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  • Personally, I found the CWSP harder.   Even though I had both the CEH and CISSP in a past life, I get VERY little chance to configure WLAN securities.

    After 25+ years of software engineering, I also found the CWAP more intuitive.

  • I am taking the CWSP Thursday (April 26) so I will update this thread with my results. I too have a huge amount of networking experience as a software developer. I was part of the AT&T Bell Labs team that developed TCP/IP for Unix back in the early 1980s and I have been active ever since in networking development. My interest in wireless security is due to the fact that I see so many security breaches where wireless was the entry point. So I decided to really master security for wireless technology and the cloud (AWS).

    When I started preparing for the CWSP four months ago, I felt that I was pretty knowledgeable about security on 802.11 having worked with it for 20 years. This was a very blind assumption. First thing, I took the CWSP book's assessment test and failed miserably. That was a shocker. I then went into real serious mode studying 802.11 going back to the basics. Today, I feel real comfortable taking the exam but I spent a lot of time getting prepared. I will add that this task was well worth the effort. Now I really know and understand all of the benefits and drawbacks for each security method for 802.11 and how to better integrate 802.11 into the core network.

  • Good luck.   Let us know how it goes.

    I really enjoyed the CEH boot camp, if your looking for even more security internals.   Pen-testing can also be great fun.

  • Thank you for the input. The CEH and CSA+ were also on my new year's list for 2018, but I think that I will continue on the CWNP path this year and add either the CWAP or CWDP this year assuming that I pass the CWSP. I am thinking of preparing in advance for one of them and then taking the bootcamp at the conference in San Diego. That means months more of hard work while trying to balance my business and family time.

  • I took the CWSP exam today. I passed. I don't know the score results yet. The exam was pretty easy with about half the questions being knowledge that all networking professionals should know with the other half specific to 802.11 security.

    I used the CWSP Study Guide written by David Coleman, David Westcott and Bryan Harkings. This book is fabulous for both preparing for the exam and wireless security in general. I also used the book's practice tests and the book's online practice test system to polish towards the end of my studies.

    Next I used the CWNP official practice tests once I was ready. I highly recommend these exams. They are much better than the book and mirror the real exam very well.

    I also used Pluralsight and took all of the Cisco Wireless training classes to round out my knowledge base and to train from a different perspective.

    Overall, I spent four months studying almost everyday for 30 minutes to an hour on workdays and two or three hours every weekend. I probably invested around 100 total hours over those four months. I do have a solid thirty+ year career in computers / networking / security mostly enterprise level. My goal was to master the material and not only pass the exam.

    My summary is that CWNP has a top notch professional program for wireless professionals. I highly recommend that all companies have at least one CWNP professional level networking member on staff or as a consultant. In regards to the CWSP, today this is mandatory knowledge and experience to protect our networks and data.

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