My name is Mark Rigby. I love the outdoors, numerous sports, I’m an equal opportunity cyclist, owner of a beagle and have a loving wife and two children.
I have also worked in the IT and Telecommunications sector for nearly 20 years, starting as like many do, as a tinkerer, taking full advantage of the early days of dial up internet connectivity, where i spent much of my time browsing forums, posting in IRC rooms and learning ever more creative ways of breaking and rebuilding desktop PC’s.
It didn’t stop there, having struggled with formal education, i limped through college and left with no qualifications, choosing not to attend university, i decided to educate myself and pursue my real passion that started in the bedroom, hoping ultimately to turn it into a career as an IT engineer. The usual list of Microsoft accreditations followed, with a scattering of CompTia to boot.
After months of searching, confident in my newly acquired qualifications (Turns out experience helps a lot, and is true to this day) I was lucky enough to be offered a job with a local IT firm, as an on-site engineer for a UK customer base, the experience was a steep learning curve, but i was able to get hands on experience across a wide range of technologies, which ultimately helped shape where i am today.
These were the glory days of businesses becoming every more connected. It’s around this time that i started to get a lot of exposure to IP networking, working on commissioning of R+S, Wireless, VoIP and Security solutions, based on Cisco architecture, my path and future ambitions were now a lot clearer, this is where i would focus my energy.
Out of sheer coincidence, i was offered a contract position for a manufacturing company, working on the global 3rd and 4th line support team, i stayed in this position for more than 10 years, and it is here where i learnt the most, building vastly on the experience i had gained already, but now applied on a multinational level.
This is also where i really found my love for WiFi, having the opportunity to design, troubleshoot and commissioning managed wireless systems, in some of the most complex and technically demanding physical spaces i have encountered thus far was the catalyst, and encouraged me to take my studies to the next level, the culmination of which was having the privilege to lead a group of international engineers, supporting a wireless estate, in excess of 9500 AP’s.
To date i hold a number of certifications, CWNP Enterprise R+S+Wireless, CWSP, CWISA, CWDP, CWNA, JNCIA-MistAI, Ekahau ECSE Design + Troubleshooting and a very obscure CompTIA IT Fundamentals course that i needed to complete in order to apply for an ECS (Electrotechnical Certification Scheme) card to work in UK building sites.
As they say though, the end justifies the means. Which i ultimately why i am here, writing this blog, encouraged by the WiFi community and CWNP, to make my own contributions, detail my own experiences, and the use them to delve deep into topics that i would normally overlook, so that one day, i too can apply for what is my ultimate goal, the CWNE qualification, although in some ways foreboding, i feel that there is no greater satisfaction than the opportunity to be judged by, and vindicated by your peers.
And on that note, i welcome free and open debate, if you should read something on this blog that you disagree with, i encourage you to comment or contact me directly, much of what i would like to share is through personal experiences, and those experiences are often not shared.