Greg Hammond

 How a STA Connects to a BSS An Overview of the .11 State Machine  A Beacon These Beacon things keep coming up, and thats because they are probably one of the most important frames in wireless communications. If the STA is not pre-configured with a SSID it should connect to, it will use beacons to learn about the networks in the vicinity. Once that happens, we can begin moving through the connection process also know as the State Machine. The .11 State Machine Below is a diagram of the steps we will go through as we move through the states. Ive included pieces of a packet capture I took of my phone connecting to my home network. We will also see the 4 way handshake used by PSK authentication. Without any security in place there will be 3 states and 6 frames. With security there will be an additional state, and 4 more frames for the handshake. .1x adds even more frames but basically it adds frames for verifying the client and server identities. Also we are not including the ACK...

 CWNP Notes Ive been reading the new CWAP-404 book for the updated test released just a couple months ago. I am posting my notes in the menu bar as I read through the chapters, feel free to take a look. While they are organized and aligned with each section in the chapter, like most notes, some things will only make sense to me. Included are some packet captures that I have taken as well to add some context. Hopefully it will still give those who are curious a glimpse about what is covered in the new test. Im still fond of physical media so I purchased the book here (not an affiliate, just the first place that had it available). Also, the objectives for the new version of the test can be found here . In addition to the CWAP notes, I re-read some chapters from my CWNA-107 book and added those notes. 107 was retired and the most notable change was the addition of .11ax in 108. Once more copies become available on the used market I intend to pick one up to cover the latest standard....