CWNE #521 · Eva Santos

// blog.archive

Musings of a Wi-Fi engineer

Sixteen long-form posts on troubleshooting, RF design, exam prep, and field notes — now native to this site.

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Apr 3, 2026 · 4 min read

Chrome Spinners: An Update to ChromeOS Wi-Fi Troubleshooting a Decade in the Making

Once upon a time in 2016, Jim Vajda wrote a great article on troubleshooting Chromebooks. This was the ONLY comprehensive resource I found while struggle-bussing trying to evaluate roaming problems at schools. So I thought "Gee it has been 10 years, shouldn't someone do an update?" Well have I got updates for you and they're all listed here. How it StartedI dragged my cursor to Amazon and found a fairly reasonable Chromebook capable of running Linux alone. That's important because some tools you

Mar 12, 2026 · 2 min read

3 Ways Wi-Fi Design Has Evolved (Since my career began)

Offsetting Requirements, Not Devices When I stared in 2019, our whole teams were using various "device offset" applied onto our predictive and measure surveys: • -5 dB for for laptops • -7 dB for phones • -10 dB for scannersYou get the idea. Sometimes, I would get real far from the AP, where FSPL stabilizes, and take the average of forty RSSI measurements and then compare that to the average of forty measurements on my survey device. Even then I thought "gee sometimes this average fluctuates w

May 13, 2025 · 4 min read

5 Tips to Have Your Certified Wireless Security Professional (CWSP) Exam on Lock

Much like the CWAP, many consider the CWSP a major roadblock to getting their CWNE. Personally, I found this test easier, but that does NOT make it easy. If you haven't already, check out my post for the CWAP exam because a lot of the same advice applies here: • Reviewing the Exam Objectives • Taking the practice tests • Reviewing notes ASAP if you fail That aside, the advice I'm giving here is absolutely none of those things. Hopefully if you follow these steps, you'll have this exam out the w

May 6, 2025 · 4 min read

Takeaways from Wi-Fi World Congress '25

Usually, I leave these events with way too much to note about presentation content. This time is different. While some presentations piqued my interest, this experience was overwhelmingly about connecting with others. Inherently, this is a business focused conference. When it comes to putting AI agents in customer premises equipment or monetizing traffic with ads, I have much less to say. That said, I directed my attention to meeting the plethora of talented individuals in attendance and learnin

Feb 25, 2025 · 4 min read

A Trip to the Wizarding World of Wi-Fi: WLPC Phoenix 2025 Recap

Once again, I had the privilege of attending the Wireless LAN Professionals Conference (WLPC) in Phoenix, AZ. Coincidentally, this also marks one year since starting this blog. I started it because Keith Parsons, who leads the conference, mentioned the value of a blog is capturing all the knowledge you couldn't possibly remember at one time and having a way to share that with others. So here, I am typing away my takeaways from this year's events before the progressive amnesia called time takes o

Dec 9, 2024 · 6 min read

Sidos Wave: Post-Test Drive Thoughts

The survey tool industry finds itself at an inflection point. Gone are the days of Ekahau's monopoly on stable, fully-featured Wi-Fi survey tools. We are starting to see healthy competition with each vendor coming up with differentiators from the rest. One of these new kids on the surveying block is Sidos Systems. Their product consists of a Sidos Cloud online tool and the Sidos Wave, the physical capturing device. They let me take the product on a test drive and I have a LOT of thoughts. Grou

Oct 30, 2024 · 4 min read

Will Wi-Fi 7 Compete More With Cellular and IoT Protocols?

As the leaves change, I find myself hunched over my desk absorbing all the new features in IEEE 802.11be. Of these features, MLO (Multi-link Operation) is the most-discussed feature I've seen. However, there's other features that deserve the spotlight. Other new 802.11be features that may change the protocol landscape include: -SCS (Stream Classification Service) with QoS Characteristics -EPCS (Emergency Preparedness Communication Service) -Preamble Puncturing -R-TWT (Restricted Target Wake Ti

Oct 1, 2024 · 4 min read

Is 802.11v Problematic?

Recently, I posted about the differences between 802.11k and 802.11v. However, I left some questions unanswered. Both amendments help roaming, but many engineers feel 802.11v is noticeably more disruptive. In fact, I've had to turn it off with certain clients. Yet, it remains on by default for AP vendors such as Cisco Meraki (1) and Juniper Mist (2). What gives then? Should you use it or not?Starting with the basics - The 802.11v AmendmentAssisted roaming happens with one of three frames(2, sect

Sep 10, 2024 · 4 min read

5 Tips to Ace Your Certified Wireless Analysis Professional (CWAP) Exam

For many of us, the CWAP exam is the most challenging of the CWNE track. Many people require multiple attempts to pass this exam. This test often stands as the gatekeeper between prospective CWNEs and their finalized application. Consequently, having an ironed-out study strategy is pertinent for the CWAP exam.Based on my test experience, these are the actions I either wish I had taken or already took that helped me pass the exam.1. Base your study plan off the exam objectivesAvailable from the C

Jun 27, 2024 · 6 min read

🔐Troubleshooting WiFi Certs with Certainty

Today, I'm going to share a secret with y'all: I HATE troubleshooting certificates. In recent time, I have learned some tricks so I do not hate it as much, but I still feel I'm looking for needles in a haystack often. For simplicity's sake, I will discuss an EAP-TLS scenario for an 802.1x wireless SSID using client certificates without OSCP or LDAP protocols.Before going through some tricks, lets review the fundamental components for an EAP-TLS based SSID. EAP-TLS requires certificate installati

May 6, 2024 · 3 min read

🌴 Wi-Fi World Congress Recap: 2024's Biggest WiFi Trends

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Wi-Fi World Congress in Sarasota, Florida. Prior to the conference itself, I enjoyed the many fun activities Sarasota has to offer like the Ringling Museum and the Marie Selby Botanical Garden. It's a fabulous city and I would love to revisit. What is the Wi-Fi World Congress?Before discussing some of the my favorite highlights from that week, I should mention what the conference typically covers. Unlike Cisco Live or Wireless LAN Professionals

Apr 26, 2024 · 3 min read

5 Reasons Every WiFi Engineer Should Pursue Certified 5G LAN Specialist (C5S)

It has been quite the month: my partner moved in, my roof needed to be replaced and my sewer pipe collapsed in the past 4 weeks. While I did not have time to blog, I did have time to complete the Certified 5G LAN Specialist (C5S) course offered by CWNP with partnership from Celona.(1) Oh man, was I not prepared for the amount of content in this free class, but I am glad I made time for it.At first, you may think "I work in WiFi, why would I want to spend time on cellular". However, I have a few

Mar 26, 2024 · 2 min read

The Quiet Upgrade to WPA3 You Never Heard About

In the past month, I received questions about a configuration option I'm not sure I heard of before: Hash-to-encryption (H2E) for WPA3-SAE. Those questions led me to a Cisco configuration guide (1) that outlines: • This only concerns SAE/passphrase-based WLANs in WPA3 • H2E is required for 6 GHz • H2E adds an offline intermediary element (PT) for password derivation. The actual Password Element (PWE) derivation happens in real-time still. • Most importantly, the client falls back to Hunting-and-

Mar 14, 2024 · 5 min read

🗣️What's the Deal With 4-Way Handshakes?

Nothing makes me channel my inner Jerry Seinfeld in Wi-Fi like the 4-Way Handshake for client authentication. You look it up and get a diagram depicting the same story with 100 different variations. Some mention the RSN IEs and others mention whether the GTK is encrypted or not. The phrase "If needed" occasionally precedes the GTK derivation, but how often do we even have WLANs with only unicast traffic?Our source of truth, the 802.11-2020 standard, also mentions IGTKs and BIGTKs in addition to

Mar 2, 2024 · 2 min read

First Impressions 🔎: Wyebot Wireless Intelligence Platform

A few weeks ago, I noticed a new member in the Meraki Marketplace, Wyebot. This monitoring solution acts as an overlay to any vendor's WLAN solution to troubleshoot issues and proactively identify issues. Lo and behold, I was offered one of the WIS4300s to test by their team (Thank you!). The unit fits onto a grid ceiling like an AP with internal antennas. You can also freely move the unit around for troubleshooting as needed. Having experience with multiple wireless monitoring solutions, both o

Feb 25, 2024 · 2 min read

A Sunny Week at WLPC 2024 ☀️

Recently, I attended my first WLPC (Wireless Lan Professionals Conference) in Phoenix, AZ! This year's conference marked the 10th anniversary with commemorative events. At the Hilton Phoenix Resort at The Peak, I couldn't help but be green with envy at the meticulous landscaping having a garden of my own.Flower envy aside, this year's talks mostly focused on practical deployment advice for Wi-Fi 6E and predictions for how Wi-Fi 7 will impact the industry in years to come. Some of my favorite tal