Review by Industry Experts - As it appeared in Network World
Newsletter - MobileInfo acknowledges the source with thanks.
Review: Training course for newbies
By Joanie Wexler
Network World Wireless Newsletter, 11/12/01
If you are new to the wireless industry
or there is someone in your organization who could use some basic
education about the concepts of wireless networking, you might take a
sneak preview of " The Newbie’s Guide to Wireless Networks,
" an online multimedia tutorial offered by WKMN Training.
For those of you who have been around
the block on wireless technology, this series of short primers will
seem overly simplistic (hence, the course’s title). But the training
could be useful to those just entering the field or to technically
savvy personnel who want to help provide their CxOs or business
managers with some insight about what can be achieved with wireless
technology, and what some of the obstacles are.
The primers are presented in easily
digestible one- to three-minute segments, though they total three to
four hours of education. They use a combination of audio, animation,
text, and innovative quizzes to cover the basic concepts of wireless
LANs, mobile telephony networks, fixed last-mile wireless networks,
personal-area networks, and Bluetooth. There is also an introduction
that discusses the costs and efforts associated with physical cabling
and the basics of RF technology. The segment on how the various
frequency band-sharing schemes work is particularly helpful, making
effective use of animation to show how analog and digital channels are
chopped up by time or by frequency.
If you are looking for technical depth,
though, this isn’t the place to go. Case in point: the wireless LAN
security segment lasts one minute and 11 seconds. In fairness, the
course does send you optional " Web excursions " to related
sites with materials written on the subject at hand, such as in-depth
white papers on wireless security.
My favorite part of the course was
Newbie himself, a lovable, yellow-headed, red-footed Flash-toon who
informs you as to whether you have answered a quiz question correctly.
The course costs $50 if you sign on
before December 15, according to the company’s Web site. After you
first log in, you are given six months to continue visiting before
your registration expires. To find out more about the course and read
other reviews, visit http://www.wkmn.com/newsite/newbie.html#reviews
Joanie Wexler is an independent networking
technology writer/editor in Campbell, Calif., who has spent most of
her career analyzing trends and news in the computer networking
industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles published in this
newsletter, as well as your ideas for future article topics. Reach her
at joanie@jwexler.com.
