francois verges

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Welcome Our New Host: François Vergès

January 9, 2017 Rowell Announcements 0 Comments

The podcast is already doing great as we are in full swing for 2017. To create more relevant content and publish more episodes, I would like to welcome François Vergès as an official host to the show.

You have heard his voice on episodes such as:

What Changes?

Francois and I are looking forwarding to creating more episodes. We’ll continue to do some episodes together as co-hosts but Francois will also be doing solo episodes as well.

Only positive changes to the podcast 🙂

About François Vergès, CWNE #180

Profile picture of FrançoisFrançois grew up in France were he studied in one of the top computer engineer school specializing in Network and Telecommunication.

François moved to Canada at the end of his studies and started to work as a Network Engineer. He quickly found a passion for Wi-Fi networks leading him to study the technology as well as following the current market.

He founded SemFio Networks with the idea of helping businesses getting the best out of their Wi-Fi network.

CTS 039: When and How To Use Spectrum Analysis

May 29, 2016 Rowell Podcast 00:24:21 1 Comment

Interference

Thank you for joining us on another great episode. The topic of episode 39 is when and how to use spectrum analysis.

Spectrum analysis is a crucial part of wireless site surveys and for troubleshooting. When performing spectrum analysis as part of a wireless site survey, an engineer can determine which areas contain sources of interference that can greatly degrade the performance of a wireless network.

Some interference is non-802.11 traffic. Wireless NICs within devices cannot demodulate these signals. If a transmission occurs with interference present, the frames are corrupted.

It’s important to know the different kinds of interferences that can exist.

  • Sporadic (happens only at specific times). An example is bluetooth
  • Constant (the interference is there all the time). Example: Wireless Video Camera
    — Both can be disruptive to the Wi-Fi if the duty cycle is high
    — There is also the width of the interference to validate.
  • Do not forget to watch out for interference from other Wi-Fi networks (even yours…)
  • Duty cycle
  • ACI

Links and Resources

Portrait of Francois Verges

CTS 037: CWNE Journey With Francois Verges

May 9, 2016 Rowell Podcast 00:36:59 0 Comments

Portrait of Francois VergesI have the pleasure of having Francois Verges co-hosting with me as he discusses his journey to CWNE. It was recently announced on Twitter, Francois became CWNE #180.

Francois first started his journey to becoming CWNE about 3 years ago. He talks about this experience and how he got introduced into the CWNP program.

In this episode, Francois provides his tips and insights into starting out with CWNA and what steps to take in becoming a CWNE.

Links and Resources

Band Select settings from the Advanced menu.

CTS 031: Band Steering with Francois Verges

March 28, 2016 Rowell Podcast 00:25:07 4 Comments

Band Steering

What is wireless band steering? Band steering is a method or feature within enterprise access points to sending dual-band stations to the 5 GHz band instead of the 2.4 GHz band.

Band Steering enabled access points delay responses to 2 GHz probe response frames.

Why would you want to enable band steering? The most common reason is to encourage 5 GHz capable stations to leave the congested 2.4 GHz band thus leaving legacy devices behind. The 2.4 GHz band has three non-overlapping channels which provides wireless engineers with a less channels to re-use. The 5 GHz band has 24 non-overlapping channels using 20 MHz channel-widths.

Francois Verges joins me as the special guest on the show to discuss the merits of band steering, why you should use it and also what you should look out for if you do implement this feature.

As I work primarily with Cisco wireless networks, I’ve provided an example of how to configure band steering. Cisco’s terminology for band steering is called Band Select.

I won’t go into the differences between Band Select and Band Steering in this episode. This is simply to show everyone where band steering can be enabled.

To view Cisco WLC Band Select settings:

Band Select settings from the Advanced menu. Cisco Band Select is enabled by default on the Cisco WLC./caption

Band Select is enabled by default on a Cisco WLC. The global settings for Band Select are located at Wireless > Advanced > Band Select.

Enabling Band Select on a WLAN.

Although Band Select is enabled globally on the controller, the setting itself must be enabled on the WLAN.

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