, you and your team team will be taught the basics of AI, to enable you to begin to determine what kinds of AI projects might help improve your business model.

Once this training has been completed, we can provide further trainings, which increase in complexity as you and your employees gain additional experience and understanding.

Our trainings are delivered by expert instructors, for individual employees (in our public classes) or for private groups, virtually/online (in real time) or at your site. Contact us for details.

You are welcome to visit our website homepage: https://www.nc-expert.com/

...

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

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

Shadow IT

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 13:30:00 GMT

Shadow IT

The term “Shadow IT” evokes a sense of suspicion and the imagery of people lurking in dark corners. In reality, it is far more common than most people realize.

What is Shadow IT?

According to IBM “Shadow IT is any software, hardware or information technology (IT) resource used on an enterprise network without the IT department’s approval, knowledge or oversight.” So, in short, Shadow IT is simply the term used for non-IT-department-sanctioned hardware, software, and cloud-based applications.

Depending on your employer’s policies, if you don’t get specific permission from your IT department to purchase, download, and/or run hardware or software it will, likely, be termed “Shadow IT”.

Imagine a searchlight being shone across the network environment, looking for malicious activity. As its name implies, Shadow IT hides in the proverbial shadows and evades inspection and is concealed beyond the oversight of the IT team.

In this blog, we will focus on the software aspect of Shadow IT.

Why is Shadow IT a Risk?

In some circumstances Shadow IT can help you become more efficient in your job, by providing an efficient way to communicate, collaborate on projects and files, move data around, etc. However, by virtue of the fact that the IT team has not given approval for its use (and may not even know about it), it can create an additional attack surface, thus weakening the IT security team’s protection of your enterprise network environment. Additionally, under certain circumstances, it can even create legal compliance issues.

Sometimes employees, acting with complete innocence, download and run these additional (non-sanctioned) applications. They may view their actions as entirely harmless. They are blissfully unaware that what they are doing could jeopardize the security of the entire network environment.

Other times, employees may deliberately try to circumvent the restrictions or limitations imposed by the IT security department. From its survey, NextPlane indicated that, “The vast majority of IT professionals said they have experienced pushback from end users or teams when the company tried to dictate which collaboration tools should be used.” Circumventing the IT security team’s mandates on allowed technology is a very unwise approach to take and risks not only their own device’s security, but that of their colleagues and employer.

What Kinds of Technologies Constitute Shadow IT?

You might be surprised at the answer to this question. Not that there may be anything intrinsically wrong with certain applications, but the security team must be permitted to take into account the following:

[1] how these applications interact with other applications that are running on the corporate environment,

[2] the subtleties that may be present in the application’s coding (which could permit an incursion into the environment in which they are run), and

[3] how they interrelate with any compliance requirements that must be met by the company.

Prepare to be surprised... according to Code42 , some well-known examples of applications that can be deemed “Shadow IT” are as follows:

- Slack

- gMail

- Google Drive

- Dropbox

- Box

- WhatsApp, and

- generative AI tools.

Wow! Who would have thought it?

How Does Shadow IT Affect the Company Network?

Cisco provides some clarity on the matter. “An astonishing 98% of cloud services are adopted without any IT oversight. And when your employees act as their own tech professionals to use their favorite chat, cloud storage, and other insecure apps, that’s more than just conducting shadow IT, it’s directly putting your network at risk.”

The problem starts when the IT team doesn’t know what applications are being run on the system. How can the IT security team be expected to monitor these applications and protect the network against any threats they may invite, if the security team doesn’t even know the applications are being used?

Examples of just a few of the risks associated with Shadow IT are:

- Unauthorized access to data

- Introduction of malicious code

- Unapproved changes to data

- Breach of compliance regulations

Any of these, alone, have the potential to cause devastating fallout to the financial side of a business, not to mention the reputational implications you could face, should such incidents be publicly disclosed.

How Can We Protect Against Shadow IT Usage?

First things first: create an allowed technology list or a banned technology list, then develop the lists further, to establish company policies and protocols. You could set up a program of network sniffing, to detect any unsanctioned traffic. You could update your intrusion detection and prevention system rules to recognize disallowed technology. You can set up Shadow IT detection tools. You could mandate that your partners interact with you only using specific technologies. The list of steps you could take goes on and on.

One of the most important things you can actively do is to educate your employees. Once they understand what Shadow IT is and why it has the potential to be dangerous, you will have a whole group of advocates who can help you in your endeavor to keep your enterprise environment safe.

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How We Can Help

To begin the process of training your employees in cybersecurity procedures and increase their awareness, as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, NC-Expert provides you with a 1-day starter training session: CyberSAFE. ( https://www.nc-expert.com/class/certnexus-cybersafe )

In this training, your team will be taught the basics of cyber security, and will be made aware of the fundamental traps into which many employees fall, inadvertently allowing attackers access into your system.

Once this training has been completed, we can provide further trainings, which increase in complexity as your employees progress up the access permissions chain.

We can provide standard training classes or can customize a program to suit your specific needs and budget. Our trainings are delivered by expert instructors, for individual employees (in our public classes) or for private groups, virtually/online (in real time) or at your site. Contact us for details.

You are welcome to visit our website homepage: https://www.nc-expert.com/

Or, if your team needs more advanced instruction, you can view our Security training portfolio here: https://www.nc-expert.com/training-classes-by-track#NetworkSecurity

...

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

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

This post appeared first on NC Expert .

Email Threats

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 01:10:30 GMT

Email Threats

According to Cisco Talos, about 8 billion spam emails are sent out in the US alone each day. Of those, over 1 billion request the recipient to “click-this-link” as their method of deception.

How Can I Tell Genuine and Suspicious Emails Apart?

A typical phishing email is one that appears to be from a trusted source but is, in fact, a fraudulent communication with one goal: to do harm. It fits under the category of social engineering, because the sender often tries to pressure the recipient into performing some form of action (opening an attachment, clicking a link, visiting a website, calling a number, etc.).

Often the kinds of pressure they put the recipient under, can relate to losing something if urgent action is not taken immediately: your account will be closed; or you may lose money of you don’t act right now, etc. The bad actors will try their best to fool you and make you perform the action they want you to take.

Let’s look at a specific instance...

At first glance, if you are in a hurry to get things done, you may click the attachment. Once you do that you could be in for a world of hurt.

Let’s analyze this specific email...

The following is a description of the suspicious clues in this email...

Looking at other examples...

These emails are instantly identifiable as not being from the vendor they purport to represent. Simply look at the “From” email addresses, and you can be confident in ignoring them... without clicking on the included links. Additionally, neither of the emails refer to the account holder by name – because they don’t know it. Small, simple things like these can give big clues as to whether the email is genuine or not.

Some senders actually make an effort to try to have their emails look something like the real thing. This employee was not expecting any DocuSign agreements...

The email was sent to a specific employee (hence the blacked-out text), but because the employee was suspicious, they did not click on the button.

Other things to look out for are:

- Emails to generic recipients. These salutations can include “Dear account holder” “To Whom it may Concern”, it may include all or part of the recipient’s email address, or it may not be addressed to a specific recipient at all.

- Grammatical errors. If you read the email body text aloud, the sentence structure may sound a bit strange. Sentences may start with lowercase letters. There may be additional spaces between the words within a sentence.

- Misspelled words. Spelling can be another give-away. Simple words may be spelled incorrectly but these might be missed if you read the email quickly or simply give the sender the “benefit of the doubt”. Professional emails usually go through quality assurance checking to ensure that words are spelled correctly and that the sentence structure is sound.

- Font. There is a difference between the letter a and the letter a . The difference is subtle to the human reader, but can be very distinct to a computer. Additionally, if you see changes in the font as the email text progresses, especially if specifics about you/your company are included using that different font, there is a good chance that the sender has used automation to insert those details thus indicating that this is likely a spam email.

- URLs and Email Addresses. Look for odd spelling in URLs and email addresses. For example, “microsoft” may be spelled “rnicrosoft”. On first glance they may look the same, but they are vastly different – one starts with an “m”, the other starts with r followed by n. Additionally, look for strange or out-of-place prefixes and suffixes.

If something seems amiss, trust yourself. Your intuition may be saving you from a very negative experience.

What Kinds of Threats Can Phishing Emails Carry?

Of the billions of phishing emails sent out each day, a large number use the request to “click this” as their method of deception. The click can do a multitude of things from taking you to a website, to downloading malware onto your device.

One trick they may use to fool you into clicking on their link is to include a “convenient” return email link within the body of the email. This is not necessarily a link to make it easier for your email system to respond to the incoming email, rather, it is likely to be a link to a malicious URL. Additionally, you may miss the fact that the response link within the email is addressed to a different email account than the one from which the email was sent. This is another suspicious marker, as is the case here...

Either by visiting a malicious website, or inadvertently downloading malicious code, there are a number of end results the bad actor is looking to achieve:

- Install malware. Malware is a malicious program that, once installed can open your system to spyware, viruses, trojans, or any of a number of unwanted programs.

- To acquire data. Data from your system can be downloaded to a local computer or anywhere the bad actor defines.

- Money. They could disable and lock your system until a ransom has been paid. Even if you pay, the statistics infer that you almost certainly will never see all your data again.

- Impersonation. The bad actor might want to use your corporate identity to obtain (steal) important company data.

Zero Trust

There is an old Russian proverb which states, “Doveryay, no proveryay,” or “ Trust, but verify ”. Suzanne Massey, a Russian history scholar, famously taught this to US President Ronald Regan, who used it during his term in office (which was when it came into common usage in the United States). This refers to being polite, but double-checking everything. Don’t accept anything on face value. This is very good advice with regard to cyber security.

It is better to be overly suspicious than to be susceptible. If you don’t recognize a sender, or even if you do, but you weren’t expecting information from them, don’t click any attachments, links, or on any included-in-the-text-body email addresses. If you know the sender, pick up the phone and check with them. It may be that they didn’t know their email was being used without their knowledge... or it could be a genuine email and attachment. It is better to be sure.

If you have a reminder about and overdue payment, or some other account problem, log into your account, and check it from there. Call your bank, and check with them: is there a problem with my mortgage/rent/monthly payment? Be paranoid.

Sometimes people are rushed, stressed, and tired. It is during these times, when deadlines are looming, that we may not pay as much attention as we should. It only takes one click of a mouse button to start a snowball rolling which could cost the company millions of dollars and receive a serious knock to its reputation.

In its 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, Verizon noted that nearly 75% of all breaches are caused by human error (mistakes, or succumbing to social engineering tactics, etc.). With this in mind, can you guarantee that your employees will never lose concentration for a moment and inadvertently click a link in an email? Do you trust your employees 100% with the entire security, financial well-being, and reputation of your organization? Or do you think they should be made aware of potential hazards and pitfalls? It’s certainly something to think about.

====

How We Can Help

To begin the process of training your employees in cybersecurity procedures as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, NC-Expert provides you with a 1-day starter training session: CyberSAFE. ( https://www.nc-expert.com/class/certnexus-cybersafe )

Once this training has been completed, we can provide further trainings, which increase in complexity as your employees progress up the access permissions chain.

You are welcome to visit our website homepage: https://www.nc-expert.com/

Or you can view our Security training portfolio here: https://www.nc-expert.com/training-classes-by-track#NetworkSecurity

...

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

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

This post appeared first on NC Expert .

Wi-Fi Vulnerability in Microsoft Windows

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 20:17:35 GMT

Wi-Fi Vulnerability in Microsoft Windows

Microsoft has officially acknowledged a recently discovered Wi-Fi vulnerability in its Windows operating system. Using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System, or CVSS, the threat has been assessed as having a severity rating of 8.8 out of 10. This is a serious level of concern.

What is the Problem?

Designated as CVE-2024-30078, we are informed that the attacker doesn’t need physical access to your computer, they just need to be nearby. Once they engage this attack, they can remotely execute code on your device. By infiltrating your device in this way, the attacker can do any of a number of things: install malware, access your data, or use your device to gain entry into your organization’s network, to name but a few.

The vulnerability affects the wi-fi driver, so anyone that uses Wi-Fi on a Microsoft Windows device is at risk. Something to note is that the attack won’t even actively be your fault, since there is nothing for you to click on or download. The worrying thing about this threat is that the attacker can not only attack your device once, but multiple times. Often the attack will go unnoticed and/or undetected.

If you go to public places like coffee shops, libraries, malls, hotels, conferences, or anywhere there are a large number of devices, you could be at risk of unknowingly falling victim to this attack.

What Can I Do?

The best thing you can do is to download Microsoft’s patch, released in June 2024. This should help prevent the problem from occurring.

If you use an older version of the operating system that is no longer supported by Microsoft, the only thing you can practically do is to update your software. If you cannot, or don’t want to, update your software, you might be wise to employ an EDS to alert you to any unusual activity.

As more people learn about this threat, the more potential there is that the bad actors are going to try to use it. If you use Microsoft Windows along with Wi-Fi, this is a real threat and one that should not be taken lightly.

USEFUL LINKS:

CISA: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2024/06/11/microsoft-releases-june-2024-security-updates

Microsoft Update Guide: https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/releaseNote/2024-Jun

How We Can Help

Once this training has been completed, we can provide further trainings, which increase in complexity as your employees progress up the access permissions chain.

You are welcome to visit our website: https://www.nc-expert.com/

Or you can view our Security training portfolio here: https://www.nc-expert.com/training-classes-by-track#NetworkSecurity

...

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

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

This post appeared first on NC Expert .

Strong Passwords and Protocols

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Sat, 15 Jun 2024 00:07:05 GMT

Strong Passwords and Protocols

We are constantly being told to make sure our passwords are secure, and create a secure password. But oftentimes, the same sources don’t clearly explain how to do this and we are left puzzled and concerned about how to get it right.

In this blog we will attempt to draw together information from some of the most reliable sources and explain what they mean and how to create the best password for your needs.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, is a U.S. Government organization that is responsible for providing best practice guidance for federal agencies and programs. It is a leading advisory for security guidelines and is a good place to start. I will also draw from the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, which is “the operational lead for federal cybersecurity”.

What is a Password?

For every online account, there needs to be a label or name associated with it – something to define to whom (or what) it is associated or belongs. We call this a “username”.

A password is the partner to your username. It validates that you are the correct user match for the account name. You can imagine that your account username is a door and your password is the key to unlock that door.

In the early days of the Internet, passwords could have been fairly simple: a 5-digit code may have sufficed. However, as the internet has grwon and cybercrime has increased so, too, has the need for more complex passwords to thwart the bad actors. Nowadays, we need stronger, more effective passwords.

Strong Password Creation

Rather than jumping ahead of ourselves, let’s start at the beginning: how do I create a strong password?

In the past, people used easy-to-remember passwords such as family member names, birthdays, anniversaries, pet names, hobbies, etc. The problem with these kinds of passwords is that they are easy to discover, especially since so many of us are intrinsically connected to social media. A quick search on any social media platform may reveal the names of family and friends, perhaps pet or hobby photos, and maybe even birth or anniversary dates. Further searches might show the organizations to which a person belongs and these may help identify work, school/university, or hobby connections. The wealth of personal data that is freely and easily available is quite disconcerting.

Then we were told to create passwords which were more complex. The problem with this was that people used a standard set of replacements: @ for a, & for b, © or ( for c, and so on. The same is true for numeric replacements with, for example, the number 3 replacing the letter e, 1 replacing the letter i, the number 5 replacing the letter s, etc. People tended to use the same logic, so they ended up keeping their original passwords, but just replaced some of the characters with either special characters or numeric substitutions: for example, the name “Debbie” might become D3&&13. The bad actors realized this and created computer programs that incorporated these standard substitutions. Then we were back at the proverbial "square one".

So, what to do now? People started adding special characters and extra numbers into these substituted words, which helped a bit: Debbie might become D_33*&&i^33. This is better and doesn’t make it quite as easy to crack, but it still isn’t good enough.

Passphrases

Then the idea of a “Passphrase” rather than a password was established. The difference between a passphrase and a password is that a passphrase consists of several straightforward dictionary words in a row, or “string”. It was said that for a bad actor to guess, or “crack”, a passphrase consisting simply of four words, could take in the region of 200 years at 1,000 guesses a second! (But this is highly dependent on the equipment and processing power that the attacker employs.)

The following is a graphic that was published on this subject...

This idea was challenged, but the challenges were then refuted, citing the passphrase idea as being valid. The idea of passphrases is still recommended today. (Now, while these four words appear to be secure, don’t be fooled into complacency. Because this cartoon is popular, threat actors will test for this passphrase, so this exact passphrase, or other combinations of these four words, should be avoided.)

Now that you know how to create a strong password – oops, apologies – how to create a strong passphrase , we can turn our attention to protocols.

Passphrase Protocols

There are a number of things you should and shouldn’t do when thinking about passphrases (and passwords). Here are some of them...

[1] Never use personal information (your name, family member names, birthdays, anniversaries, pet's names, etc.).

[2] Use a passphrase rather than a password.

[3] Use at least 12 characters, better still, use at least 14!

[4] Do not share your passphrases with anyone.

[5] Use a different passphrase for each account – don’t reuse the same one in different places.

[6] Don’t store your passphrases on your computer – use an online password manager.

Observing these practices will help to secure your environment.

Latest Recommendations

In order to add an extra layer of protection, advisors are currently recommending we establish Multi Factor Authentication, or MFA, otherwise known as Two-Factor Authentication, or 2FA. (The IT industry really loves its acronyms!) So, in addition to a key for our account “door” it is recommended that we provide a further item of evidence that we are who we say we are.

This can come in the form of a texted code or an answer to a security question that we enter into a web portal or, if physical access to a building is needed, perhaps a finger or palm print scan may be required.

MFA/2FA can include a combination of two different items from the following options...

[1] Something the user knows: this could be your passphrase.

[2] Something the user has: this could be your phone to receive the texted code.

[3] Something the user is: this might be a biometric, for physical access, such as a fingerprint scan.

Always, the idea is to stay ahead of the bad actors. As time progresses and more data breach information is available on the dark web, such as names, dates of birth, social security numbers, and even passwords you may have used in the past, we have to find further ways of securing our account access.

Securing your online presence is an ongoing process and must be treated with the perseverance that it demands. When we decide to take the shortcut for convenience, is when we expose ourselves to attack.

As is often wisely said by NC-Expert’s CTO, Phil Morgan, “ Inconvenience is a hacker’s best friend! ”

Stay safe out there!

===

HELPFUL LINKS

NIST: https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity

CISA: https://www.cisa.gov/

Length vs Complexity graphic: https://xkcd.com/936/

How We Can Help

Once this training has been completed, we can provide further trainings, which increase in complexity as your employees progress up the access permissions chain.

You are welcome to visit our website: https://www.nc-expert.com/

Or you can view our Security training portfolio here: https://www.nc-expert.com/training-classes-by-track#NetworkSecurity

...

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

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

This post appeared first on NC Expert .

Cybersecurity: Ransomware

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Fri, 24 May 2024 20:18:07 GMT

Cybersecurity: Ransomware

Ransomware has emerged as a significant and powerful danger to enterprises, globally. Ransomware is a form of malicious software that encrypts or restricts access to your data until a payment is made. Ransomware occurrences have resulted in substantial financial losses, data breaches, and operational disruptions in multiple industry sectors.

According to SANS in 2023 there was over a 70% increase in ransomware cases with ransom payments, according to Chainalysis, exceeding $1 billion. However, VEEAM notes that even though the ransom demand was paid, in 24% of those cases the data was not recoverable. According to Fortinet, even after paying the ransom, only about 4% of companies ever receive all their data back, with most only receiving about 60% of it.

Cybercriminals are getting more brazen: they even rent out their ransomware tools for others to use in their extortion attempts! This process is called Ransomware-as-a-Service or RaaS. This serves to extend the magnitude of sources of attack.

Incursions can originate from many sources, including links in emails (phishing), or when a user visits an infected website which causes the malware to be downloaded without the user’s knowledge (drive by), or from social media / web-based messaging applications.

In the face of this increasing risk, the significance of employee education to help with the goal of frustrating ransomware attacks, cannot be emphasized enough. Educating employees improves their capacity to identify phishing, to use safer browsing behaviors, and to more effectively recognize potentially suspicious activity. This, in turn, accelerates incident reaction times and reduces the probability of attack success.

How can you start the process of educating your employees? There are a number of things you can do:

1. Initiate a survey of your assets to determine the most likely places for a cyber incursion – identify your “attack surfaces”. This should include internet-connected PCs, laptops, and network equipment.

2. Determine who has access to these devices: look for employees, contractors, partners, and others.

3. Make a list of these personnel. These personnel hold the protection of your system in their hands. One accidental slip in their concentration – perhaps they are busy and accidentally click on an emailed link – could be devastating to your environment.

4. Review available standard trainings, or sources of customized training, and enroll your personnel.

How We Can Help

To start the process as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, NC-Expert provides you with a 1-day starter training session: CyberSAFE.

( https://www.nc-expert.com/class/certnexus-cybersafe )

Once this training has been completed, we can provide further trainings, which increase in complexity as your employees progress up the access permissions chain.

You are welcome to visit our website: https://www.nc-expert.com/

Or you can view our Security training portfolio here: https://www.nc-expert.com/training-classes-by-track#NetworkSecurity

...

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

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

This post appeared first on NC Expert .

Upskilling and Securing Your Environment

rievainstein@nc-expert.com (Rie Vainstein) — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 17:31:12 GMT

Upskilling and Securing Your Environment

Amidst the current state of uncertainty, there is a positive step you can take to strengthen yourself and your team against the possibility of job cuts: that is, to enhance and strengthen your skillset through the process of "Upskilling": acquiring new skills enhances your worth to your employer.

On a regular basis, we hear of instances of unauthorized entry and unauthorized access to networks and data. Data theft is a lucrative enterprise for criminals. By providing your team with further training in the field of Cybersecurity, you not only acquire advanced expertise but also bolster the level of security for your employer's IT infrastructure.

In 2023, the United States experienced a substantial surge in reported data breaches, reaching an unprecedented level of over 3,200 incidents. This represents a nearly 80% surge in comparison to the preceding year, and another noteworthy escalation in comparison to the year prior to that. In the year 2023 alone, a startling 350 million individuals suffered the repercussions of data breaches, leaks, and exposure!

A prominent telecommunications provider fell victim to an attack, which potentially could have compromised the security of tens of millions of consumers' data. Fortunately, their robust security measures effectively repelled the threat, ensuring that no personally identifiable data was compromised. However, other organizations are not as lucky...

Notably, there was a well-known incident at a hotel chain in Las Vegas where personnel experienced computer malfunctions, guests were unable to access their rooms, and casino gamblers were unable to use the slot machines. Over 10 million clients had their personal data stolen by hackers. Consequently, the hotel group anticipated a loss exceeding $100 million due to this single incident.

In 2023, ransomware operatives used novel and inventive methods to optimize their financial gains, specifically focusing on software development organizations and managed service providers. Therefore, regardless of whether a company perceives a specific danger from ransomware or not it should, nevertheless, take into account the possible consequences an attack may have on its reputation. The extensive number of attacks and diverse range of victims demonstrates that no enterprise is immune.

How We Can Help

This is where NC-Expert plays its specialist role. We provide a variety of Cyber Security training options, catering to IT professionals at all levels of expertise. Our offerings range from well-established vendor certification programs to tailored curriculums designed to address the unique needs of your specific environment.

We have earned a strong reputation and are held in high regard throughout the industry. We have established partnerships with training vendors and professional organizations, all of which recognize the importance of maintaining a secure workplace.

We can impart our expertise and strategies to enhance the security of your environment, by sharing our knowledge and know-how with you and your staff.

The following is a link to our Security portfolio...

https://www.nc-expert.com/training-classes-by-track#NetworkSecurity

If you don’t see what you are looking for, give us a call at +1 (855) 941-2121 to discuss your specific needs.

We offer standard virtual training along with in-person training for groups of your employees at your location. Call us for special pricing.

…

About NC-Expert

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

NC-Expert has won numerous private contracts with Fortune level companies around the world. These customers depend on NC-Expert to train, advise, and mentor their staff.

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

This post appeared first on NC Expert .

Cisco CCNA - Cisco Certified Network Associate Certification Training

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:51:26 GMT

Cisco CCNA - Cisco Certified Network Associate Certification Training (Implementing and Administering Cisco Solutions)

Overview of Cisco CCNA Certification Training

What is CCNA?

Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) is a globally recognized entry-level certification program offered from Cisco Systems. It validates the skills and knowledge required to install, operate, and troubleshoot small-to-medium sized enterprise networks.

CCNA training provides a comprehensive understanding of networking concepts, including protocols, LAN/WAN technologies, network security, and network management. The program is designed to equip individuals with the necessary skills to design and implement network solutions.

The CCNA certification is widely recognized in the IT industry and provides numerous benefits:

It enhances career opportunities by demonstrating expertise in networking, and opens doors to job opportunities in networking administration and engineering.
It validates knowledge and competency skills necessary in the field which, in turn, boosts confidence and credibility among peers and employers.
It establishes a solid foundation for further advancements, such as specializing in particular networking domains.

Moreover, the CCNA certification provides exposure to real-world scenarios through hands-on training, thus enabling individuals to develop practical skills and problem-solving abilities.

Additionally, it offers access to the extensive Cisco community, including forums, events, and resources, where professionals can network, share knowledge, and stay updated with the latest industry trends.

Finally, Cisco CCNA is a high-value certification program that offers comprehensive training, validates networking knowledge, and provides numerous benefits for IT professionals looking to develop their skills in the field.

What is the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Certification Program All About?

The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification program is a globally recognized credential for network administrators, engineers, and technicians. It validates the knowledge and skills required to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot medium-sized routed and switched networks.

The program covers a wide range of networking topics, including network fundamentals, LAN switching technologies, routing technologies, infrastructure services, and security.

CCNA certified professionals are well-equipped to handle various networking challenges and ensure the effective operation of network systems. Passing the exam results in the CCNA certification.

The CCNA certification program offers a comprehensive and hands-on learning experience, enabling candidates to gain practical skills through a combination of classroom training, self-study materials, and practical labs.

Additionally, CCNA certified professionals benefit from enhanced job prospects, higher salary potential, and access to a vast network of professionals in the industry.

Overall, the CCNA certification program is an essential steppingstone towards a successful career in the field of networking technologies.

The great thing about Cisco’s CCNA certification training program is that there are no formal prerequisites. However, we do strongly recommend that a potential student has at least one year of experience in the industry.

Download our Guide

Unlock the Power of Networking with Cisco CCNA Certification

Benefits of Obtaining a CCNA Certification

Obtaining your CCNA, a Cisco certification, can bring multiple benefits to an individual's career in the field of networking.

One of the primary advantages is the increased job opportunities. Networking is an essential component of almost every organization, and companies are always on the lookout for skilled professionals who can manage their network infrastructure effectively.

By acquiring the CCNA certification, individuals gain a competitive edge in the job market and open doors to various employment opportunities.
Additionally, the certification officially validates your knowledge and understanding of networking fundamentals, making your employer more confident in your proficiency in troubleshooting and resolving network issues. This expertise not only enhances your professional growth but also helps to bring job security and stability.

Another benefit of obtaining the CCNA certification is the potential for higher earning potential. Certified professionals are likely to earn higher salaries compared to non-certified counterparts.

Furthermore, obtaining the CCNA certification serves as a stepping-stone to higher-level certifications in networking, such as CCNP-level and, eventually, CCIE - which further boosts your career prospects.

Overall, obtaining a CCNA certification provides you with the knowledge, skills, and recognition necessary for a successful career in networking.

What Skills are Gained by Obtaining a CCNA Certification?

Training for your CCNA certification provides you with a range of valuable skills in the field of IT networking.
Firstly, with a CCNA certification, you will gain a solid understanding of networking fundamentals, including IP addressing, routing protocols, and network topologies. This knowledge helps you to troubleshoot and resolve issues related to network connectivity, ensuring smooth operations within your organization.

Additionally, individuals with a CCNA certification acquire the ability to configure and manage network devices such as routers and switches. They also learn how to configure and maintain secure networks, including firewalls and VPNs.

Furthermore, a CCNA certification equips individuals with the skills to design and implement scalable networks that can meet the demands of a growing organization. This includes understanding network design principles, subnetting, and addressing schemes.

Lastly, individuals with a CCNA certification develop their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills as they experience hands-on labs and simulations, allowing them to analyze complex network issues and propose effective solutions.

Overall, a CCNA certification enables individuals to excel in managing, securing, and troubleshooting network infrastructures.

What Skills are Gained by Obtaining a CCNA Certification?

Common Job Roles that Require CCNA Certification

CCNA certification is highly valued in the IT industry and opens up various job opportunities.

One common job role that requires CCNA certification is a Network Administrator. Network Administrators are responsible for maintaining computer networks within an organization. With CCNA certification, they have the necessary skills and knowledge to set up and troubleshoot network devices, ensure network security, and manage network performance.

Another common job role is a Network Engineer. Network Engineers design and build network infrastructure for organizations, including LANs, WANs, and VPNs. They also plan and implement network upgrades and expansions. With CCNA certification, Network Engineers can prove that they have a solid understanding of networking concepts and technologies, which allow them to effectively design and maintain network infrastructure.

Additionally, CCNA certification is beneficial for those pursuing a career as a Systems Administrator. Systems Administrators are responsible for managing and maintaining computer systems and servers within an organization. With CCNA certification, they are equipped with the necessary knowledge to configure and troubleshoot network connectivity, ensuring smooth operation of computer systems.

Generally, CCNA certification is highly sought-after by professionals in various job roles in the IT industry, as it demonstrates their expertise in networking, enhances their career prospects, and gives their employers confidence in their abilities.

Download our Guide

Unlock the Power of Networking with Cisco CCNA Certification

How to Prepare for CCNA Certification Exam

It is easy to say simply pass the CCNA exam and earn your CCNA qualification but, preparing for the CCNA certification exam, requires a systematic approach to ensure success.

Firstly, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the exam objectives and the topics that will be covered. This can be achieved by studying the official Cisco CCNA Exam topics and syllabus.

Next, it is crucial to gather relevant study materials such as books, video tutorials, and practice exams. In addition to the materials obtained when you sit an official class, there are numerous resources available online and in bookstores that provide comprehensive content to help with exam preparation.

It is recommended to follow a study plan and allocate dedicated time each day for studying.

Taking practice exams is another effective strategy as it helps in identifying weak areas that need to be focused on. Practice exams provide a real exam-like experience and help you learn to manage time effectively.

Additionally, joining online forums and study groups can be beneficial as it allows interaction with other exam candidates and experts who can answer queries and provide valuable insights.

Lastly, regularly reviewing the concepts is crucial to retaining information. Repetition is key. The exam tests your knowledge and skills, so preparing thoroughly and properly will give you the best chance of success.

Overall, with a structured approach, dedication, and consistent efforts, you can effectively prepare for your CCNA certification exam.

Tips on How to Maintain your CCNA Certification

Maintaining your CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certification is crucial for staying relevant in the ever-evolving field of networking.
Here are a few tips to help you keep your certification up to date:

Firstly, make sure to stay informed about the latest updates and changes to the CCNA curriculum. Cisco regularly updates their certification exams to reflect the current trends and technologies in networking. By staying up to date with these changes, you will be better prepared for the certification exams.

Secondly, it is important to continue your learning journey by taking advanced-level courses and certifications. Cisco offers a range of specialist and professional-level certifications that will not only expand your knowledge but also demonstrate your commitment to professional growth.
Thirdly, actively participating in networking forums and communities can provide you with valuable insights and help you stay connected with other professionals in the field.

Finally, don't forget to renew your certification before it expires. This can also be done by taking more advanced level training and passing those exams, or by joining Cisco’s CE program – this way, your CCNA will automatically be renewed.

By following these tips, you can ensure that your CCNA certification remains valid and you can continue to enhance your career prospects in the field of networking.

Why Choose NC-Expert for Your Cisco Certification Training

NC-Expert is an official Cisco partner. The company has over a decade of partnership with Cisco both as a Learning Partner, and has been integral in developing many training courses over the years.

NC-Expert provides first class training and support to its students, and actively encourages students to join industry organizations so they can network with professionals in the field.

In the classroom, NC-Expert trainers are expert in passing on their wealth of knowledge to students. We ensure that our trainers are highly skilled, not only in the classroom, but that they have real-world experience, gained over many years of experience implementing networks, through hands-on practice, in the industry.

Everyone loves a good story. Our trainers are great communicators who can draw from their years of real-world experiences to illustrate concepts with stories to help bring them to life. They may even throw in a joke or two!

Some of the comments we have recently received from our students include the following:
“The instructor was very knowledgeable...”
“I appreciated the instructor’s insight, practical examples, and analogies!”
“Great instruction with demos and labs!”
“Instructor was very knowledgeable and able to get the information across very well. I would definitely take another class with him!”

So, come train with us and kick start your career in the networking field. In future you can even venture into the areas of security, cloud, cybersecurity, and many more – the sky is the limit!

Start your adventure: call us today! +1 855-941-2121

The Benefits of a Cisco CCNA Certification

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 20:08:16 GMT

The Benefits of a Cisco CCNA Certification

What is a certification? According to the ISO , a certification is “the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service, or system in question meets specific requirements”. In other words, it is independent verification that someone or something can do the job it purports to be able to do.

When talking about our careers in technology, there are a plethora of IT industry certifications to choose from, and selecting the one that is going to give the most value for money is a hard choice for many people.

Why is the Cisco CCNA certification the best choice for me?

A common question frequently asked is “Which is the best IT certification for me?” The simple answer is, “It depends”.

There are many factors to think about. Firstly, it depends on your level of experience. Secondly, it depends on your available budget: is your employer paying for it, or do you have to pay for it out of your own pocket? Thirdly, it depends on your goals: what is your goal and how will the certification you are seeking help you to achieve it? And fourth, it depends on the value (recognizability) of the certification itself. There really are quite a number of considerations to weigh up for what is, superficially, a simple question.

Let’s explore each of these options one at a time.

What is your level of experience in IT certifications?

To determine your best path forward, you need to think about your current level of experience. If you have a lot of experience, you may be able to jump over some of the basic certifications or, perhaps, you might want to think about sitting the exams because they should be “easy wins”.

Conversely, you may want to take a look at yourself and think about the answer to the following questions: are you new to the IT industry? If so, an entry-level certification may suit you the best. If you have 1-3 years’ experience, then an Associate level certification might be your preferred option. If you have 3-5 years’ experience, then you can look at Professional level certifications and, with more than 5 years’ experience, you might want to investigate the realm of Expert level certifications.

What is your budget when considering IT certifications?

The second consideration is cost. If your employer is paying, then the determination of which certification you should take may rest solely on their budget and their list of approved certifications. If you are paying, then you will probably be motivated by obtaining the absolute best value for your money. We will come back to this later.

What benefit is the IT certification going to give you?

The third thing to think about is why you want a certification. Some people are in the enviable position of being able to study for fun. They don’t need certifications, but they love to learn and so pursue continuing education and certifications as a past-time. Some may just enjoy collecting acronyms for their resume! Others pursue them for a practical purpose.

From a practical perspective, you may want to consider the following questions when determining whether to obtain certifications, and which ones to pursue: has it become a requirement for your current job? Do you need it/them to officially prove your level of competence? Is the need to strengthen your resume to help you obtain more responsibility at work or a promotion?

Will the industry recognize my IT certification?

This fourth consideration is quite important. Many employers want their engineers to hold recognizable industry certifications for a number of reasons including:

being able to hold their team out to the public as being competent – using these recognizable certifications as the standard, helps provide customers with a level of confidence in your company,
to bring greater ROI to purchased equipment – for example, as in the case of Cisco training, engineers are taught to identify and utilize features of products that, otherwise, may go unrecognized and unused,
to provide better value for users of their internal and external networks, and to reduce downtime, by being able to troubleshoot and resolve issues in real time,
added security. Trained engineers tend to be more security conscious than engineers who have merely “picked up knowledge along the way”. Formal training usually includes some level of focus on aspects of physical and cyber security.

The clear winner is Cisco's CCNA certification

This is where Cisco’s CCNA certification comes into its own. The certification is targeted at engineers with more than one year of experience but is broad and high-level enough to be of great value to fairly new engineers. It has the ability to provide a flavor of the many aspects of IT networking, one of which may appeal to the student as the avenue they wish to further explore. Cisco’s CCNA certification training addresses a multitude of topics including, among others: routing and switching, wireless, cloud, collaboration, data center, and security.

Cost considerations

Additionally, the cost for Cisco certifications is not prohibitive. Yes, of course there are cheaper alternatives, but as the old adage goes “You get what you pay for”. Considering the fact that Cisco is a globally-recognized brand name, you will be obtaining a recognizable – and therefore useful-to-your-IT-career – certification.

Ranking from most to least expensive the student has a choice of in-person or virtual instructor-led training, or they can pursue the subject using an official self-study course. Whether you decide on Cisco’s official instructor-led training, or opt for the self-study* package, you will be provided with reading material and a hands-on lab experience which, together, provide you with a comprehensive and structured study program thus giving you the best chance of success in the certification exam.

The added benefit of having a live instructor is that of being able to ask questions to clarify some of the confusing concepts: a resource which, for self-study, you won’t have.

Cisco certifications grow with you

The great thing about Cisco certifications is that they are structured to certify knowledge at ever-increasing levels of competence. As you progress in your career and seek increased levels of responsibility, Cisco certifications grow with you and can prove technical competence at those higher levels. But, unquestionably, the best place to start your journey is with the Cisco-Certified Network Administrator or CCNA certification, which gives you the firmest foundation upon which to build your future knowledge.

To see Cisco’s career path roadmap, and see what is possible, click here.

The Cisco CCNA certification is globally recognized

The most important aspect of Cisco certifications – especially the CCNA certification – is their recognizability. Of all the major technology companies in the world Cisco is one of the most recognizable. With its San Francisco Bridge shaped logo there can be little doubt as to the company’s origin. In the United States, federal, state, and city governments, along with various military and education departments, and healthcare companies, to name but a few, use Cisco technologies. The company has worldwide reach and all its customers recognize the skills needed to achieve a Cisco certification.

Whichever way, and for whatever reason, you decide to train for and achieve your Cisco CCNA Certification - it will likely be worth it!

For information on all the NC-Expert training classes for Cisco - check here .

Learn more about the Cisco CCNA Certification and other IT Certification training provided by NC-Expert here .

*With Cisco’s official self-study package, the student is presented with a limited series of explanatory videos instead of live instructor-led training. The other materials and labs are, essentially, the same as the products available in-class/virtually. The major drawback with self-study is that you will not have access to a highly experienced mentor who can immediately answer your questions. In that respect, you are on your own.

Free Space Path Loss

Sat, 13 Nov 2021 20:08:44 GMT

Simply put, Free Space Path Loss (FSPL) is the amount of dissipation of a radio signal, the further it gets from its point of transmission / origin.

Imagine blowing up a rubber balloon. As it expands, we say that the balloon gets "bigger" - the balloon's surface area grows - and the rubber of the balloon skin gets thinner.

Signal strength can be compared to your breath blowing the balloon, because a signal expands ("propagates") in three dimensions (up, down, sideways / 360 degrees around) through the air, as it is transmitted from its source. (Directional antennas are a slightly different story, which is not addressed here.)

Signal strength dissipates because the signal must spread over an ever-increasing imaginary "surface area", as it moves away from its source of transmission. The recipient receives less and less strength-of-signal depending on how far from the source of transmission they are located. (You can think of signal strength in the same way as how thin the skin of the balloon becomes as it gets bigger.)

The graphic as shown here (with permission of my good friend Francois Verges) explains FSPL in a simple way.

Well, I was thinking, what would it be like for 6GHz and also for 60GHz. And, while I am there, how about calculating for 1GHz (approximation of sub-1GHz) as well? So, I did some math. Here are the calculations:*

*The reason I added a 7GHz line, is 6GHz actually goes from just below the start of 6GHz to just above the start of 7GHz. So, if you are using one of the higher channels, it is more applicable to 7GHz than 6GHz.

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So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

The Importance of Setting Goals

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 02:03:00 GMT

The New Year always brings renewed hope and positivity. Goal setting is something that is on everyone’s minds at this time of year.

Everyone wants to improve themselves, or their circumstances, and this is a fabulous time of year to start the process of making an improvement – or at least to start thinking about it.

There are many tried and trusted formulas for setting effective goals, one of the most common of which, we shall discuss here: setting “SMART” goals.

Setting SMART Goals

SMART, as you have probably already guessed, is an acronym. Each letter of the acronym has a significantly deeper meaning.

S: Specific

M: Measurable

A: Attainable

R: Realistic

T: Time-bound

Let’s look at each in turn…

S is Specific

Goals need to be specific and lead us towards our goal. Just like rungs on a ladder, each goal may be small in itself but, when combined with the next, and the one after that, will raise us to where we truly want to be.

M is for Measurable

Setting some form of metric on your goal gives you something to aim for and lets you know when you have reached it.

You might choose an exam score, a pay rise, a promotion, or something else to let you know you have achieved your aim.

A is Attainable

A goal has got to be attainable. You have to, at some point, be able to reach it. It might take some time, but it must be achievable.

If you have a big goal, break it down into its component parts. If you want a certain position at work, find out what HR thinks would be the “ideal” candidate for that role and work on getting each of their line items, in turn.

Alternately, if you have multiple goals, you can use scraps of paper, sticky notes, or anything upon which you can write down your goals and put them on the wall or create a goal board. Then, as you achieve each one, you can remove it from the board. Doing this will give you a sense of achievement.

R is for Realistic

Goals should be attainable, and they should also be realistic. Being realistic has an intrinsic implication: within the realms of all imagination, can you actually achieve your goal?

An example of an unrealistic goal is that of being able to breathe in space without assistance – this just isn’t going to happen, no matter how hard you practice! On the other hand, a realistic goal is to perform a piano recital at a conference venue – if you practice hard enough it could happen.

T for Time-bound

No goal is ever going to be reached if you don’t set yourself a time limit. It could be next week, in a month’s time, six months from now, in a year, or even in five years’ time – no matter how long you think it will take, make sure to set yourself a time limit.

Having a time limit, forces you to create some sort of a plan of action to achieve that goal. If worst comes to worst, you can always extend your limit, but it is a better idea to push yourself to achieve your goal in the time limit you set. It will make you feel good.

How We Can Help You Attain Your Technical Education Goals

As business owners, managers, and employees, the biggest problem we face is how to stay ahead of the competition. Whether it be between businesses competing for the same customers, or co-workers vying for the same promotions, we all have to figure out a way to get that all-important “edge” over everyone else.

One way to do this is to get the technological advantage. Whether to make the business more efficient and effective, or the employees’ resumes look more enticing, technical training gives a measurable advantage and a return on training budget investment.

As a training company clearly understanding your requirements so that we can help you plan the correct certification path to help you reach your career goals, is paramount. Our team can walk through your requirements with you, often asking you “why” for each of your requirements. This isn’t because they don’t understand what you’re asking for, it’s because they want to see how each piece of the puzzle fits together in your plan to reach your goal.

“Why” is actually one of the most important questions that you can ask yourself when putting together your certification goal plans, too. It helps you to think about why you need something. It’s okay to say you want something because a competitor has it, but it’s even more helpful to have a specific reason as to why/how the idea will bring you/your business increased benefits.

Have a look at the list of goals that you’re putting together and make a note of “why” you would like each of these certifications. Let us know if you uncover anything interesting that you hadn’t considered previously.

Start making those goals today and call us to see how we can help!

…

About NC-Expert

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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2020 in Review

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 01:14:00 GMT

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

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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The Keys to Business Success

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 19:24:00 GMT

Everyone wants their business, or their employer, to succeed. In today’s world of economic uncertainty, to have job security is a fantastic thing.

With job security comes financial stability, which is essential for most people’s sense of happiness and contentment. Whether you want the financial freedom to buy a car, go on vacation to exotic locations, buy a home, or secure your children’s future education, money is an important part of our lives.

This all depends on the success of the business you own, or work for. There are a number of keys that help a business to achieve success. Here, we will discuss a few of them.

Change

Being open to change, also known as being “dynamic”, is essential for a business’ success. The enterprise landscape is constantly changing, due to internal and external forces, and a successful business has to be ready to change with it.

One example of an external force which impacted us all was COVID-19. Education, finance, manufacturing, food service, healthcare, personal care, entertainment, in fact, every business had to change quickly and, in some cases, radically when the pandemic hit. No-one was expecting a global pandemic when we entered 2020, but every business in existence was, to a greater or lesser extent, affected by it.

Change is not necessarily a bad thing. Some say that critics drive improvement. In some cases, this is true. Take, for an example, the European furniture store Ikea. Originally, it made furniture the same way everyone else did. Then someone complained that they felt very ill after they purchased furniture items. A number of other customers concurred. After scientific investigation, it was found that the composite wood was emitting noxious fumes. Ikea stepped up to the plate and made radical changes in its sourcing and manufacturing processes. As a result, Ikea is now known as an industry-leading, environmentally friendly furniture provider, which has a positive worldwide reputation. This is because it *changed*.

Rethink

Associated with change, comes Rethink. Rethinking requires that we take a good, long, critical look at every aspect of our own business. How can we make our processes better? How can we appeal, more favorably, to our customers? What is the best way forward? What do we need to change now, and what can we look at changing in the future?

Additionally, you can consider things such as your reputation with your customers. Do they look forward to their interactions with you? How can you make their interactions with you, better and more appealing? How can we make them want to come back?

Maybe you could think about redesigning your website to make it more user-friendly? Perhaps you could redesign your flagship product? Maybe you can look at offering a larger portfolio, thus giving your customer more choice?

Every touchpoint counts. From advertising and sparking a potential customer’s interest, to them initially visiting your website, to their first purchase, to their repeat purchase, to a long-term relationship with them, every interaction is vital. How can you make them feel better about their interaction with you? How can you spark their interest? There are many, many ways to rethink aspects of your business.

Secure

We already touched upon one of the ways to impress a potential customer, and that is to have an engaging website. A website is the modern version of the shop window. This is where you showcase all you are as a business. An interesting, visually appealing, intuitive, fast-loading website is key. This is where you initially impress and sell your product(s) to your customer, earning their business.

Your website leads to another aspect to consider: can your customers trust you? Are you trustworthy? Part of being trustworthy, is being secure. Do you put into your enterprise network the kinds of security features that are strong enough to properly look after their information (names, numbers, account history, payment information, etc.)? If you have an online transaction portal, is it trusted?

This is where your knowledge, and that of your IT team (however big or small it is), is vital. A good website needs to be properly maintained, packed with security features, and continually updated. This requires that you, and/or your IT team, have the skills to make your website and your associated network, meet the requirements that your “Rethink” business plan places upon it.

To see if your website is considered secure, try this site. It will give you a free “checkup”: https://www.ssltrust.com/ssl-tools/website-security-check

Empower

Most of us have had cause to contact Customer Service, for whatever reason, at some point in our lives. Isn’t it refreshing when the Customer Service agent, without any fuss, is able to resolve our problem immediately, without having to go up the paygrade “chain” and pass you on to a more senior colleague, where you have to start your explanations all over again? That is employee empowerment. The value of giving an employee the freedom and capacity to be able to make decisions, and take action, without having to engage supervisors, to make the customer happy, is priceless.

The same can be said of your IT staff. If they have the knowledge they need, to accomplish their task, they can make magic happen! Most IT people I know are artists. They are visionaries. They are some of the smartest people I have ever met (and I have met quite a lot of very smart people in my life)! IT engineers are packed full of ideas, they are always thinking, they are always “turning the dial” just a little bit more, and they never settle until whatever they are working on is as perfect as they can possibly make it. *These* are the people you want on your team!

Here are some more ways to empower your team: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucekasanoff/2016/03/24/10-powerful-ways-to-empower-your-employees/?sh=437eaf8e7427

One great way to empower your IT team is by giving them the technical training (and new knowledge) they need, to help them create the technology to secure your network, and create the features that will be of interest to, and captivate, your customers. This is a tangible way to show your belief in them and their abilities. In return, they will want to prove to you just how much they are capable of. You might be very pleasantly surprised!

In the next blog, we will talk about the Return on Investment for technical training.

For now, check out our training. We have segregated some of our portfolio, by track, to make it easier for you to find a selection of training aimed at the same concept (i.e., Security):

About NC-Expert

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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CWNP’s Newest Update: CWNA-108

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 23:10:00 GMT

CWNP has released the newest iteration of its flagship CWNA certification curriculum

CWNP has recently released its newly updated Certified Wireless Network Administrator certification, version 108 (CWNA-108)!

In order to stay at the forefront of technology, certifications must be refreshed regularly. This is standard throughout the IT industry. The usual lifecycle is approximately 3 years. At this point information learned three years previously is considered to be out of date. We accept that the concepts remain valid, but the actual specifics need to be updated.

CWNP held a Job Task Analysis (JTA) workshop, with industry experts in attendance, at which it was decided to update a number of specifics in the CWNA curriculum (training class and certification exam).

The official Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) training class covers a multitude of topics ranging from RF Frequencies, Wireless LAN Analysis, and RF Math, to Site Surveying and Antennas. This class provides the networking professional with a solid foundation of knowledge for entering into, or advancing within, the wireless networking industry.

During their investigation into the curriculum, the JTA team established that heavier focus needed to be placed on one area specifically – that of WLAN Regulations and Standards. This is a vital area with which every wireless engineer should be heavily conversant.

Conversely, the JTA team established that a few areas no longer require quite such heavy focus: Network Architecture and Design Concepts has been reduced a little, since some of the concepts are already repeated in the Certified Wireless Design Professional (CWDP) curriculum; similarly, WLAN Troubleshooting is mentioned in every class, and receives special focus in Certified Wireless Analysis Professional (CWAP).

Moving Forward to the Future

It was decided that the level of coverage of the other knowledge areas was sufficient and should remain stable.

Overall, the JTA team determined that the focus of the new curriculum more closely matches the needs in the market at the current time.

So, as you can see, the class provides a good, solid, overall foundation for understanding how and why wireless technology works the way it does.

Who should attend?

If you are a business owner who needs ot understand how your wireless network works, an IT team manager wanting to improve your team’s skillset, or someone wanting to cross-train to get into the wireless network team – this is for you!

How to enroll?

It couldn’t be easier! Click this button and contact us to discuss specifics and learn about upcoming class dates.

We are also offering a Special Deal price on this class – ask us about it – or visit this page to learn more.

About NC-Expert

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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Money, Money, Money

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 21:06:00 GMT

Following on from a previous blog about the Value of Certifications, we decided to see exactly what kind of actual financial difference possessing certifications made, to the average engineer.

What is the point of certifications? There are a few of important answers to that question:

Being able to independently prove your technical competence can be a great help in your career. If I was applying for a job at your company and attended an interview with you and, during our conversation, I said, “I understand networking.” You probably think, “Well, can you prove it?” If I pulled out a CCIE certification (Cisco), you would probably be impressed – and might still want me to prove it with a small in-house test, but you would be much more comfortable having seen certified proof.

This is where certifications come into their own: they help get you past the HR algorithms, which are often programmed with specific “must have” keywords, and into the interview, where you can really sell yourself and your abilities. This is the same whether you are applying for a promotion, trying to laterally transfer, or seeking a new role with a new employer.

Using Robert Half Salary Reports, the following remunerations were stated for a Network Administrator, working in the United States:

Are Industry Certifications Worth It?

Someone with a relevant certification – be it Cisco CCNA, CompTIA A+, CWNA, etc. – would be considered to have gone a long way to proving their technical competence. The certification, along with some actual work experience, in conjunction with the ability to verbalize that experience in a coherent manner, would certainly be considered in, at least, the “average” category in the table above.

If we examine the case of someone who is applying for a job as Network Administrator, who is fairly new to the industry, has very little hands on experience, but is working on their certifications, they might be looking at 76,250 as their salary… but with a certification to prove their competence, that figure might jump up by over $16,000 a year!

So, as you can see, the difference between someone new and someone with some experience and the certifications to prove their knowledge, IS significant.

In this author’s view, sitting a class for a few days and taking the exam to gain a certification is definitely worth it!

…

About NC-Expert

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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CWISA: When the IT and OT Worlds Conjoin

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 21:13:00 GMT

CWNP Training Certification – CWISA: Bringing the Worlds of Wireless and Internet of Things Together!

A Certified Wireless IoT Solutions Administrator (CWISA) certification and training class has been introduced into CWNP’s portfolio. It is part of a parallel track to CWNP’s wireless training certification suite. This track focuses on IoT from the wireless perspective, and vice versa, instigating the conjoining of the worlds of IT and OT.

This first class in the parallel track is CWISA, Certified Wireless IoT Solutions Administrator, an associate-level training class aimed at bridging the gap between the worlds of wireless and Internet of Things. It investigates how wireless works, from an IoT perspective, and is an excellent introduction to IoT for the wireless engineer.

This class introduces the student to IoT and is, effectively, a CWNA-level class for people who want to learn more about IoT technologies. Conversely, it is a class about how wireless works from the perspective of an IoT/OT engineer. It is a comprehensive introduction into the world of IoT and discusses what a wireless engineer needs to operate it.

There is a difference between IT (Information Technology) engineers and OT (Operations Technology) engineers in their spheres of work, the sorts of day-to-day requirements that are asked of them, and the kinds of solutions that might be applicable to their problems. The simplest explanation is that OT deals with industrial machines (sensors, monitors, etc.) while IT, essentially, focuses on the transmission of information.

What is this training about?

In this class, students will be exposed to a number of vital aspects of IoT technology as it relates to wireless. The student will learn about the history of wireless, regulatory organizations, industry standards, and the standards lifecycle.

The class discusses vertical market considerations, along with system requirements and potential constraints. It looks at the technicalities of wave characteristics, modulation techniques, and the use and capabilities of carrier waves (including light and sound).

It also investigates the features and capabilities of various solutions, such as cellular networks, sensor networks, and IoT networks.

It is necessary to discuss various troubleshooting techniques and, of course, security features and methodolgies are examined. Additionally, this class considers programming, scripting, and automation (APIs, etc.).

So, as you can see, the class provides a good, solid, overall foundation of the way the two worlds are already beginning to combine.

Who should attend?

CWNP’s CWNA training and certification is aimed at the IT world, while CWISA is targeted at the OT world. The ideal candidate for this class would be anyone in IT or OT that wants to learn about the “other” world.

As technology continues to become increasingly integrated, we will find that the boundaries between these currently separate worlds will increasingly blur. The time is fast approaching where engineers will need to understand, and be proficient in, both IT and OT.

If you are an IT engineer wanting to learn about IoT, or if you are an OT engineer wanting to learn about wireless, this training makes for a solid foundation and a great start!

How to enroll?

It couldn’t be easier! You have two choices: [1] Visit our Special Deals page to learn more, or [2] Click the button below to contact us for more information about the class and upcoming class dates.

About NC-Expert

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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The ROI of IT Industry Certifications

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 23:21:00 GMT

Return on Investment – Great Skillsets Deliver Great Results!

Just like painting, music and dance – designing and administering networks is an art form.

It can just seem like computer code to many people, but carefully crafted designs have made many companies very successful.

Computer network design and management isn’t just about the code used. Your network defines the whole tone and quality of your business and is evident in every piece of electronic communication, every video viewed, and every website click.

When it comes to enterprise networks proper robust design, security, implementation, and management is more important than ever. You need to compel visitors to read more about the products or services that you offer – but to feel confident, and safe, when doing so. It is imperative to entice them to click further into your website and then take an action, such as calling your business or sending an inquiry. You don’t want them clicking a dead link or encountering an “error 404” page. That could be disastrous!

This is why we recommend training your team to professional standards, using our experienced instructors, because their years of expertise help them to train your team to be the best.

How Will NC-Expert’s Training Specifically Help the Individual Engineer?

Being part of a highly trained team is one thing, but how can training and gaining certifications help the engineer from an individual (or personal) perspective?

Positivity is a great thing. It attracts people and makes them want to be around us. We have all walked into a room and seen a group of happy smiling people chatting in the middle of the room. Immediately, as humans, most of us are drawn to that group and want to associate with them.

Industry certifications can hold that same appealing influence for employers. When an engineer proves their knowledge with industry certifications, it indicates to an employer that they are a “go-getter”, that they have a sense of purpose, that they have initiative, and that they possess motivation. Additionally, it shows that they are interested in, and want to stay at the forefront of, technology. These are all very positive aspects.

As a bonus, from a personal perspective, the engineer’s sense of self-worth also increases because they begin to be held in higher esteem by their colleagues, because they “know their stuff”. In time, they may even come to be considered an “authority” in specific subjects, because of their increased level of knowledge in that area.

How Will NC-Expert’s Training Specifically Help Your Employer?

As well as being a positive boon for, you, the individual engineer, holding industry certifications helps your employer in many ways, too.

Your knowledge can improve overall enterprise productivity. We know this sounds rather dramatic, but it is a fact. Here are a few ways in which this can happen:

Imagine the impact to the company if the whole team was certified and more knowledgeable in multiple aspects of technology? How much more benefit would the company experience?

When all these positive aspects are considered together any employer, who really understands the potential for certification training, would definitely be enthusiastic about utilizing the company’s training budget to gain all the integral benefits that educated engineers can bring to the boardroom table.

…

About NC-Expert

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.

The post The ROI of IT Industry Certifications appeared first on NC Expert .

Zigbee & Z-Wave (in the Home)

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 15:53:00 GMT

So, you’re excited by the idea of a Smart Home? You like the idea of motion detectors detecting you walking in and turning the lights on for you? You dream of saying things like “Alexa, turn the kitchen lights off”, “Hey Google, turn the temperature down by 1 degree”, or “Siri play ‘Game of Thrones’”?

To be able to do this, you will need Smart Home devices, and they will need to run on a protocol.

In the home environment (and, somewhat, also in Industrial IoT) BLE doesn’t seem to be the most prominent. Zigbee and Z-Wave are competing for the Smart Home (and also for Industrial – Zigbee has a large lead here).

The Smart Home is not as simple and easy as you would think. Just like VHS vs Betamax there are multiple competing standards, and vendor implementations.

What differentiates Zigbee and Z-Wave?

Well, firstly, Zigbee is an “open standard”, whereas Z-Wave is not. They both create a mesh, but the mesh will not interoperate between Zigbee and Z-Wave.

Z-Wave has around 10x the distance functionality over Zigbee, in a large home Z-Wave can work better. Zigbee may require a device in each room (for example) to give the same level of operational coverage. The number of mesh hops, away from the hub, is limited in Z-Wave (4), whereas Zigbee is unlimited. Zigbee also uses less power, but the power gap between Z-Wave and Zigbee is closing today. Zigbee operates in 2.4GHz (all over the world) and will be impacted by Wi-Fi and Microwave ovens. Z-Wave runs below 1GHz (Sub 1 G or S1G, actually runs on 908.42MHz in the US, may differ in other countries). Not all devices act as a “repeater” in the mesh, be aware that for the multiple hop concept to work devices must have repeater functionality. Some devices (e.g. motion and light detectors sometimes do not have repeater functionality – so they must be connected directly to the hub).

Which should I choose?

If you are planning on short distances, and multiple devices Zigbee is the way to go, if you are planning few devices but far apart think about Z-Wave.

Buying the right hub can allow you to choose both standards, some hubs today can operate on both. It’s generally better to stick with one standard, but some of the newer hubs will let you choose from both. Samsung SmartThings hub is a good example of one that can connect to Zigbee and Z-Wave. Some vendor implementations do require their own hub to fully operate all the features in their products.

One of the best examples of a Zigbee device, is the Phillips Hue family of products. (The latest products even have BLE built-in). Samsung have lots of devices you can connect to their SmartThings hub. The Hue series is a classic example of a family that will work with Zigbee, or with Phillips’ hub – you need the Phillips’ Hue Bridge (hub) for the extra features.

Zigbee is currently at version 3, and it uses 128-bit symmetric encryption. It can operate at around 250kbps. Details on Zigbee can be found here: https://zigbeealliance.org/

In March 2013 Z-Wave updated to Z-Wave plus, or Gen5 products. Plus/Gen5 offers greater range, longer battery life, and more channels. It is also introducing Over The Air upgrades (OTA). Plus/Gen5 offers these along with backwards compatibility with existing Z-Wave devices. Details on Z-Wave can be found here: https://z-wavealliance.org/

One thing to watch out for is that Z-Wave upgraded their security to a much higher level called S2 in 2017. Z-Wave plus doesn’t automatically mean S2 security. Make sure any products you buy support this new standard.

Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance got together in December 2019 and formed the “Connected Home over IP” project. The goal is to speed the ability to develop home products that interoperate with their platforms. More details can be found at these two links:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/12/amazon-apple-google-and-the-zigbee-alliance-to-develop-connectivity-standard/

https://www.connectedhomeip.com/

I just purchased some Phillips products, and some Samsung SmartThings products. Expect a blog soon with more details…

See you next time!

===

About NC-Expert

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

Other IoT (Besides BLE)

Sat, 16 May 2020 00:32:00 GMT

I wanted to let you know that there are other IoT protocols out there besides BLE. We hear a lot about BLE, and last time, I wrote a lot about the operation of BLE.

This time I want to write about other alternatives. This isn’t going to be a comprehensive list but, hopefully, will give you a flavor of what is out there.

Where to start? Well let’s start with Wi-FI. Wi-Fi operates in 2.4GHz and 5GHz (and soon 6GHz, but we’ll ignore that for now). Most people don’t automatically register Wi-Fi with IoT but there are IoT devices out there that use Wi-Fi.

Most IoT protocols run on top of 802.15.4 or a variant of it. These protocols are ideal for IoT systems.

IoT protocols that use 2.4GHz include Bluetooth/BLE, Zigbee and WirelessHART. These operate in the same frequency space as 2.4GHz Wi-Fi.

We also have CBRS (private LTE) operating around 3.6 MHz.

Most of the rest of the more common protocols* operate Sub-1GHz. Usually operating around 800-900+MHz (country dependent in many cases). This is where you will find Z-Wave, LoRa, Thread, and HaLow.

Let’s have a high-level overview of WirelessHART, LoRa, Thread and HaLow.

WirelessHART operates in the 2.4GHz ISM band and is designed to be low-power and have long battery life. Used in industrial and especially refinery industries. Here is a link to a great overview of WirelessHART by my colleague and friend, Troy Martin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkoY5NF0fVY

LoRa stands for Long Range. It is designed to allow communication between 2 points (P2P) over long distances. LoRaWAN is based on LoRa and is the protocol for building a network.

Thread is a mesh-based system based on 802.15.4. It runs on IP(v6) and is designed to create device-to-device, or device-to-cloud communications. Thread builds on top of 6LowPAN, which is IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area networks.

HaLow was created by the Wi-Fi Alliance and is sometimes called Wi-Fi for IoT. It is based on 802.11ah and thus runs below 1GHz (S1G). It has low-power and long-range, penetrating walls and building due to its operation below 1GHz. It is designed to be very power efficient, running for years on coin cell-type batteries. Like other Sub-1GHz protocols the exact frequencies that HaLow runs on is region dependent.

Well there you go. Now you know more about IoT and some of the various protocols that exist to support it.

See you next time!

===

About NC-Expert

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

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Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 21:08:00 GMT

Welcome to our April 2020 blog update where this month I want to focus on Bluetooth (BT) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

You may see a lot of talk about BLE. I thought I’d write a little blog on the differences between Bluetooth (BT) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

A lot of people think they are the same and related. Well they kinda are, but distant cousins – not brothers. They have a common heritage, but they have several important distinctions.

BT was created in the mid to late 1990s, from work done at Ericsson in the years previous. It was created to run over short distances and be used for things like mice and keyboards. It was designed to replace small cable runs, over short distances.

Today, in addition to mice and keyboards, you most probably have experienced in your headphones, your microphone (probably for your phone, embedded into an earpiece), or maybe even in your car.

BT breaks down into two main types of devices: BT Classic (also known as BR/EDR) and BLE.

BLE was introduced in BT v4.0 (2010) and lives up to its name – low energy/power. Both these types cannot interoperate, even though they are both technically BT, and operate in the same 2.4GHz (2.400 – 2.4835GHz) frequency. A device wishing to operate both protocols needs to run both protocols (this is sometimes called a Dual Mode device).

You may see BLE sometimes referred to as BT Smart. BLE is becoming more popular, especially because of its lower power use, and therefore longer battery life. BT was designed, and intended, for continuous data streaming, where BLE was designed for short burst data transmission. BT is used for audio streaming, and file transfers. BLE tends to be used for data transmission, and/or control with low-bandwidth applications.

Technical Details (BT v5.0 – 2016)

<<Click image to enlarge>>

BLE versions are backwards-compatible.

There you go! Lots of information on BLE, so now you can impress people at parties, right? Or maybe…?

See you next time!

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*Speed is the speed of the PHY layer, application throughput tends to be around 70% of the stated “speed”.

**2Mbps speed involved use of new hardware. It is possible older equipment may not support this.

*** BT5.0

===

About NC-Expert

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

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2019 in Review

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 19:27:00 GMT

What a Year!

2019 has been a wild ride for NC-Expert! We started the year by becoming a CompTIA ( comptia.org ) partner in our own right. Until 2019, we had offered authorized classes through our partners but, in early 2019, we became a direct partner and can now offer these classes using our in-house team of instructors. We were thrilled to be granted this partnership.

Once again, we renewed our sponsorship of the WLA – the Wireless LAN Association – an association for professional wireless engineers. We support its mission of providing an invaluable service in the Wireless Network industry. The WLA’s main goal is to create a set of peer-reviewed standards, backed by some of the biggest names in the industry. In addition, it aims to create, and open, a dialog between the regulators-and-manufacturers of wireless networking equipment and the “boots on the ground” – the engineers who are responsible for making everything work in harmony. In fact, because we believe so strongly in the WLA’s mission that our CEO, Rie Vainstein, accepted an invitation to become CEO of this voluntary organization!

In 2019, we were pleased to present our fledgling Kali Linux Bootcamp and Deep Dive at the WLPC Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, and again (by popular demand) in Prague, Czech Republic! We have been overwhelmed by the positive responses received and look forward to offering this course to the general public as we progress into the New Year.

We continue to work with our partner CWNP ( cwnp.com ). Through our Instructor Team Lead, Phil Morgan, we were able to help CWNP create its new CWSP course which, since its release in September, we have been pleased to regularly present to our students.

We have spent a good portion of our year working diligently with our partner, Cisco ( cisco.com ), to author a portion of its brand-new portfolio. We are extremely excited to see the release date coming closer and look forward to teaching many more students and helping them progress in their chosen careers!

Cisco has plans to renew its entire portfolio in February and has been working with partners, including ourselves, to complete the task within the next month – an exciting time, with many new possibilities for our clients!

We are looking forward to an exciting New Year and expect to create new innovations to help our students achieve their knowledge goals.

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If you would like to learn more about how NC-Expert can help train you, or your IT team, toward a better future, contact us TODAY !

The post 2019 in Review appeared first on NC Expert .

Cisco WLCs Get New WPA2 and WPA3 Options

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 18:44:00 GMT

Welcome to our November 2019 Blog update where this month I want to focus on changes to the Cisco security settings for WLANs and the new WPA2 and WPA3 options.

Cisco has changed its configuration options on both its AirOS and IOS-XE based controller platforms to include WPA3.

Now, when you select the security options on the latest AirOS controllers (currently 8.10) or IOS-XE controllers (currently 16.12), you get to choose from WPA+WPA2 or WPA2+WPA3. See Figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1: New WPA2 and WPA3 Options – Cisco AirOS Security – Layer 2 Security Setup

Figure 2: Cisco IOS-XE Security – Layer 2 Security Setup

Note: you also get the choice of WPA2 Personal or WPA2 Enterprise, on the AirOS controllers. See Figure 3.

Figure 3: Cisco AirOS Security – Layer 2 Security Type Setup

These options fit more closely with recommendations and vendor design guides. The option to choose Personal or Enterprise is simply selected from a drop-down.

Finally, you can also select WPA3 and configure options such as OWE and SAE.

(Blog article follow-up planned for December on this).

*Note* Amended as of 11/30/19: my intention was to write on WPA3 SAE and OWE (well, Enhanced Open anyway). However, my good friend mrncciew has written a most excellent series of articles on WPA3 and Enhanced Open. So I’ll redirect you to his links instead:
https://mrncciew.com/2019/11/21/enhanced-open-part-1/
https://mrncciew.com/2019/11/29/wpa3-sae-mode/
https://mrncciew.com/2019/11/29/wpa3-sae-transition-mode/

See you next time!

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.

So remember, if you are looking for the best IT training just call us at (855) 941-2121 or contact us

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Deepfakes

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 17:42:00 GMT

The Epitome of “Fake News”

Deepfakes are the epitome of “fake news”. They are the result of altering video and/or audio to portray something different than was intended in the original version… or creates a complete “fairy tale” version of events that are unrelated, in any way, to the original.

It brings “taking things out of context” to a completely new level. Instead of taking things out of context, it takes them out of the stratosphere!

Why are they a problem?

Deepfakes can easily sway public opinion. We tend to believe what we see. One of the uses of Deepfakes is within political campaigns. Deepfakes can be used to portray a candidate in a negative light when the original footage and/or intent could have been completely innocent.

Deepfakes can also be used by the news media to substantiate a completely false narrative by creating fake footage that illustrates purported visual “evidence”.

One of the techniques used is to swap out the head of one person, with another, and sew the two images together, thus making it look as though a person could be guilty of an act of which they are completely innocent. Originally, such footage might have exhibited a slight “jitter” and/or something about the image would seem to be “off” to the viewer, but technology has quickly advanced making it much more difficult to determine the counterfeit images with only the naked eye.

What can we do about it?

The IT industry has begun to create artificial intelligence (AI) that can spot suspected Deepfake media and alert the monitor.

Companies such as Google are actively training their versions of Deepfake-detecting AI to recognize such trickery, although others warn that the processes used to create Deepfakes are becoming much more sophisticated, and advancing almost by the day.

Lawmakers are determining the structure of bills to counter the increasing use of Deepfakes. Texas is one step ahead and has already put political campaign Deepfake laws into effect.

Update

Since writing this blog, deepfakes have immensely improved their level of sophistication, to the point of the naked eye not being able to tell the difference between a fake and the real thing!

The following link is to a Forbes.com article on exactly this topic on May 25, 2020: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2020/05/25/deepfakes-are-going-to-wreak-havoc-on-society-we-are-not-prepared/

About NC-Expert

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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Ransomware

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 18:47:00 GMT

…is alive and kicking

Ransomware costs businesses billions of dollars a year. In 2019 it is estimated to have cost businesses in excess of $11.5 billion. The prediction is that this number will rise to over $20 billion in 2020! (For more information on the costs click this link )

Ransomware attackers stop you being able to use your own computing device(s) to access your own information. The attackers effectively lock you out of your own computer.

Kaspersky has created a little YouTube video which explains it very well.

Then, to add insult to injury, the hackers demand payment to provide you with the “key” to unlock your device. Adding pressure to make you pay, they sometimes declare a time limit: that your precious information will be deleted if payment is not made/received by a certain date and time.

Whether to pay has to be weighed against the possiblity that no deryption key will be forthcoming even after the ransom is paid. Remember, these criminals are unscrupulous and cannot be trusted.

Why is this a problem?

Apart from the financial aspect of having to pay a stranger to be able to use your own information, there are other implications that may be far more harmful to the business.

Even so, it is estimated that the cost of a data breach can be as high as $3.92 million – per company!

A serious impact is a legal one. If your data center is breached your company will be held responsible. Big money law suits have become commonplace in the current environment.

A more far-reaching impact is that of loss of reputation. The attackers exposing your customers’ information to the world, could open them to identity theft, or industrial espionage if they are a company, and such like. Customers – individual or corporate – can be very unforgiving. If you lose the trust of your customers, it is very difficult – if not impossible – to regain it.

Who is at risk?

Short answer: anyone with a computer system that contains information. The best targets (those with deeper pockets) are large institutions such as governments, healthcare corporations (including providers, such as hospitals), education departments, and large businesses. These are the most fruitful to attack but are usually the most heavily defended.

Smaller businesses are not immune… and may be easier to infiltrate. [Addendum: In August 2019 a network of dentist offices was held to ransom. They paid, but the figure has not been revealed.]

What can we do about it?

For a start, we are told by the FBI to NOT pay ransomware attackers. All this does is (a) risks your money because there is no guarantee they will release you, and (b) encourages them to try the same tactic again.

Companies are actively strengthening their security protocols. Together, they spend billions a year on applications and hardware. IT security teams are being professionally trained on how to spot a breach, what to do in the event it happens, and how to strengthen the system so it will not happen again.

One area that is often missed is the admin staff. They click on email links and visit websites in their downtime. These are the weak links. Read our blog “ Achilles’ Heel ” for more information on what you can do to help mitigate the possiblity of attack.

Remember: no-one is immune and this is one of the costliest threats to businesses success, today.

If you want to get your IT team trained with cutting edge knowledge of how to recognize a threat, what to do about it while it is occurring, and how to prevent it in the future, call us today!

About NC-Expert

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.

The post Ransomware appeared first on NC Expert .

Cisco Portfolio Update for 2020

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 22:01:00 GMT

Big Changes are Afoot!

Cisco has announced an update to its entire portfolio of classes. An update of this magnitude has never been attempted by Cisco and this mammoth task is due to be completed around February 2020. The New Year is bound to bring exciting changes!

In early 2020 almost all Cisco’s current portfolio of classes will be replaced or updated, and the whole system simplified.

There are a lot of positives to this new portfolio structure:

N ew to IT Networking?

Cisco will no longer offer its Cisco Certified Entry Network Technician (CCENT) certification. Instead, it will offer its Cisco Certified Technician ( CCT ) designation in the following two tracks:

N ew CCNA

The biggest initial change will be to the Cisco Certified Network Administrator ( CCNA ) certification.

In the past, Cisco required that its Cisco Certified Entry Network Technician (CCENT) certification was earned prior to engaging in CCNA study. This will no longer be the case.

CCNA will no longer have any prerequisites.

Additionally, CCNA is currently offered in multiple tracks. There are about 10 CCNA options to choose from. This is overwhelming for many students.

To help resolve the confusion, these will be wrapped up into one single CCNA. The new CCNA will be comprised of elements from the current CCNAs in Cloud, Collaboration, Data Center, Design, Routing & Switching, Security, Service Provider, and Wireless

There will only be two specialist Associate level alternatives: CCNA Cyber Ops, and CCNA DevNet.

The option most in demand will be CCNA.

Cisco Certified Specialist

This certification level – between CCNA and CCNP – offers Specializations or “badges” to indicate technical competence.

To obtain a Specialist certification the candidate will need only to successfully take one exam from any of the CCNP tracks. There will be a number of choices:

The student can also select from Technical Specialist and Digital Transformation Specialist options. (For further information on available options, click here .)

CCNP Tracks

The Cisco Certified Network Professional ( CCNP ) certification will offer a number of tracks:

The candidate will be required to successfully sit the track “Core” exam, plus one other from a number of options within the track.

The new Enterprise track (which will contain elements of the “old” (current) CCNP Routing & Switching and Wireless) will consist of areas of focus into:

There will be a great number of options available in the new portfolio, along with additional “knowledge only” training classes to enrich the student’s experience.

CCIE Tracks

Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert ( CCIE ) is the “pinnacle” certification in the Cisco certification infrastructure. This will remain.

There are still even more options to choose from!

Gone are the prerequisite requirements at all levels. A student will continue to be able to start at CCIE level, however, this is not recommended.

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To see which Cisco training classes NC-Expert offers, click here .

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About NC-Expert

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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Important CCIE Update

Thu, 23 May 2019 23:43:00 GMT

Cisco CCIE Training Update

This is a special notification for NC-Expert’s CCIE Candidates.

We have learned from Cisco that it expects to refresh its entire portfolio in February 2020.

We strongly urge all CCIE Candidates to prepare to complete their studies and sit their respective lab exams by the end of 2019, latest.

We understand that there will be limited opportunity for Candidates to sit lab exams in the early weeks of 2020, however these seats will be severely limited.

For candidates anticipating completing their studies, please contact us at your earliest convenience so we can conclude our part in your training.

NC-Expert cannot be held liable if Candidates choose to delay completion of their training because, at this time, Cisco has provided no information about its continued instructor-led offerings.

As a result, NC-Expert cannot confirm that it will be able to continue to offer Cisco’s own instructor-led CCIE training after February 2020.

The post Important CCIE Update appeared first on NC Expert .

Location? Location! (Wi-Fi Location Services)

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 17:16:00 GMT

Bring Me My Goodies!

Ordering your groceries online, and having them delivered to your home, is becoming a commonplace event, but new innovations being rolled out around the world are still inspiring awe.

In the UK, in a small city about 50 miles north-west of London, one of these new innovations has been in existence for about a year. Small, remotely-controlled mini robotic vehicles are programmed to bring groceries to your door.

Here is an interesting little video to explain the concept: https://bit.ly/2JNbGEP

How does the system work? In three short words: Wi-Fi Location Services. Maps are programmed into the machines, then the system infrastructure manages where the vehicles go from, and to, and controls their return to their point of origin. The system wirelessly monitors their progress to their goal destination and back, using a series of tracking “pings” – requests (“where are you?”) and responses (“I am here”) – so that the system constantly knows exactly where each vehicle is at any time. These “where are you?” exchanges occur in computer language, so are done extremely fast.

If the battery power runs low, or if the vehicle is interfered with in any way, the system alerts the human support team who immediately come to its aid. Humans turn up in a truck and provide new batteries or rescue the robot if necessary. Since they are equipped with anti-theft devices – cameras and alarms – these independent little robots are relatively safe.

There are pluses and minuses to this use of technology: on the positive side, it saves us all so much time to have our groceries delivered straight to our door. In this busy world, where time is one of the most precious commodities we possess, saving the trip to the store might give a person those valuable minutes in which they can get a report completed or prepare for a meeting. But, on the other hand, it also alienates people from human interaction. Some people might like being isolated but, as we grow more and more distant from one another, we may end up becoming very lonely.

Already Being Tracked?

The interesting thing about this technology is that it is already in use in many more places than you might think. Have you ever been walking around a mall when an advertisement for a nearby store pops up on your phone? Coincidence? Probably not. It is more likely to be wireless-enabled “location services” in action. The computer system at the mall builds a general profile on you, based on your route around the mall. It notices where you slow down, where you stop, and what stores you enter. Adding this data up builds a general picture of the kinds of things you might like, then the system sends messages to you about sales and deals that it thinks may be of interest. In this scenario, location services are being used as a marketing tool – a vendor’s subtle but smart way of letting you know they exist.

Lots of companies use this technology in a similar way to the grocery delivery – they track the location of their vehicles. Taxi companies are also capitalizing on the convenience of location services: you can now track the location of the taxi you just called, so that you can see where it is, and estimate how long it will take to get to your location.

Location services is a fascinating, and versatile, area of technology and one we expect to see a lot more of, in the future.

If you want to learn more about the technical aspects of Wireless Location Services, we have classes that include this – call us today!

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802.11ax

Sat, 23 Mar 2019 01:57:00 GMT

IEEE 802.11ax (aka Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi 6)

I was recently asked what I “thought” of 802.11ax. <gulp!>

Honestly, nothing. I had heard of it but hadn’t seriously looked into it in any depth. Not having a deep technical background, I was a bit taken aback at being asked this question and, so, waffled for a while before changing the subject. (I think I got away with it! LOL)

However, not wanting to be caught on the hop like that, again, I thought I’d better do some research and learn a bit more about it.

I was so fascinated, by what I learned, that I decided I would share a few of those things in blog format.

Taking a step backwards, I want to explain a couple of basics first…

To start with, 802.11 is a wireless “standard”. It was defined by the IEEE – which is the informal government body of wireless technology. The IEEE, basically, makes the rules. The 802.11 standard denotes which frequencies should be used, what media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols should be used to enable wireless devices to communicate. The current standard is 802.11-2016. Note, there is only ever one current standard at any one time.

The Wi-Fi Alliance is a different organization. It is the association of “big hitter” manufacturers of chipsets and devices and is the leading validation body in the wireless world. It is composed of representatives from companies such as Acer, Aerohive, AMD, Apple, AT&T, Broadcom, Cisco, Comcast, Dell, Intel, LG, Microsoft, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, Texas Instruments, etc. – which agrees, as a whole organization, to adhere to sections of the IEEE’s standard (802.11) and the subsequent amendments to that standard (802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, etc.) to ensure interoperability.

So, back to what I learned…

In layman’s terms, the IEEE defined the basics that should be used by all wireless devices, so they can talk to each other. The reason that this was so eagerly, and voluntarily, adopted by the Wi-Fi Alliance was because having a single standard that everyone observed, enabled their devices to talk to other manufacturers’ products, and vice versa.

As technology has advanced and new ideas are developed, obviously, the IEEE has had to tweak its rules to match… and what we know as “amendments” were born: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, etc. (You can tell which amendment is being observed, by looking at the little letters that come after 802.11.)

The previous iteration to the newest amendment (802.11ax) was 802.11ac.

802.11ac moved everything to the 5GHz band and improved on 802.11n (the previous iteration) dramatically. However, as always, client needs, capabilities, and users need more. Now, we have 802.11x. Previous iterations focused on speed. 802.11ax looks to be heavily focused on efficiency.

Although I am not going to go into any form of technical depth, here are a few cool things I have learned during my Internet search studies:

Dual Band

As I previously mentioned 802.11ac focused only on the 5GHz band, whereas 802.11ax uses both the 5GHz and, now, the 2.4GHz band as well.

This enables 802.11ax benefits to be available in the 2.4 GHz range as well. However, when I excitedly told my technical wireless team about my discovery, they mumbled, “We’ll see,” under their respective breaths, implying that this may not be such a huge benefit after all.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Target Wake Time (TWT)

Neither of these were available with 802.11ac.

OFDMA allows an AP channel to be divided into smaller units to allow communication with multiple clients at once – kind of like a Twizzler candy, or a cheese string: you can pull the little strands off the main rope to make “more”. That is what OFDMA does to an AP channel – so that it can have multiple conversations (down each of the separated Twizzler strands) at once.

These abilities apparently, work really well with Internet of Things (IoT) devices – things like your Internet-enabled fridge, or a garden watering system, or a thermostat – things that only have to connect and send information once every so often.

Coupled with OFDMA, TWT enables the AP to schedule the time of day when each of these devices is going to “wake up” and send in its report. The AP selects low-usage times – maybe in the middle of the night – to give a boost to efficiency during high-usage times.

It attempts to alleviate problems such as, for example, the situation where you don’t really want to be trying to get information for a vital work report, only to be slowed down by someone’s garden system telling the cloud that the dahlias need to be watered!

New Rules

Previously, an 802.11ac client had to wait, until it, alone, could speak. An analogy could be like taking the bus. The 802.11ac protocols were like making you wait until a seat was available, before you could hop on.

You guessed it… 802.11ax improves on this.

Going back to the bus analogy, 802.11ax allows you to take the bus if a seat is available – just the same as 802.11ac – but it also allows you to hop on the bus, even if there is “standing room only”.

These improvements, I think you will agree, create the potential for much more efficiency and bring the possibility that 802.11ax might be able to offer some significant advantages over 802.11ac.

Well, we’ll see…

The post 802.11ax appeared first on NC Expert .

Safety First

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 04:02:00 GMT

Safety First

We have all heard about the Dark Web, but not many people really understand its uses. Unfortunately, one of the many things it is often used for, is the illegal trade of stolen information – yours and mine!

Let me digress for a moment…

Back in history, travel was one of the most dangerous pastimes to pursue, because of the threat of highwaymen. These unsavory characters would disguise and secrete themselves at strategic points along lesser-used routes and would cause any unfortunate traveler (or coach) that may be passing by, to stop – usually at gunpoint. These distasteful individuals would rob any unfortunate traveler of their possessions and disappear off into the darkness.

Now back to present day…

We all buy things online. Some people even use online retailers to do their regular grocery shopping because it is all so convenient. Unfortunately, without even stepping out of our front door, we are under the threat of modern day “highwaymen”, who are poised and ready to rob us of our “valuables” – our user credentials.

There is a process whereby these user credentials can be skimmed off from a retail site without the company even knowing about it.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/28-billion-credential-stuffing-attempts-during-second-half-of-2018/

Once your credentials have been skimmed, they are packaged up along with thousands of others, and offered for sale on the Dark Web. No bad guys ever need to meet to hand over the “goods”. No cash is exchanged. Nowadays, it is all done digitally, using digital currency (bitcoin, for example), which is effectively untraceable. This is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry.

What can we do, as “Joe Public”, to protect ourselves? Well, a good place to start is with your username and password. There are a few simple things, regarding your password, that can be done to help mitigate potential damage:

Albert Einstein is quoted in “ What Life Means to Einstein ” (1929) as saying, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world…”. (PDF courtesy of The Saturday Evening Post )

We all have to stay vigilant. Maybe you should think about enrolling with a monitoring agency which will track your information (there are lots of options). These organizations scan the Dark Web looking for matches with your credentials – name, Social Security number, phone number(s), address(es), bank account number(s), credit card number(s), etc. They inform you if they find a match. At that time, you’d need to access the affected account and change your credentials.

It is unnerving but, just as the highwaymen of old with their tricorn hats and blunderbuss weapons are now lost to history, with due vigilance from us perhaps these modern-day highwaymen (and women) will also become a “thing of the past”.

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Non-Technical Security Training:

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Professional Network Security:

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If you would like to learn more about how NC-Expert can help, contact us TODAY !

The post Safety First appeared first on NC Expert .

The Invisible Achilles’ Heel of Network Security

Thu, 10 Jan 2019 19:42:00 GMT

The Invisible Achilles’ Heel of Network Security

Not too long ago, we tweeted an article about the biggest hacks of 2018 and yet another has just been revealed. This is becoming commonplace. The trend seems to be indicating that too many people have become complacent in their security protection. Hacking of any company’s data is BIG business – more so than most people realize.

According to CSO Online about 58 records are stolen EVERY SECOND! Even though smaller breaches go unreported, larger ones are usually reported and, at an estimated average cost of $141 per record, the bill for a breach can be staggering.

Sticking your corporate head in the sand and saying “It won’t happen to me” is a big mistake. It is far better to put resources in place to ensure you have done everything you can, to defend yourself. Unfortunately, firewalls, anti-virus, anti-malware, strong passwords, biometric devices, and physical security measures are not always good enough. As a business manager (or owner) you also need to train your IT staff in what to look for that may indicate a threat, what to do during an attack, and how to mitigate potential future intrusions… BUT there is another layer of weakness that is often overlooked…

You may remember the story, from Greek mythology, of Achilles. He was the baby who, it was foretold, would die young. His mother took him to the river Styx, and dipped him in, holding him by the heel, in the hope that the magical water would give him the power of invincibility. Into adulthood, he survived many battles however, one day, a poisonous arrow was shot at him and hit him in the (un-dipped) heel. He died soon afterwards.

Forbes revealed that, even after you have spent money on putting a strong security protocol in place to protect your company, and trained your IT team, your other (non-IT) employees can cause your company’s security downfall . Any employees who fail to follow simple security-oriented steps (either accidentally or deliberately) can cause gaping holes in otherwise competent network security.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, employees can still be the cause of major weaknesses in your network security. Even if you think that training them is going to be more than the current budget can handle, that price, whatever it may be, is still going to calculate out as being significantly less than the cost of mitigating the devastating result of a full-scale breach.

Some of the old phrases or “sayings”, that we all heard our Grannies tell us, containing their sage wisdom, have never been more appropriate: “a stitch in time, saves nine” advises us that it is better to make your employees aware of the basics BEFORE they let you down, and potentially cost you a fortune, than leaving it until it is too late, and then being forced to “close the barn door after the horse has bolted”!

Training ALL your employees < not just your IT team > in network security is essential, because your company may already possess its invisible “Achilles’ heel”.

NC-Expert has been aware of this problem for a long time and offers training classes in network security – both for IT professionals AND for non-technical employees.

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Non-Technical Security Training:

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Professional Network Security:

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If you would like to learn more about how NC-Expert can help, contact us TODAY !

The post The Invisible Achilles’ Heel of Network Security appeared first on NC Expert .

The Fun Side of the Internet of Things (IoT)

Thu, 04 Oct 2018 02:56:00 GMT

The Fun Side of the Internet of Things

With so many, more serious, applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) it is nice to see development of applications that are “just for fun”.

The Internet, as we all know, is the thing that makes the world go around. We use it in pretty much every aspect of our lives: work, school, research, shopping, entertainment, social interaction. The list goes on and on. Nowadays, we could not imagine life without it. It has integrated itself to the very fabric of our personal and interpersonal existence.

All in the Past

We have all heard of Wireless. Radio waves – the basis of wireless – were scientifically proved to exist in the mid-1880s. It wasn’t until the mid-1890s that Marconi created the wireless telegraph system. Going back a bit further in history we also remember Baron Schilling who first sent an electromagnetic telegraph in Russia in the early 1830s. He was followed by Morse who invented and released his radio code in the mid-1840s. We’ll come back to these at a later time.

In the old days, all computers were plugged in – with wires – and connectivity was painfully slow. They were all called “desktop computers” because we had no other available choice. I know it seems hard to imagine, but we didn’t have the capability of wandering around with our laptops, iPads, or even our smart phone (which had not yet been invented – shock, horror!). We were well-and-truly stuck at our desks.

Introduction of Wireless Enablement and the birth of Internet of Things (IOT)

WiFi capability was only released to consumers as recently as 1997, when a committee with the unassuming name of “802.11” was created. The ideas the committee had on standardization was later created into a coherent set of rules called IEEE802.11. Adherence to this set the standards enabled different devices from different manufacturers to communicate. It was tweaked a little, a couple of years later (802.11b), and has gone through a number of revisions since that time. (This is not the point of this post, so I am not going to go into the whos, whats, and whens of that story, at this time.)

From this Wireless capability has developed the Internet of Things (IoT) – a way in which things can be connected to the Internet, which was unheard of 20 years ago. And, to develop the idea even further, is the concept of the Internet of Everything (IoE), which proposes that a way can be determined for everything to be connected to everything else, and to the Internet. The more developed and popular of the two, at this time, is IoT.

Practical Applications of the Internet of Things (IoT)

There are a multitude of applications for IoT now available to us – and which we take for granted. From simply going to work and connecting your laptop or smartphone to the network, to having your fridge sense something missing and auto-order food from the grocery store.

There are, additionally, a plethora of industrial applications for enabled technology: even farmers can use wireless sensors, stuck in the ground, to instruct the watering system when to water the crops!

There are countless ways in which computing devices can wirelessly connect to each other and to the Internet and have practical and helpful uses… and often fun ones, too!

New Idea of Fun

A new and fun usage has very recently been revealed within a “Harry Potter” style bar!

IoT-enabled wands are provided to each customer, who then uses their wand to perform functions. They can turn on lamps, open cabinets, and “magically” stir their concoctions!

Drinks can even be obtained by the customer simply holding their wand close to the wall. The requested liquid is then mysteriously dispensed through the tap – with no need to touch levers or buttons. How cool is that?

This looks like fun, doesn’t it?: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45642270

Chance to Learn More

If you want to learn more about Wireless, Internet of Things (IoT), and other related technologies, check out our range of related Cisco classes:
CCNA (Associate) level: WiFUND
CCNP (Professional) level: WiDESIGN , WiDEPLOY , WiSECURE , WiTSHOOT
CCIE (Expert) level: CIEWL1

If you are looking to advance your IT career, perhaps in Internet of Things (IOT), and would like to discuss your options, contact NC-Expert today.

The post The Fun Side of the Internet of Things (IoT) appeared first on NC Expert .

New WiFi Naming Protocol – WiFi 6

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 20:27:00 GMT

New WiFi Naming Protocol – WiFi 6

We are expecting the imminent release of a new Wireless standard based on IEEE standards 802.11ax which will simply be known as “WiFi 6”.

The hopes are that this new WiFi version will offer faster access: higher data rates, increased capacity, and overall enhanced performance.

“What is it called?” I hear you say. Well, apparently gone are the days of the complicated historical nomenclature. In order to make the highly complex terminology more accessible to us mere mortals, the WiFi Alliance has voluntarily announced its simplification of the naming protocol:

What is going to make life much easier, for those of us who are not initiated within the “inner circles” of Wireless, is that devices are to be labeled simply as “Wi-Fi x compatible” (where x indicates the compatible standard, i.e., Wi-Fi 6 for 802.11ax, etc.) by the use of simple little logos:

This will make it so much easier when purchasing WiFi-enabled hardware. Purchasers can immediately see with which standard their device is compatible.

The “high wizards” of the wireless community may not be too keen on the curtain being drawn back on their “dark magic” and the mystique surrounding the standards being simplified.

Learn More

To learn more, check out our range of Wireless-focused IT industry certification training classes:
CWNP (Associate level) Wireless Network Administrator: CWNA
CWNP (Professional level) Wireless Network Security: CWSP
CWNP (Professional level) Wireless Network Design: CWDP
CWNP (Professional level) Wireless Network Analysis: CWAP
Cisco CCNA (Associate) level: WiFUND
Cisco CCNP (Professional) level: WiDESIGN , WiDEPLOY , WiSECURE , WiTSHOOT
Cisco CCIE (Expert) level: CIEWL1

Exam Preparation Tips

Sat, 11 Aug 2018 05:12:00 GMT

Exam Preparation Tips

At the point when most of your study is done, and you feel pretty confident about the content of the study materials, it is time to schedule your exam. Even for the best prepared students, actually scheduling the exam can be a nerve-wracking experience in-and-of itself because it is, at this point, that the “test date” becomes a hard reality. This date will become the focus of all your remaining studying efforts. You still need to brush up on your studying, even until the day before the exam, so here are some exam preparation tips to help you.

So let’s get started!

The first of our exam preparation tips – Flash Cards

Consider making flash cards. The student can put pertinent notes on them and keep looking at them, over and over. When they are confident in any one of them, they can put that card in the “I got this” pile and keep working on the others, and keep repeating this process until there are none left.

Word association to aid memory

Another helpful suggestion is to create a word association or some other mental cue to help remember the facts. For example, most of us learned the little phrase in music class, at grade school “Every good boy deserves fun” or “Elvis’ guitar broke down Friday” the first letter of each word starts with the sequential musical note on each line of the upper staff. In addition, the notes in the spaces between the lines spell out the word “face”.

This is something I have easily remembered for decades, even though I am not a musician. What you ultimately decide to use MUST be something that works for you – a word or phrase, an acronym, an image, or some other little “catchy” thing that you can easily remember. It doesn’t matter how silly. It might even be a little song that you create for yourself.

Read – Write – Hear – Sleep

Studies have found that one of the best methods of studying is to read, then re-read, then write it down, then talk about it with someone else (teach them), then SLEEP. Sleeping has been found to help solidify information that has been taken into the brain (see link below).

Ssshh – keep it quiet

It is also recommended to study in a similar physical situation to that in which you will take the exam. As we know exam locations are (usually) quiet, so it is best to try to study in a similar situation. Some people recommend listening to music while studying, but this author disagrees. Physical situation plays a part in memory recall (“environmental context-dependent memory”). If you study when it is quiet, rather than while listening to music, or the TV, or You Tube, your brain will find it a little easier to recall information under exam conditions, when it is equally quiet.

Probably one of the most important exam preparation tips – Don’t Cram at the last minute

As a side note, we do not recommend leaving everything to the last minute and having a “cram session”. This may appear to aid in immediate memory retention in the very short-term, but the information learned is forgotten just as quickly.

Before-the-Exam Tips

During-the-Exam Tips

Now you have set the date – create a plan and start working towards it.

Good luck!

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How is WPA3 more secure than WPA2?

Sat, 07 Jul 2018 17:21:00 GMT

There is a lot of buzz in the industry about WPA3 and, especially, after the scare we had with WPA2 (see our blog post: krack-hack-is-wpa2-dead /). So, how is WPA3 more secure then WPA2?

WPA3 is promising to improve security in multiple ways, over WPA2

If you have 802.1X/EAP/RADIUS (WPA2-Enterprise) configured (correctly) you can be quite smug, you have security. But all those PSK (WPA2-Personal) networks out there have a few challenges. With PSK, the PMK (the head honcho, top dog, key) is calculated from the PSK (basically, the PSK is chopped in half). So, every time anyone logs onto your wireless network, they are using the same seed key. Now, this is not as bad as everyone using the same key, but it’s still not good.

Anyway, not to worry, because you regularly change the PSK every 30 days, or so, and you always change it when anyone leaves the company, right? Umm, right? Erm, probably not. This tends to be the reality of PSK.

Remember, a hacker can capture your traffic from your network, take it home, and work on it offline. They can use a dictionary attack, or a brute force attack to guess your PMK. The PMK, remember, is half of the PSK which, in turn, is calculated from a mixture of your SSID and the passphrase you used. So, even though the 4-way handshake gives us unique keying per-station per-connection (by using random numbers and including the MAC-address), we are all still starting off with the same seed key.

WPA3 solves the open network issue

WPA3 is looking to address your local Coffee Shop’s security issues. “Whaaaaaat?” you may ask. Well, every time you use the free wireless at your local Coffee Shop, or airport, or plane/bus etc. you may be a lot less secure than you think. (See our blogpost “ Only With an ‘s’ ”).

Anytime you have “no security” or “open authentication only” running, you basically have NO security. So, if there is no PSK and no 802.1X/EAP/RADIUS configured, you are basically sending all your traffic unencrypted. Assuming you are using HTTPS, and TLS IMAP/SNMP this may not be as scary as it first seems, but it sure should make you sit up and say “What?”

To emphasize, if you are working on an “open” network, there is no 4-way handshake, so you have no encryption.

Some folks just don’t “get” security. So, the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) are working on our behalf to help us with this in WPA3. The aim of the certification is to help secure Wi-Fi, even though people may not turn on any security. This part of the puzzle is provided by Opportunistic Wireless Encryption or OWE which is very similar to SAE which is explained below.*

The first thing the WFA is doing, is to include Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) technology first covered in 802.11s. There is a great overview on this in the CWSP book (by “the two Dave’s and Bryan”): https://amzn.to/2OayIYU
You really should own this book – and actually read it.

For the real geeks amongst you, I am including a share, which I provide in class, of a good set of introductions to Diffie Helman (DH), and Eliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH). This can be found at the following location: http://bit.ly/ncx-enhanced-security

SAE is based on the Dragonfly Key Exchange. Effectively, it is based around DH or EDCH. If that is too much acronym-ing for you then, put simply, it “magically” creates a secure key, by interacting mathematically between two remote stations. You can see this in Diagram 1 (yes, I know it’s bad, but I knocked it up real quick. I’ll make it look pretty, later). Note: the SAE exchange takes place in place of the standard Authentication exchange.

Diagram 1: Flow of SAE

WPA3 enforces a minimum of 128-bit security

WPA3 enforces a minimum of 128-bit security, allows 192-bit (and optionally 256-bit) encryption, and forbids the use of TKIP. WPA3 also mandates the use of 802.11w PMF (it must be available, but it can be made optional).

Initially, it will run in transition mode, which will allow WPA2 and WPA3 on the same SSID but, eventually, they are hoping to have WPA3 mandatory without WPA2 support, once enough vendors and clients support it. This is not unusual, because this is what happened with the transition to WPA2, until 2014, when the Wi-Fi alliance said “no more TKIP in WPA2”.

Using SAE has many hidden benefits. As well as making our networks more secure, it also stops hackers capturing our traffic and taking them away to work on. The SAE protocol makes any capture useless, unless you are a part of the SAE exchange. This is still true, even if your PSK is compromised! (This is known as “forward security”.) This makes an SAE PMK immune to offline dictionary attacks.

PSK will be demoted to be the authentication piece, with SAE becoming the main engine to create encryption keys.

WPA3 makes IoT much easier

WPA3 is promising to make the onboarding of IoT and IoE “things” much easier using a simple QR Code function.

All of this is going to be invisible to end users but, of course, requires AP and client vendors to start to support the certification.

Also see these great audio-cast from our friends at CTS on OWE:
http://www.cleartosend.net/aruba-networks-demos-owe-mfd3/

And this great presentation on WPA3 and OWE by Chuck from Aruba – a demo they did at Mobility Field Day 3:
https://youtu.be/O233UgBX0tM

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

Current IT Industry Overview

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 01:37:00 GMT

Current IT Industry Overview

We are often asked which is the strongest growth area of the IT industry. We hope this short summary of upcoming trends will help prospective students determine which path would be the best for them…

Network Infrastructure Market

Over the past 5 or 6 years, the network infrastructure market has been undergoing an evolution: that of virtualization and convergence of networking, server, and storage, as well as that of software defined networking (SDN). Essentially, this is the next generation of the virtualization that has been taking shape in the server world (see description below).

Today, an engineer must be well versed in all aspects of networking to fill the gaps and needs of most modern corporations. This area is evolving the fastest in the cloud and data center disciplines. Additional skills such as programming in Python are now becoming desirable.

The network engineer of the next ten years will have to know the core technologies well enough to be able to interact with them all as a unified system. SDN allows corporations to build application-centric infrastructures that are dynamically programmed to adjust to an application’s needs on a sub-second basis.

Another area where industry evolutions have opened previously untouched networking opportunities is with devices not traditionally considered network-attached devices. This area is referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT) / Internet of Everything (IoE). Both of these areas represent a double digit trillion dollar emerging market that is expected to be fully adopted as mainstream within the next ten years. Everything from apparel, glasses, and watches, to red lights, cars, and appliances fall into this category. The potential benefit to the average corporation is unlimited.

The entry-level candidate looking to enter the IT market today should be fully ready to present themselves as someone who has begun gaining the skills that these potential employers are actively seeking.

Wireless Market

Within the enterprise, another major trend, in the IT industry, that is rapidly creating gaps and needs, with sustained growth predicted over the next ten years, is Wireless/WiFi.

Today, the trends of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) are forcing corporations to rapidly expand and optimize their infrastructures to compensate for the explosion in the number of devices brought into the workplace. In the early 2004 timeframe, the norm was that an employee was assigned a PC within a permanent cubicle. Nowadays, that same employee works from the office, home, or on the road and is always “on”. The devices used today are exclusively connected via wireless technologies.

We regularly hear about teams with members at locations across the world that need to coordinate with other team members who may be out in the field. Wireless is becoming not only important to the smooth running of the enterprise, but essential to it.

In addition, enormous strides in capability have recently occurred, such as location-based analytics, where a retail store, for example, can track a customer as they walk through a mall and predictively offer advertisements and coupons based on previous purchases and specific location within the mall in real-time with accuracy measured in inches. You can imagine that the adoption of this enormous new revenue stream is pushing companies to invest heavily.

Security Market

Security is a major area that has rapidly evolved over the past ten years. Back in the early 2000’s, it was simple enough to understand the basic tenets of security to be useful to a corporation. Most companies, at that point, considered basic firewalls and virus protection to be a valid security approach. Today, the landscape is far more complicated. Firewalls and virus protection are still used, but are understood to have exploitable weaknesses.

Large vendors such as Cisco, IBM, HP, etc. have gone through several years of heavy development and acquisition to modernize their security portfolios. Today major offerings include malware protection, intrusion detection, anomaly detection and mitigation, and programmable policies combined into single appliances. This advance has created multiple disciplines within security, from policy engineer through infrastructure security engineer to security analyst.

At this time the highest-growth sector in security is CyberSecurity , the art of analyzing the threat. No longer are companies taking a purely reactive approach: they are now taking a proactive approach.

In addition to standard corporate security policies, BYOD devices require a complex and jointly-owned personal and corporate policy strategy.

Security for wired and wireless devices differs in approach and technologies used, and the requirement to protect all the billions of devices being connected through IoT/IoE will make this an in-demand field for many years to come.

Server/PC Market

There are many people throughout the market serving in senior roles in the server field that began as CompTIA A+ or Microsoft MCSA but, at the entry level, there is far more competition and less job security. Today, there is very little need for an employee that can put together a PC from parts, because most corporations have large purchase agreements with vendors such as Dell and Lenovo to provide complete systems. In addition, the emerging trends for corporations today are described in what the industry calls BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). BYOD began a number of years ago with the introduction of the iPad as a predominant employee end-device which has developed, over the years, to encompass an array of end-user devices. Since most corporations cannot fight this trend they are widely embracing it.

By way of example, recently one of the major world-leading technology companies has almost completely stopped issuing laptops to its employees. Instead, employees receive a stipend to purchase their own. As a result, the predominant devices in this particular company have become Mac laptops and iPads. This same trend is happening everywhere throughout corporate America and is growing at a rapid pace.

Within the server world, the trend is moving towards heavy virtualization. This began in mid-2008 with the introduction of VMware and required that a server engineer needed to be skilled in multiple operating systems such as Microsoft, Linux, VMware and Citrix to stand out and remains true today. From a skill-set perspective, the more desirable skill in this market is to be a well-rounded server admin, who is familiar with multiple enterprise systems. As part of the BYOD and Virtualization trends, many companies are rapidly expanding their support of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) – you buy your own laptop and then connect to VMware/Citrix where you will load a corporate version of Windows.

This is an attempt to merge the wild west of BYOD with the traditional corporate-owned device. The other major trend in this area is that Cisco is now the leader in many sectors of server sales, which occurred as a result of a launch in 2008 of the Cisco UCS server family. Cisco created a paradigm shift by merging server hardware with networking and storage, thus creating a single converged system. Today, the engineer responsible for that system must be cross-skilled in multiple server technologies, networking, and storage. The same applies to IBM and HP where all three major players are doing the same thing.

Related Industry Certifications

In summary, trying to get an entry level job, in the ever changing IT industry is difficult if the candidate chooses the wrong certifications, or none at all, to go with their limited experience. It is better for them to determine where they want to be in 5 years time and aim for certifications that will help them achieve their goal.

Looking at the numbers, more than 75% of IT engineers in the US hold at least 1 industry certification and, of those, most hold 2-3 certifications.

It is definitely worth making the effort to earn IT industry certifications: for the same job role, engineers who possess certifications, when compared with engineers who have no certifications, earn salaries that are approximately 20% higher !

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

The post Current IT Industry Overview appeared first on NC Expert .

Why IT Industry Certifications?

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 19:36:00 GMT

Why IT Industry Certifications?

We are often asked whether IT industry certifications are they really worth the effort it takes to achieve them?”

The short answer: it depends what they are for, and who they are from.

It is always best to select a well-known certification from a reputable provider: Apple, Citrix, CompTIA,
Cisco, CWNP, EC-Council, (ISC) 2 , ITIL, Microsoft, Oracle, PMI, Red Hat, SANS GIAC, Sun,
VMWare, to name but a few.

You also need to consider what your end-goal is. Are you looking to gain expertise in one specific
vendor’s products, or are you looking for generic proficiency? Cisco certifications provide skill training in
Cisco products, Microsoft in Microsoft, Apple in Apple, etc. The problem arises if you select to pursue only
Cisco certifications and you apply for a job, for example, at a company that does not use Cisco, in this
instance, your certifications may not help you very much. Vendor-neutral certifications (CompTIA for
example) are helpful in this situation because they are more “portable” – the skills learned, being generic,
are applicable across a variety of technology families. However, the fact that some vendors products,
such as Microsoft and Cisco, are so widely used throughout the industry, this argument is somewhat
invalidated because an engineer holding these widely-recognized certifications is very unlikely to find
themselves without employment.

If you opt for certifications you will need to keep them current. Certifications often have a “life cycle” for
revisions and updating. Generally, certifications are valid for 2-3 years… some more, some less. This is
something to watch out for as validity can vary depending on the provider.

Do remember, however, that formal certification training is aimed at the certification exam. The exam may
not be current with today’s technology. Technology changes at an amazingly fast speed. Exams are often
written for the specific certification “life cycle” (as discussed above) and may not be in-keeping with the
practical applications that the student may experience in their day-to-day job. Training may be as much
as 2-3 years behind the current standard usage. This is where the student needs to realize that arguing
with an instructor (“This isn’t the way we do it at work.”) doesn’t help. The instructor isn’t stupid. The
instructor is probably aware of as-yet-unreleased new technology that the student may not yet even have
heard of, but he or she is teaching you what you need to learn to *pass the exam*. There may be a
difference and students need to keep this in mind.

The Downside to IT Industry Certifications

One negative aspect of industry certifications is that they have been generally devalued over the years
and had developed a not-so-positive reputation from which they are still recovering. The number of
available cheat-promoting (“brain-dump”) websites has increased many times over the years. The
certification industry is big business for the unscrupulous purveyor of answer sheets and fake credentials.

Many legitimate vendors have tightened up security on their certifications and require that exams are
taken at officially-proctored (physical) testing sites where candidates are not even permitted to take their
watches into the testing room! Many vendors have addressed this. Some vendors have made the exams
more difficult but others, such as Microsoft and Cisco, are leading the charge to prosecute these “ brain-dump” sites.

Three Things IT Industry Certifications Prove

In general, IT industry certifications prove three main things: that you have commitment to the industry, an
up-to-date knowledge (or as up-to-date as the certification market permits), and the internal motivation to
be a “go-getter”.

When a student pays money, possibly out-of-pocket, to train and earn an industry certification they are
proving their commitment to their craft. It is important to select a training provider that, as well as
preparing you for the exam, teaches you to adequately use the vendor’s products and, ideally, presents
the best practices, the most up-to-date information available, and the most current practical skills. Then
the student passes the exam and earns the certification to prove their newly-gained skill-set. This indicates
to an employer, or potential employer, that they are serious about their commitment to the industry. To
become certified takes effort, motivation, and (possibly) endurance.

Don’t misunderstand our meaning, certifications alone will not secure a job, but reputable certifications
will help. Experience is a key ingredient in obtaining a position, along with the candidate’s general fit with
the company culture and, potentially, a standard academic degree (which some employers still insist
upon).

Up-to-date vendor-centric certification training has the added bonus to the employer of creating an
employee who has the capability to get, for the employer, the most benefit from the technology the
employer has purchased (Return On Investment or ROI). Take, for example, a simple Cisco router. The
employer spends money purchasing and installing the router. The Cisco-certified engineer comes along
and, because they have attended specialist training, knows all the capabilities of the router and can make
it work to its full capacity. The employer is getting full value for the money they spent, and downtime is
reduced, because the engineer knows how the router works, and how to make sure it stays working. The
engineer benefits, too, because they have proved their value to their employer, thus strengthening their
own job security. No employer in their right mind would want to get rid of a valued employee who is
creating a really good return on investment!

IT Industry certifications are great way to prove to an employer, or prospective employer, that you “know
your stuff”. Certification exams test a candidate’s knowledge of current standards and prove that you
have a certifiable knowledge base and skill set. Since most exams are provided under strict proctored
circumstances, it is difficult for any candidates to cheat within the exam environment. This type of
proctoring maintains the integrity of the certification and ensures it retains its value for the candidates who
achieve success. Most proctored exams are hosted at certified testing centers however, options are now
becoming available whereby the candidate can sit a proctored exam from the comfort of your own home.

If you are looking to advance your IT career and would like to learn more about how IT Industry Certifications can help, contact NC-Expert today.

The post Why IT Industry Certifications? appeared first on NC Expert .

The True Value of the Top Wireless Certifications

Fri, 09 Mar 2018 21:30:00 GMT

The True Value of the Top Wireless Certifications

The Information Technology (IT) industry is famous for its plethora of industry-standard certifications. Engineers can choose from certifications in every aspect of the multitude of different facets within this huge field. The top wireless certifications are often an overlooked goldmine.

Generally, people pick a favorite part of information technology and deep-dive into it, eventually becoming an expert in that field. It is said that it is impossible for any one person to know everything about IT!

Unseen Benefits of Wireless Certifications

Industry certifications are vital in that they enhance standard educational credentials (Bachelors, Masters, etc.). They are the perfect way to prove to employers – for purposes of gaining a new job or being promoted within the same company – that the engineer’s skill set, in a given aspect of technology, is cutting edge.

Certifications also have the added bonus of indicating that the engineer has an enthusiastic interest in that particular aspect of technology because they have taken it upon themselves to put in the extra effort and become certified. From an employer’s perspective, an enthusiastic person is more likely to do a good job – so, certifying has the innate benefit of showing a degree of passion as well as the obvious one of being a certification that proves knowledge and capability.

Although it is so vitally important, the Wireless aspect of IT certifications is often overlooked.

Function of Wireless

What function does Wireless perform? Well, at a very basic level, any technology that is not connected with wires… is wireLESS. We have all heard of “WiFi”, but how many of us really know how vital, to business enterprise, knowing how to run a wireless network actually is?

Enterprise networks are a lot more complicated than home networks. In a business setting, precautions have to be taken such that visitors cannot access sensitive company files however, allowances must be made for seamless – but secure – access for their laptops and smartphones.

When you add in all the employees who also need wireless access to the network, and at various permission levels, the whole thing becomes highly complex.

IT Engineers with top wireless certifications are in-demand

The idea of employing engineers who possess IT industry top Wireless certifications, is very reassuring to an employer. They can then rest assured that their wireless network engineer really knows their stuff and can act as the first line of defense in safeguarding the business’ information.

With the amazing growth of “smart” pretty-much-everything, wireless networks are becoming bigger and more complicated every day, and the demands upon them are growing at an exponential rate.

As more and more companies catch the vision and update the way they interact in-house as well as with their customers, more Wireless engineers will be needed – especially well-trained Wireless engineers – who are the modern-day “knights”, protecting the business “castle”.

Learn More

Self-Study vs Instructor-Led IT Training – Which One Wins?

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 20:09:00 GMT

It’s a question that is often asked: Self-Study vs Instructor-Led IT Training, which one is best?

With so many options available to learn new skills, it is hard to know which one is the better option: Self-Study vs Instructor-Led IT Training?

There are many aspects to consider when determining which selection to make.

Let’s address a few of the most important differences here: Self-Study vs Instructor-Led IT Training

Cost

Instructor-led IT training is more expensive than self-study, there is no question about it. BUT if you want a quick, accurate, certification training turn-around then this is, by far, the best option.

If you have plenty of time, and cost is the main consideration, then self-study, on first glance, appears to be the better choice.

However, a middle ground is also available: live, remote-attendance training. This cuts out the extra cost of travel while still giving the benefits of live, interactive classroom training.

Time

Self-study is undoubtedly more convenient because the student can sit and read books, or watch videos, at their convenience although, for most people, self-study generally takes a lot longer from start-to-finish because, setting aside time to study, when you are alone, is much harder than being forced to stick to a strict timeline as is experienced in a classroom setting.

But, that being said, having to take a week away from the office, and perhaps from home, can also be hard. Attending class may require considerable travel time: travel to airport, flight, travel to hotel, travel to classroom… and back again. This can also incur extra cost (see Cost comments).

Although the middle-ground option of remote attendance at live, instructor-led training works out to be cheaper and less time-consuming than attending class in person, the consideration of having to take a number of days out of work still has to be negotiated with the boss.

However, the student also has to factor into the self-study program the cost, in time, of researching questions on concepts that are not understood. They would have to search the Internet, determine the most reliable sources, and determine which of those sources provides the best (most comprehensive, accurate, and understandable) answer. But, if you don’t know the answer and, by extension, what you are looking for, then how can you determine which is the correct answer and who is the most reliable provider of that answer? It is a catch 22 situation.

Camaraderie

On one hand, it is advantageous to be in a room with like-minded individuals who have the same goal in mind: to pass the exam. The positive aspects include the fact that, often, lunch breaks and after class days, are filled with topic-related discussions and debates. Students may form into study groups, after class, which serve to motivate and encourage each other to keep at it, even when things get tough.

But, on the other hand, self-study is a very lonely route to take. The self-study student really is on their own.

Motivation

If you are a self-motivated individual, then you should be fine. If you can be relied on to reach your own goals, this might be the right decision.

However, if you are one who needs a more structured environment – most of us are in this category because “life” (work, home, and/or social) tends to get in the way – then instructor-led training is a better path to take because being placed on a deadline can offer greater motivation than having to adhere to one’s own timeline (where there are probably no consequences for missing any deadlines).

Interruptions

One of the main hazards of studying from work or home is that of interruptions.

Family and pets do not always appreciate the amount of attention a student needs to pay, when self-studying, or remotely-attending class. In addition, the boss and/or coworkers may see you physically present in the office and do not understand why you cannot “just take a few minutes out” to answer their important questions. In these situations, being locked away at home with an email response auto-configured, notifying people that you are unavailable for the duration of the training may be advantageous.

Some students prefer to attend class, in person, so that they can focus on their studies, without the work/home interruptions.

Getting Stuck – Support – Accuracy

A great thing about instructor-led IT training (in the classroom or remote), is that the student can interact with the instructor immediately. If there is an aspect that is not completely understandable, instant clarification can be obtained. This is not an available option in the self-study arena.

The instructor and other students can act as a support network and may ask questions not previously considered by the individual student and thus, each student can learn from the questions asked by other students. And, as previously noted, students can also form into study groups to help and support one another as they progress along their respective study paths.

Accuracy can be guaranteed in instructor-led training. Each certified instructor is vetted to ensure he or she has passed the same exam that the students are expected to sit – usually at a much higher pass level. Also, by gaining experience in both the real world and in the classroom, in general, instructors have a much broader wealth of knowledge than their students and can expound on concepts in a way that students can easily understand.

Depending on the author and their background, self-study books may lead the student astray with not-quite-correct or out-of-date information. An added complication is that students may misunderstand the wording of certain (although correctly written) explanations. A perfect illustration of this problem comes from the writer of this article. A number of years ago I read an explanation of the OSI Model . It was correctly written, in an authorized, up-to-date course guide. It kind of made sense to me.

But certain things didn’t quite add up (by way of further explanation, there were no images of this particular concept in the course guide – it was all text), so I was left slightly puzzled and the remainder of the chapter didn’t fully make sense. After thinking about it for a time, and still not achieving complete understanding, I finally went to seek counsel from one of NC-Expert’s on-staff instructors. It was not until I asked him my question, that the issue was resolved. He drew out the model for me and I immediately spotted why I was experiencing confusion: I’d understood the components of the model perfectly well – except that my understanding was inverted (top layer at bottom and vice versa)!

Then everything suddenly made sense: he’d led me to my “Aha!” moment! Misunderstandings like this can so easily occur. I could have saved myself a lot of confusion and frustration if I had been in a classroom and learned, first-hand, from an instructor.

Self-Study vs Instructor-Led IT Training – Which One Wins?

In recent years, a study was undertaken by CWNP ( cwnp.com ) which concluded that students definitely stood a better chance of certification exam success after taking instructor-led IT certification training, than those who had studied alone.

Obviously, we recommend instructor-led IT certification training because it is the most effective, efficient, and (we hope!) fun way to learn.

We hope we have given the reader a little insight into some of the aspects to consider when making the determination about the better option for you, when faced with the decision: Self-Study vs Instructor-Led IT Training.

In conclusion, which one wins? There is no one-size-fits-all answer. It is up to each individual student. No two people’s circumstances are the same and it all depends on which path is the most convenient for you. Even if the only viable option is not the most ideal ( i.e. , constrained by finances or by time), we have to make the best of whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, don’t we? We wish you success, no matter which option you choose.

If you are looking to advance your IT career and would like to learn more about the Instructor-Led IT Training options available from NC-Expert, contact us

The post Self-Study vs Instructor-Led IT Training – Which One Wins? appeared first on NC Expert .

WLC and AP Power settings

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 16:58:00 GMT

AP Power settings made easy

To fully understand and sometimes troubleshoot our wireless networks, we need to know exactly what is going on with our AP s, especially what power they are outputting. So in this post we are going to look at AP Power settings made easy.

The Problem – Different AP models each have their own Power Levels

The problem we face is that different models of AP, each have their own set of power levels.

Cisco only tells us a number between 1 and X. 1 is full power, every number we add to it is a decrease of 3dB. Some APs go to 5, some go to 8. The same AP on 2.4GHz can have a different range on 5GHz.

This is further complicated by moving an AP from one UNII band in 5GHz to another, still in 5GHz, can completely change its power level range.

What we need is a simple easy way to know exactly what is going on with our power ranges, and what an AP’s power level is set to.

Well, never fear, Cisco has given us tools to help us with this.

The command ” show ap config 802.11a <ap_name> ” will show us lots of information about the power settings, see Table 1 below. We see the number of supported levels, how they map to dBm, the current power level, and whether the power has been set manually or by RRM.

Note: there is a lot of output from this command, the output shown is a snippet from several pages down – you need to press “spacebar” several times to get to this. It usually comes right after the speeds!

Table 1: “show ap config 802.11a <ap_name>” output (WLC 5508 8.5 code, 3602 AP)

Tx Power
Num Of Supported Power Levels … 8
Tx Power Level 1 ……………………….. 23 dBm
Tx Power Level 2 ………………………. 20 dBm
Tx Power Level 3 ………………………. 17 dBm
Tx Power Level 4 ………………………. 14 dBm
Tx Power Level 5 ………………………. 11 dBm
Tx Power Level 6 ……………………….. 8 dBm
Tx Power Level 7 ……………………….. 5 dBm
Tx Power Level 8 ………………………. 2 dBm
Tx Power Configuration …………….. CUSTOMIZED
Current Tx Power Level ……………… 3
Tx Power Assigned By ……………….. User

In fact, pressing spacebar again gives us more information about the AP channel, we can see this in table 2 below.

Table 2: further output of “show ap config 802.11a <ap_name>” command output (WLC 5508 8.5 code, 3602 AP)

Phy OFDM parameters
Configuration ……………………….. CUSTOMIZED
Current Channel …………………… 149
Channel Assigned By …………….. User
Extension Channel ……………. …. ABOVE
Channel Width………………….. …. 40 MHz
Allowed Channel List……………… 36,40,44,48,52,56,60,64,100,
…………………………………………….. 104,108,112,116,132,136,140,
…………………………………………….. 149,153,157,161,165

Here, we can see the current channel set, the channel width, is the extension above or below the current channel (in this case 802.11n +1 channel bonding). We can also see the allowed channels, and whether the channel selection has been set manually or by RRM.

Connecting to the AP (I consoled into the AP CLI, as I did with the WLC), we see it also has some commands we can use.

”show controllers dot11radio 1 freq” will show us the frequency and the channel we are on, as well as other channels supported, see Table 3 below. (In this case “controllers” refers to the hardware controller in the interface, not the WLC – controller).

Table 3: “show controllers dot11radio 1 freq” output (WLC 5508 8.5 code, 3602 AP)

Carrier Set: United states (US) (-A)
Uniform Spreading Required: Yes
Configured Frequency: 5745 MHz Channel 149 40MHz, extended above
Serving Frequency: 5745 MHz Channel 149 40MHz, extended above
Allowed Frequencies: * Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) only
5180( 36) 5200( 40) 5220( 44) 5240( 48) *5260( 52) *5280( 56) *5300( 60) *5320( 64) *5500(100) *5520(104) *5540(108) *5560(112) *5580(116) *5660(132) *5680(136) *5700(140) 5745(149) 5765(153) 5785(157) 5805(161) 5825(165)

Listen Frequencies:
5180( 36) 5200( 40) 5220( 44) 5240( 48) 5260( 52) 5280( 56) 5300( 60) 5320( 64) 5500(100) 5520(104) 5540(108) 5560(112) 5580(116) 5600(120) 5620(124) 5640(128) 5660(132) 5680(136) 5700(140) 5720(144) 5745(149) 5765(153) 5785(157) 5805(161) 5825(165)
Beacon Flags: 0, Interface Flags 2020105, Interface Events 0, Mode 9; Beacons are enabled; Probes are enabled

Note: The text has scrolled over the end-of-line, I left it like this, as this is how it appears on the screen.

Another command typed on the AP “ show controllers dot11radio powercfg ” will show us the number of power levels, the range of power levels allowed, and the current power level setting. (In this case “controllers” again refers to the hardware controller in the interface, not the WLC – controller).

Table 4: “show controller dot11radio 1 powercfg” output (WLC 5508 8.5 code, 3602 AP)

Configured TxPower: 17 dBm (Level Index 3)
Allowed Power Levels: 23 20 17 14 11 8 5 2 dBm
Allowed Client Power Levels: 23 20 17 14 11 8 5 2 dBm

So, there we have it. We now have an easy way to determine the power levels in use from the WLC’s and the AP’s perspectives.

See you next time!

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

802.11ax – The next best thing?

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 18:47:00 GMT

802.11ax is it the next best thing?

Happy New Year everyone! and with the new year, comes new shiny things – 802.11ax.

As a networking engineer who has been around from long before 802.11n, and 802.11ac came along, it seems to be the same old story. Every time a new technology comes along, we get like kids on Christmas Eve, and cannot wait for morning to come.

The question I want to talk about in this post is this: 802.11ax, will it be awesome?

We are going to do a blog post later this year, breaking down the features of 802.11ax (from now on just called “ax”), I’ll leave most of the technical jargon for that one.

For now, let’s look at what ax promises: more speed.

Seeing as n’s official name was “High Throughput”, and ac’s official name was “Very High Throughput”, it was fair to expect ax to be called “Uber Throughput”, or “Mega Super Duper Throughput”. Instead it’s called a very unexciting “High Efficiency”. The reality here that is we have squeezed every last ounce of juice out of the available bandwidth, and we simply cannot increase speeds any more. As our old friend Scotty, on the USS Enterprise said “You cannae break the laws of physics”. When it comes to WiFi and OFDM, we really have gotten very close to all we can do (well, for now at least).

While we do increase the raw modulation from 256QAM to 1024QAM in ax, the major change ax is bringing is how we do WiFi. The IEEE really has gone back to the drawing board and changed the way WiFi is used at a fundamental level. It has taken aim straight at efficiency.

It may not be apparent, but the actual speed that you connect to your AP with, is not the speed that you send or receive actual data across the airwaves. Your transmission/reception connection speed is the rate at which your connection runs and, in general, the faster the better. However, your useful data rate is what we call throughput. This is entirely different to your connection speed.

Firstly, WiFI has a huge overhead. By the time you take into account the beacons, the acknowledgements, other protocol overhead and the “PHYsical” magic that goes on, it can use up around 50% of its available speed (the numbers are actually a lot more complex, but we can just keep it at 50% for the purposes of this article).

Secondly, WiFi is a shared medium, so if 2 people are connected to your AP, they get around 50% of the available throughput each. In fact, the more people you add, the worst it gets. 4 people may get 24% each not just simply 25%, as there is a cost to having a larger number of users fighting for the use of the network (collisions, retries etc.). So that means four people connected at 48Mbps, can actually expect around 6Mbps each (48 x 50% x 1/4th – this is a simplification for this article, reality is much more complex).

Things are actually worse than they appear here. Most people understand the simple math, that if there are 4 people in the house sharing a WiFI, they get around 25% each. The reality is that if your next-door neighbor is on the same channel as you, with 4 people sharing their network, then there are actually 8 people fighting for the same network resources. Using the 48Mbps example above, 8 people are getting around 3Mbps each (48 x 50% x 1/8th).

Now before you rush out and start changing channels, be aware that most of the channels 1-11 in 2.4GHz overlap, and only 1, 6, and 11 are non-overlapping*, and your channel should be one of these three. Having spotted your neighbors APs on 1 and 6, putting yours on 3 will actually make things worse than choosing 1 or 6 to compete.

There is another thing to be aware of, and the math is beyond this article, but as people move away from the AP, their speed decreases, this means they talk more slowly, and so need more time to talk. They end up talking longer periods of time to get the same work done, and may end up tying up the AP for a period, slowing you down even more.

Looking at the way WiFi operates now, sure ac is fast, but it’s like Monday Morning rush hour on the freeway, you can legally do 65MPH, but nobody can!

This is where ax brings us good news by changing how we share the media (it actually borrows technology from the Cell Phone Wireless world – OFDMA) and it makes the network much more efficient. This is where the cleverness of ax comes in, it’s kinda like all the talk of self- driving cars making the roads faster, they can be more efficient than people are.

Now that’s a great analogy, as until all the cars are self-driving, we don’t get the efficiency. Do we mandate all cars become self-driving, or do we create roads only for self-driving cars?

How these questions relate to 802.11ax.

As ax APs require ax clients to utilize the benefits of ax, until we have compatible clients we won’t have ax at all. Once we have a large majority of clients that support it, we may be better off allocating channels dedicated to just ax, and keep older clients using n and ac on their own separate channels. (I just cannot get used to using the phrase “older ac clients”!).

This may not be obvious, but boiling down what I just said means we need dual 5GHz radios in our APs, and we should use 20MHz channel widths not 40 or 80 to maximize our channels. As for ax in 2.4GHz, let’s leave that for another day, but it’s not as great as it first appears. 2.4GHz has a lot of issues that ax just won’t help with, interference, and b clients to name just two!

Vendors are planning ax APs as we speak, but until the large client vendors (laptops, phones, tablets etc.) start including ax, we won’t really have ax at all. We’ll just have more expensive ac APs, that are ax ready.

One last point, any ax AP and clients that come out in the next few months, (Early 2018), are “draft standard” which means they may not be final ax compatible. Most vendors are in the know, and know when it is close enough to release product, but beware. The final amendment may be 1-2 years away.

So am I going to buy an ax AP when they come out, of course! But not until I get a client that can use it, and maybe only one AP to play with and test. I’m not swapping out my entire household, or advising my clients to do upgrade to ax just yet, maybe in a year or two?

Final thoughts – we opened this with a question, “So, 802.11ax, will it be awesome?”

Imho yes. Yes it will be, totally awesome! But not in 2018.

*Note: If you are using 802.11g and above, and NOT using 802.11b, technically 1,5,9,13 are non-overlapping (Channels 12 & 13 are generally available outside the US). However, anyone using this channel plan, will conflict with anyone else using the 1,6,11 channel plan. So 1,6,11 is recommended. In the US there isn’t really an advantage of using 1,5,9.

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

All I want for Christmas are some home Mesh APs

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 19:10:00 GMT

All I want for Christmas are some home Mesh APs…

Well, it’s getting close to Christmas. You’re getting excited, you’ve been really good this year, and you’re hoping Santa will bring you a nice home Mesh network system for Christmas!

Many Vendors are now selling home Mesh systems which operate by connecting wirelessly to each other. This sounds great, because we all have that one area in the house where signal is always difficult.

Just Drop in a Home Mesh AP node to boost your signal

This is not a problem any more: just drop in a Mesh AP node and it will “boost” your signal by connecting “back” to the main node AP… wirelessly. Problem solved!

You may have read my previous blog about Mesh speed calculations . Don’t get me wrong, it sounds a little pessimistic, but the home Mesh APs actually come with a lot of technology to help get you up and running. Usually, they offer a connection to you on one radio, and connect back to the main node AP on a different radio (tri-radio APs).

(UPDATE December 2020: I am going to go do some research on these new tri-radio APs and get back to you with my findings. So, watch this space, for an update on home Mesh coming in 2021.)

Merry Christmas everybody, and a Happy New Year!

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

The Krack hack – is it the end of the world, or worse: is WPA2 dead?

Mon, 06 Nov 2017 00:45:00 GMT

The Krack hack – is it the end of the world, or worse: is WPA2 dead?

So here we go…

I recently read rather a lot of articles entitled “WPA2 is dead” or “The end of wireless security” and so on, online, and actually saw stuff on the news (TV news channels).

What happened then?

Well let’s spread some truth in the vast world of “exciting” news cycles, and dramatic news bulletins.

What I am going to do, is to tell you some truths about the Krack virus (actually got an email from a family member, someone who was worried about this, because they saw this Krack virus on British news!)

Is it a Hack? Is it a Virus? No it’s a Potential Vulnerability!

So, first of all, it is NOT a virus, nor is it a hack. It is a potential vulnerability in the current implementations of some vendors’ WPA/WPA2 protocol stacks.

What does that mean?

So, for the wifi-and-cybersecurity-is-magic folks (basically anyone who isn’t an uber-geek and is quite happy for wifi to “just work” – i.e. 99% of the population), what this means is that there is a potential problem/loophole that can be exploited or used to possibly break into the encrypted stream of one or some of your wireless clients. Basically, a couple of guys (and gals) have played around with vendors’ implementations of the WPA and WPA2 modes of operation. They found, under certain circumstances, that these vendors equipment is susceptible to being manipulated to give away secrets that can help bad guys (and gals) abuse and maybe break into networks.

Now these are good guys (and gals) who have “outed” this problem, and they have done it so we can make the world a better place.

It’s important to understand that it is a potential vulnerability and that no code has been written (as of late October 2017) to take advantage of this that we know about. The problems with the statement I just made is “that we know about”. Hackers are probably busy at this moment writing code to do just this. So we have to treat this seriously.

So, what happened next? Well the folks that discovered this, regard themselves as “good guys (and gals)”. They responsibly notified vendors about this potential hack, well before releasing it to the public. Vendors started to work on and release patches that protect from this vulnerability. Good on you vendors, it is the right and responsible thing to do. Our vendors have our backs here and have released, or are releasing, fixes for these potential problems. Our advice is to check with your vendor, see what they say, and take it from there.

Now I was going to spend some time digging into this and writing a lovely blog for you all on this subject. But my good friend Heather Williams at Ruckus has done such a great job, I will refer you to her blog entry on this:
https://theruckusroom.ruckuswireless.com/wired-wireless/technologytrends/commonsense-approach-uncommon-problem/

Heather goes into great detail, in her blog entry, about the vulnerability, what it does, and that it is, in fact, NOT the end of the world.

Heather even includes a link to an article by Kevin Beaumont that includes the original document released by our friendly good guys (and gals), who discovered the vulnerability.

Heather also includes a link to a blog entry by Peter Mackenzie which gives follow up links to much more information and details on the Krack vulnerability. (By the way, Peter’s post is on the WLA website – WLA is a great resource and community to get involved with for WiFi engineers, we highly recommend you take a look at the site).

So is WPA2 Dead?

I don’t think so. Let us know what you think.

That’s it for now. I will include the follow up links from Heather’s site for reference and include a link to the WLA. Stay safe and see you next month.

https://wlanassociation.org/blog/
https://doublepulsar.com/regarding-krack-attacks-wpa2-flaw-bf1caa7ec7a0
https://wlanassociation.org/about/

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

Exactly what is Duty Cycle?

Wed, 01 Nov 2017 06:59:00 GMT

So what exactly is Duty Cycle? and what have Zombies got to do with it….

I want talk about the Duty Cycle that we see on our Spectrum Analyzers. Since it’s Halloween, and everyone loves a good horror story, I thought I’d try and explain what Duty Cycle is, with the use of Zombies!

A lot of people explain this concept as Utilization, but there is a problem with that interpretation.

Imagine the scenario pictured below in Diagram 1

Diagram 1 – Morgan ancestral family home (actual photo)

Let’s imagine our story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, but we are safe inside our castle. The only thing we have to watch out for are stray zombies.

Our castle backs up to the ocean, so we are safe in that direction, but we always post a guard to look out of windows 1, 6, and 11 (let’s refer to them as W1, W6, and W11). The green areas show the viewpoints from the relevant windows.

The first thing to point out here, is when the guard is looking out of one window, he cannot see anything out of any other windows. He spends his time every minute looking out of W1 for 20 seconds, then W6 for 20 seconds, then W11 for 20 seconds, then repeats. For this story will ignore the time it takes to move between windows.

So let’s imagine the terrain is quite rough and, if a zombie falls over, it takes him 2/3 of a minute to get back up – that’s 40 seconds. So the zombie walks for 20 seconds, trips, and takes 40 seconds to get back up. Let’s also assume that the zombie is walking in from the viewpoint of W1.

Let’s assume now that Bob (our guard) just finished looking out of W1, and he moves to W6. At this point our zombie starts walking by. As Bob moves to W11, our zombie trips, and falls down. Bob moves to W1 and sees nothing. He then moves to W6 and our zombie gets up and starts walking. As Bob moves to W11 again, our zombie trips and goes down. This cycle continually repeats, and Bob never sees the zombie. Bob reports zombie activity as 0% in W1.

Let’s imagine another scenario: As Bob arrives at W1, the zombie walks by. Bob sees him, and notes the event. Bob moves to W6, zombie falls over and goes down. Bob moves to W11, zombie stays down. As Bob moves back to W1, zombie gets up and starts walking in again. This cycle continues. The result here is Bob reports zombie activity as 100% in W1.

Neither of these reports are true, as neither represent actual zombie activity viewed out of the window. The chances of the zombie falling and staying down as we explained in the scenarios, at these exact timings, are very unlikely, but I hope you get the point.

It is the same with Duty Cycle

It is the same with Duty Cycle. Duty Cycle measures “of the time I looked, how often was the signal present”. Again, the chances of the signal only being there when you look, or never being there as you look, is very unlikely.

Hopefully, you now understand the point of my Halloween tale. Duty Cycle is an approximation of Utilization. How accurate it actually is, can be dependent on how many channels the Spectrum Analyzer has to scan.

Just as if Bob was to stay focused on W1, if the Spectrum Analyzer is locked on a channel – this will give much more accurate results. One caveat here is that you have to take into account the width of the Spectrum Analyzers scan: if it is greater than the channel width, you are ok, BUT if it is less than the channel width, you still get the problem as described above.

So, hopefully, now you have a better understanding of what Duty Cycle is. Next time you look at a Spectrum Analyzer showing you Duty Cycle remember Bob, our brave defender, and ensure you keep this in mind as you interpret the information!

Happy Halloween everyone, see you next time!

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

Mesh Calculations

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 16:05:00 GMT

Mesh Calculations

Thought I’d take some time to discuss bandwidth using Mesh APs and the associated mesh calculations.

This blog entry is aimed at a slightly advanced level, so I am working on the assumption that you already know how a Mesh works.

Basically, the node APs (MAPS or Node APs – do we call them “NAPs”?) are nodes that connect wirelessly back to a main node, sometimes called a Root AP or RAP. The nodes build a mesh that is self-building and self-repairing without any user intervention. If a node in the path to the RAP (this is the guy that connects the wired world, remember) fails, it just works its way around it, and rebuilds the path automatically.

All good so far but, with wireless, the available bandwidth on a network connection can be assumed to be 50% of the connection speed (simple math assumption for this exercise). This bandwidth is shared by everyone on the channel. You, your neighbors, and so on.

Well the problem here is that all the mesh APs are going to be on the same channel. They usually service one radio for clients (maybe two in certain circumstances) but then all connect one radio on a common channel for the path back to the RAP (this is called the “Backhaul”).

We can assume 4 Mesh APs share the bandwidth ¼ each, right? Well… maybe. If the Mesh APs are all one hop from the RAP, they will share the bandwidth 1/n (where n is the number of APs). See Diagram 1.

Mesh Calculations – Diagram 1.

What if we connect our APs differently? Take a peek at Diagram 2.

If 2 APs are one hop away from the RAP (called children of the RAP – that would make a great horror story, but I digress…), then they will share the bandwidth to the RAP. We know this calculates out to approximately 1/n each.

Then we connect the next 2 APs, each one hop away from the above mentioned children (technically, children of the children, so grandchildren of the RAP as it were). Now the math gets different. The data from these APs will first go across the wireless link up to the first hop (children), then continue over the wireless link a second time, up to the RAP.

So, data from a MAP (which is two hops away) crossed the network twice. Similarly, data from a MAP three hops away will cross the network three times.

Mesh Calculations – Diagram 2.

This means that when you calculate the available bandwidth, you have to take into account the number of hops away the node is.

The calculation actually becomes a share of 1 / [(1xhop_1_aps) + (2xhop_2_aps) + (3xhop_3_aps)] and so on.

The configuration, from above, becomes 1 / [(1*2) + (2*2)], which means that having the 4 APs laid out so the 2 “grandchildren” APs link back to the two “children” APs will give each AP effectively 1/6 of the available bandwidth.

This is an oversimplification because, in a real mesh network, two distant MAPs may be far enough apart to not interfere which causes the numbers to improve slightly but, in general, it is a real-world phenomenon that causes rapid deterioration of bandwidth when you start deploying mesh networks with large depth (large number of hops away from the RAP). So you can summarize this discussion on Mesh, by saying “It’s not just the number of MAPs you have, it’s a function of the total the number and the number of hops they are away from the RAP”.

This is the bad news about mesh. Mesh is built for comfort and not for speed.

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

Tracking sequence numbers and flags in Wireshark

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 20:04:00 GMT

Tracking sequence numbers and flags in Wireshark

One of the things I learned a while back was a really good tip when using Wireshark. I find people sometimes get tied up tracking the sequence numbers and the wireless frame flags in Wireshark.

Having to open the frames and look for flags and following sequence numbers can be quite complex and time consuming.

Here’s a Wireshark Tip

Here is a little tip I learned, which seems so obvious once someone tells you…

When viewing the frames in Wireshark, the “Info” column can be very informative. It shows the type of frame, and the sequence number (SN). It also shows the SSID name, the Beacon Interval (BI) and also the Flags from the wireless frame header.

One exception to this standard “info” field display is, if you have data that is not encrypted, Wireshark may start to show you the TCP/UDP or HTTP information in the “info” field, then you do have to go and dig, and look inside the frame to see the flag details. Basically, on an unencrypted Wireless network, or if you have entered the PSK intentionally so as you can decrypt packets, this may display actual packet data, not “useful wifi info”.

If we take a look in Diagram 1 below, you will see the Flags are listed underneath the “Flags” section within the “Frame Control Field”. You can also find a summary right next to the “IEEE 802.11 Beacon Frame” section (in fact whatever the type of frame you are viewing, the flags are summarized next to this section). A feature that often goes unnoticed, they are also summarized in the top right section of the Wireshark Frames display, within the “info” field.

DIAGRAM 1

When the flags are shown next to the “IEEE 802.11 Frame” field (where represents the type of frame shown) or when show within the “info” column, the frame flags are listed using the following format: xxxxxxxxC, where the x’s represent characters that are displayed. The format is displayed as a mix of eight letters followed by an uppercase “C”. If a given flag is not set, it is represented as a period. As you can see in Diagram 1, none of the flags are set, and so the flag field will be represented as eight periods followed by an uppercase “C”.

The eight flags are shown as the following letters in this order: opmPRMFTC

o is the Order bit
p is the protected bit
m is the More Data bit
P is Power Management
R is Retry
M is More Fragments
F is FromDS
T is ToDS

That’s the eight flags!

Well, what’s the “C” then, I hear you ask.

A lot of people misunderstand this, and mis-name this uppercase “C”.

The “C” is there as long as the frame did not fail its CRC check. Now please note this is not the same as the frame passing its CRC check. If for whatever reason the CRC is not present (maybe because you only captured a small segment of the frame e.g. 128B, or you didn’t capture FCS’), Wireshark represents this with an uppercase “C”. This happens whether the frame is corrupt or not and can be quite confusing. So, watch out for that one!

2025 Update...

We talk about this, more, in our AMA series webinars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM70jXEsFsk

That’s it for this month. See you next time.

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

Homer and Bart and WiFi

Thu, 25 May 2017 15:22:00 GMT

I find myself explaining layer 1 physical spectrum analysis quite a lot these days.

Spectrum Analysis is everywhere today. There is Cisco Spectrum Expert, and CleanAir (now the chip is installed in every Enterprise Cisco AP). There is also Metageek Chanalyzer, and of course Cisco Meraki has it built in.

Identifying the different signals can be quite important to a wireless engineer in their day-to-day job.

I wanted to write this blog entry to introduce you to two of the most common signals that can be seen in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz range: DSSS and OFDM. (DSSS is 2.4GHz only, whilst OFDM operates in 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

DSSS is the mode of operation of 802.11 Prime (DSSS), and of 802.11b (HR-DSSS). OFDM is the mode of operation of 802.11a (OFDM), 802.11g (ERP-OFDM), 802.11n(HT), and 802.11ac (VHT).

So, what is an easy way to identify and remember these signals?

Well, this is where Homer and Bart (two of my favorite Simpsons characters) come into play.

Let’s imagine that Homer and Bart are up to no good (quite a common occurrence for this pair), and for some reason they have decided to hide behind a wall. Now let’s further imagine this wall is not quite tall enough to fully hide them, thus their heads are visible…

What you get is something like we see in Diagram 1

DIAGRAM 1

In Diagram 1, we see two shapes, one that looks like Homer, and one that looks like Bart. Homer is effectively the shape of a DSSS transmission, and Bart is the shape of an OFDM transmission. There you have it! Easy to remember spectrum analysis.

So, taking a look at Diagram 2 below, we see again two shapes. At channel 6 we see a DSSS transmission, and at channel 11 we see an OFDM transmission.

DIAGRAM 2: Actual Spectrum Expert Capture

Frequently people ask me, “Is that a “b” AP at channel 6, and a “g” AP at channel 11?” This is very important to stop and think about. These shapes actually show a “b” (or 802.11 Prime) DSSS transmission at channel 6, and a “g” ERP-OFDM transmission at channel 11. There is a lot of other information to take into account, but that is beyond the scope and intent of this article. This will be addressed in a different blog entry.

The take away is that, at channel 6, there was a “b” (or Prime) DSSS transmission and, at channel 11, there was a “g” ERP-OFDM transmission. Does that mean the AP at channel 6 is a “b” AP? Does it mean the AP at channel 6 was talking to a “b” client? The answer to both of these is maybe! All we know for sure is that there was a “b/Prime” DSSS transmission that we caught on channel 6, it could be a “b/Prime” (DSSS) AP, it could be a “g” (ERP-OFDM) AP talking to a “b/Prime” client, or it could simply be a “g” (ERP-OFDM) AP transmitting a Beacon at its lowest Basic/Mandatory speed – 1Mbps (802.11 Prime speed) that is sent out using DSSS.
So happy hunting for the “Homers” and “Barts”, and we’ll see you next month!

Blog Update Jun 2018

We all know Ekahau works really well with MetaGeek Chanalyzer, but what you may not know is the super-duper Ekahau SideKick seems to be taking over as a Spectrum Analyzer of choice, in its own right.

Will be doing more blog information on the SideKick soon…

Meanwhile check out these references:
https://www.ekahau.com/products/sidekick/overview/
https://www.wlanpros.com/resources/everything-wanted-know-ekahau-sidekick/

(BTW, that last entry is from Wlan Professionals. Wlan Professionals is great community to get involved with, and is run by Keith Parsons, who is a legend in the WiFi community. They have blogs, podcasts and videos that are a great source of information. They also run great conferences throughout the year, one in the US and one in Europe. I try to attend WlanPros, Phoenix (US), every year.)

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

An easy way to remember V and H

Tue, 28 Feb 2017 00:07:00 GMT

V and H – An easy way to remember

Short blog entry this month but, I hope, quite an important one because I want to give you .

This month I want to give you an easy to remember tip, concerning antenna coverage pattern charts.

Directionality of antennas is quite important. When planning a design, fully understanding the layout of the antennas is of vital importance. Understanding (or not understanding) the layout of an antenna’s coverage can be make-or-break for a wireless design.

Quite often, I find people get difficulty in remembering two very important attributes of an antenna: the layout of its horizontal and vertical planes.

The fact isn’t helped by the vendors. Sometimes they will show us the vertical plane, and the horizontal plane, sometimes it’s the azimuth and the elevation. Other times it is a mixed combination of azimuth and vertical, or elevation and horizontal. See Diagram 1 below.

Diagram 1: Example Cisco 3700 Antenna Patterns

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/technology/apdeploy/8-0/Cisco_Aironet_3700AP.html

DIAGRAM 1

So, the Azimuth/Horizontal pattern is as if you were looking top down on the AP viewing how its signal propagates out horizontally. The Elevation/Vertical plane is showing you the view if you stood at the side of the AP and looked at a cross section of its coverage. As you can imagine it can all get quite confusing.

What we need is an easy way to remember which way around, is which.

So, a while back (while teaching a class), I came up with something I wanted to share. It is simple, it is easy, and it should solve all your antenna-plane-remembering problems!

Azimut h contains the letter “ H ” and so does Horizontal.
Ele v ation contains the letter “ V ” and so does Vertical.

That’s it! The Azimuth shows the Horizontal view, and the Elevation shows the Vertical view. Easy, right?

Have fun remembering, and we’ll see you next month.

If you are looking to make your mark in the IT Industry, then NC-Expert offers excellent training courses aimed at relevant IT industry certifications – contact us today to get started.

Wireless Network Security – Only with an S

Tue, 03 Jan 2017 19:15:00 GMT

Wireless Network Security – it’s a huge concern

I want to address important concerns about wireless network security, that a lot people don’t immediately understand about wireless:

I usually demonstrate these issues on my CWSP, CEH, and wireless hacking/ pentesting classes. I emphasize and demonstrate that anything you transmit, which is not encrypted, is completely visible to anyone. A hacker can capture it, and see it, without any effort.

Usually capturing traffic, and showing students how easy it is to get the HTTP/FTP username and password, is enough to make the students sit upright. However, when I then view an entire Telnet session, or replay an audio call, everyone’s attention is guaranteed.

There is no magic involved. If data is sent, unencrypted, over the wireless airwaves, anyone can hear it. So, if you are at a coffee shop, at a stadium or airport, or on a guest network, with no PSK or 802.1X/EAP/RADIUS, you have a problem.

We need to fix this, you need to be enjoying your coffee at the coffee shop, or watching the game at a sports bar, without worrying about who is spying on you.

Only with an ‘S’ – how to overcome free wireless network security issues (and thus enjoy that coffee)

Well there is a solution to this problem, of course, “Only with an S”

What I mean is, on an open network, you only EVER use protocols with an ‘S’ in them:

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule, don’t be fooled by SMTP, instead use SMTP with TLS (watch out here – SMTP by default without TLS, is *open*).

I have an additional rule, referring to SNMP, to add here: if the thing in question has a number available, use the biggest number. So, use SNMPv3, not SNMPv1, or SNMPv2.

Of course, the ultimate security precaution is to always use VPNs . (The ultimate solution to the free wireless security problem, and it has an ‘S’!) If you always use a VPN whenever you are on a public network, even when you are on a network outside the office, all your traffic will be encrypted as it crosses from your device to the other end of the VPN tunnel.

Watch out here, some configurations allow you to use split-tunneling which allows you to configure some traffic to go down the VPN path, but other traffic (usually email or web traffic) to jump off and be sent out locally – this, of course, may be convenient but can defeat the safety of a VPN. If you are using this feature, make sure you are using secure protocols, for the locally “split” traffic.

That’s it. Happy New Year to everyone, and we’ll see you next time!

So here is my wireless network security summary:

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