What is thenicestword.com? It stems from a Laura Ingalls Wilder quote: “Home is the nicest word there is.”
This particular blog journals my interest in technology–particularly wireless technology. Wireless has changed the world over the past 150 years or so, and Wi-Fi has revolutionized the way people connect over the past 25 years.
Why another website dedicated to Wi-Fi when there are countless other sites, YouTube channels, trainings, etc.? The easiest answer is that none of those are maintained by me, except this one, so here it is.
My name is Matt Glosson. I am a Solutions Architect for Calix. I have been installing Wi-Fi networks since 2001, when all we had was 802.11a/b, back when Cisco Aironet wireless ran on Wind River’s VxWorks. Then Airespace introduced the revolutionary wireless controller (which Cisco later acquired).
I love a good end-to-end story, and Wi-Fi brings together so many facets of networking that I enjoy:
- Layer-1 magic. The more you get to know it, the more magic it seems (yes, I own that shirt!)
- Security fun. I have always enjoyed a secure network, and making all the components work in secure harmony is a great, fun challenge. I especially enjoy RADIUS integration via 802.1X and the various flavors of EAP. Getting authenticated is nice, though a bit boring, It’s the authorization part (the added stuff the RADIUS server tells the RADIUS client) that is where the fun begins.
- Roaming. How can you walk around and still stay connected in a seamless manner? It’s a challenge, but very smart people have done some amazing work to make it happen.
- General nerdery… there are so many ins and outs to giving the users a good experience. It’s a worthy challenge for anyone.
Hopefully you find these posts a combination of:
- interesting
- informative
- inspirational
I have a Terminology page as well, in case I’m using terms you aren’t familiar with.