I have no doubt that no two people’s journeys to becoming a CWNE (Certified Wireless Network Expert) are alike.
For those who may not be familiar with that certification, it is run by the folks at CWNP (Certified Wireless Network Professionals). My interest came when I started as a “Solutions Engineer” at Calix. I had done enterprise Wi-Fi from 2002 to 2010, then took a break to be a software developer from 2010 to 2016. Then enterprise Wi-Fi again from 2016 to mid-2020, another stint as a “Data Architect” from mid-2020 to mid-2022, then finally back to Wi-Fi from 2022 onwards.
To say that it changed a lot during that time would be an understatement, but beyond a few basic Cisco wireless certifications early on (circa 2002), I didn’t have particular interest in wireless certification. But the interest really was in “upping my game” and I figured if I was going to sell this wireless stuff to technical people, I’d better start filling in the gaps in my own knowledge!
Here is my primary study material and timeline in case anyone is interested:
- David Coleman’s CWNA Certified Wireless Network Administrator Study Guide: Exam CWNA-108 was instrumental in me getting my CWNA. What I hadn’t realized is that it is so much more than a CWNA study guide–it’s a Wi-Fi bible and is still my primary reference when I want to give someone a definitive quote or definition (if it isn’t in the 802.11-2020 spec or the spec doesn’t have the flavor I’m going for in). I took and passed the CWNA exam in February of 2023. At that point, I didn’t have my sights focused on the CWNE. I figured I had some respected wireless credentials behind my name, so I was happy.
- However, the Wi-Fi “subtopic” I’d always been most interested in is security. I figured I might as well go for the CWSP certification. This time, I got the official study guide: CWSP-207: Certified Wireless Security Professional. I read it through (some sections required several readings!). I got the CWSP in January of 2024.
- After having passed both exams handily on the first try, I was on a roll, and started pondering the CWNE. Since I was already doing a lot of designs for my job (leveraging the terrific Hamina wireless network design tool), I figured I’d study a bit more and take the test. So it was that I obtained my CWDP (Design) certification in April, 2024.
- I’d read that the CWAP (Analysis) exam was harder than the others, so I put it off a bit. But I dug in through the CBT Nuggets series on the topic. I also did some programming regarding documenting and categorizing the information elements in beacons and probe responses, which helped me really understand what was going on inside wireless frames. I passed the exam in December, 2024.
- An interesting requirement of the CWNE is that you need to have an active certification from another vendor to be eligible. This is certainly not without precedent, as I recall the Compaq Accredited Systems Engineer required either an MCSE or CNE (Certified NetWare (!) Engineer) as a prerequisite. As for me, I have had many other certifications over the years: Cisco CCNA, CCDA, CCNP, CCDP, Symantec Security Practitioner, Radware, Microsoft MCSE (NT4.0 no less–not to date myself), but nothing was current. I’d let my CC[ND][AP] lapse in 2016, after having held it for 15 years. I wanted to do something both relevant to my job and that I had never looked at before, so I selected the Juniper JNCIA. Juniper has a great (free) online class for people who know Cisco IOS and want to convert that knowledge to the JUNOS CLI. The class, along with another CBT Nuggets class, gave me the requisite background. I got my JNCIA in January, 2025.
- All that remained on my path to the CWNE, at least as far as exams were concerned, was the CWISA (Certified Wireless IoT Solutions Administrator). Most of the required material was covered in previous exams, but there were definitely some new categories, which I appreciated. LoRaWAN was particularly interesting to me. I passed the CWISA in February, 2025.
- At that point, the only requirements left to satisfy the CWNE were non-exam tasks, which are no small undertaking. This official list is here, and from those options, I decided to start this blog!
- I submitted my application for the CWNE on May 1, 2025, and of this writing on May 12, I am “in the queue” for review. I will certainly post a follow-up when my evaluation is complete.
I have been enjoying writing, and it is my intention for this blog to be a continued place of curiosity and discovery.
As an aside: I had a blog from 2010-2022 (and you can still read it). I created a new post on average 2.15 times per year… not exactly prolific. But there’s always a new chapter in life (no pun intended), so perhaps this one will be more regular. I’ve also made a few posts on LinkedIn over the past few years.