News

WLAN Education's Latest: Security and Telephony

The leading purveyors of WLAN learning programs have introduced new curricula covering security and wireless voice over IP telephony.

by Eric Griffith Managing Editor of Wi-Fi Planet [April 29, 2003]

The two major purveyors of wireless LAN curriculums designed to turn network administrators into full-fledged certified Wi-Fi experts have released new programs and certifications.

Earlier this month GigaWave Technologies of San Antonio, TX, a Cisco Learning Solutions Partner and the group behind Cisco's various Aironet-specific courses and training including one specializing in public access, unveiled a new curriculum to cover wireless IP telephony.

The course, called Secure Wireless IP Telephony, or SWIPT, was developed with fellow Cisco Learning Solutions Partner Advance Network Information (ANI). They specialize in training customers on networking voice over IP.

As the name implies, the course is all about teaching IP professinals using Cisco equipment how to put in an end-to-end network that can support voice and data traffic, securely. They recommend it for companies seeking mobile, secure telephony on their WLAN. It covers the basic of doing so with Cisco Aironet products and the CIPT architecture.

Classes include hands-on labs so students can setup a network themselves. The class costs $2,695 and includes five days of training. GigaWave is taking registrations now for classes beginning in mid-May through September in Texas, California, Florida, Massachusetts, and Georgia.

For those not using just Cisco products, but still concerned about your WLAN's security, Planet3 Wireless of Denver, CO, this week announced the Certified Wireless Security Professional (CWSP) certification. This program is meant to be a vendor neutral.

The CWSP course covers hands on use of Layer 2/3 security solutions from companies like BlueSocket, Proxim, Funk, Cisco and many others is accompanied by a study guide (published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media, ISBN 0-07-223012-6, $69.99) and exam. The course costs $2,995 for five days of training (or over a semester depending on the trainer) and classes are already scheduled through the summer for California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Washington, and the District of Columbia. The exam for the final ceritication will be available at Prometric Authorized Testing Centers for $175.

Planet3 also developed the Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) Program that various trainers, such as WildPackets Academy, have been using since the beginning of the year. Both are part of the overall CWNP (for professional) program. They expect to have their Certified WirelessNetworking Expert (CWNE) program ready this year, followed by the Certified Wireless Network Integrator (CWNI) program in 2004. Planet3 released a CWNA training program for high school students earlier this year.

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