CCNP Testing

Personally, I'd say BCRAN. It its probably the one that most leverages what you already know from CCNA.

BSCI covers a lot of new stuff, and some of the IS-IS and BGP stuff is all new. Some of the OSPF stuff is reasonably detailed.

BCMSN covers some stuff that is only loosely related to switching. If you love switching, do this. Personally, I don't.

CIT leverages the other three, and should be done last.

Remember that any 642 exam renews CCNA, so you could also do one of the specialist certs to renew. The Wireless Design Specialist took me all of a week to prepare for.

Matt

Thanks Matt. What materials did you use to prepare for the WDS test?

I used:

- The topic guide from the cisco website.

- a non-current version of the AWLF and CAWSS course notes (v3.1 and

- The Cisco 2.4GHzz/5Ghz Antenna datasheet. Know the db rating for each sort of antenna.

- Cisco Q&A on EAP (inc EAP-FAST)

- The wireless product pages on cisco.com

- The 802.11a/b/g standards - just for maximum power outputs etc

- The Australian Communication Authority's non-licensed bandwidth standard (not necessary, but interesting to know that we can't use

I also had the 1200 series IOS 12.3 configuration guide, but I never used it. There is nothing on configuring an AP via command line in either the FE or SE exams. The FE was a bit harder because there were questions on software that I'm not familiar with.

Sorry to sound like a dummy, but what are AWLF and CAWSS? Are the course notes available anywhere on the web?

Now you are testing the memory:

AWLF is "Aironet Wirless LAN Fundamentals" and CAWSS is something like "Conducting the Aironet Wireless Site Survey".

They are not officially on the web, but if you have a poke around sites ending with .ru, .pl and .cn, you may turn something up.

Sounds good. Thanks for your help.