I attended the Canopy training presented by CTCA.info this week in Seattle, WA.
The quality and quantity of the material was perfect and the instructors were top notch. The instructor that taught 100 and 200 has been in the industry for a very long time. One of his previous gigs (among many) was teaching RF to the Engineers at Motorola so I suspect that anyone attending will not need to worry about knowing more than the instructor. The instructor that taught 300 and 400 was excellent (I hope to be that good).
One of the unique tools that CTCA.info uses is that after every section they stop and ask if the material is to deep, too shallow, or just right. If the majority of the class says its too thin, they adapt the pace. Only one time did the class feel that it was going a little slow so they adapted. Every other time the class said the material and pace were just right.
Everyone there got a lot out of the class, even people that has been working with canopy for years. In a lot of cases people had the light go on and say Ah-Ha!
Personally I got a lot out of the classes. Our network runs pretty well but definately learned a number of things that I will implement when I get back.
Like what jerry? Tell us what you learned.
yeah, Jerry i’d be interested to know what they could have taught you about Canopy, I would have guessed for some who has worked with Canopy on a scale as yourself there will be little to be taught,
however if they went into the Spectrum and wave theory, thats different.
If it really is good and will help you look after your network better then I may consider it…
While I was there, here are a cople of of A-Ha! moments for me. Some of you will say “you should have known that”. This is the situation we all face as owner/operator/sales people: If the newtork is running well and you are faced with spending time reading the manual or getting new customers - which are you going to do? That’s the benefit of the training as you are forced to sit and go through everything step by step. Frankly I consult the manual when there is a problem, but I did not sit down and read the whole thing (nor would I, that’s not how I learn).
1. Physical separation of the units - mine are clustered together and while I am getting away with it, at some point I will wish they were further apart.
2. Don’t leave the SNMP settings at default
3. Co-located BH’s should be downgraded to 7.0.7
4. The cost of setting the max range too far is higher than I thought. It’s probably costing me 20% BW.
5. I really need to upgrade my CMMmicros to 2.0. There are some very good features, one of which is AP to AP isolation
I am bound by an NDA so I cannot give you all of the information that I learned. You will have to go to training to get it. As I said before, there was not one person there who felt like they did not get a substantial benefit from the training (and the instructors asked, repeatedly).
Based on my experience and looking back on how I learned Canopy, here is how I would determine who gets sent to training:
100 - any employee that I think is going to stick around and be selling or working with Canopy.
200 - installers. Sales people that are selling business service
300 - installers that I want to keep and make them into techs
400 - anyone thinking about deploying Prism/BAM
If you are concerned that you are going to pay $$$ to send a tech to training and then have then leave your company, just have them sign an agreement that if they leave, they have to repay the training prorated 12 months (or whatever you are comfortable with).
The guy who say’s he already know’s everything and doesn’t need to go to training normally knows the least.
If you could only do 200 or 300, which one would you do?
That’s a tough one.
200 covers everything over two days, 300 is deeper but only one day.
I would say if you have been working with it, can configure radios, and more or less get it to work then 300 would be the right choice.
Jerry, how in depth do they get with Troubleshooting? And what class goes over the most troubleshooting problems?
300 will give you the most in-depth information.
I think when you have done 300 you will have a better understanding of how Canopy works and therefore be able to troubleshoot more effectively.
Jerry, this question goes slightly off topic, but I am curious to know: how is the atmosphere there as far as attire?
Just trying to get prepared for my upcoming trip 
Jerry Richardson wrote:
2. Don't leave the SNMP settings at default
I am bound by an NDA so I cannot give you all of the information that I learned. You will have to go to training to get it. As I said before, there was not one person there who felt like they did not get a substantial benefit from the training (and the instructors asked, repeatedly).
Elaborate as best you can :lol:
ais3101: Casual
cwingfield: Leaving the setting at default allows anyone to mess with the devices…
Imagine, Suzy downloads the manual, and sees that the default SNMP is Canopy, and that Read Only is not checked. Suzy downloads SNMP walk, scans the IP space of the network and starts messing with devices.
I was there and it was a very good class. Its best to know alittle about canopy before going. Then you know what question to ask also you learn alot from the other people taking the course what they are using canopy for what is working and what is not
It depends right jerry lol
LOL
I took their “Advanced Technical Training” a two day course in Schaumburg back in October of 2003. I would like to see how it has changed since then.
My understanding is that you would not even recognize it
Never a big fan of class based training, but I would agree that listening to someone who knows what they are talking about can really switch on some lights inside…
I took two Motorola Point to Point wireless engineers (formerly known as Orthogon) out for lunch and in about 2 hours they blew my mind and switch on a full stadium of lights inside… They covered sensitivity, dishes, vertical/horizontal seperation, angular shielding, frequency seperation, etc…
The course looks tempting…
- Co-located BH’s should be downgraded to 7.0.7
Jerry, why would this be a good idea?
If you were not aware, co-located BH masters in the same band will have problems registering when running higher than 7.1.9
Downgrading to 7.0.7 was at the recommendation of Martin who taught the 400 class (Advanced). You could also use 7.1.9, however I think he feels that 7.0.7 was the last version where co-located BH’s were the most stable.
Martin has the advantage that he consults with and works on alot of different networks, not just one. That type of perspective will tell you more about the nature of a product than working with it in one system only. So I tend to follow advice like that.
This should clear up a problem that I am working on as we speak, thanks!