5/1/2002 -- Novell announced yesterday that it is offering a free "alpha" version of its upcoming 050-677 Foundations of Novell Networking exam, which will eventually be Novell's sole requirement for its upcoming CNA NetWare 6 certification.

Alpha #052-677 will be available through Friday May 3. Candidates interested in taking it can register via Prometric or Vue via phone (registration is limited to the first 300 candidates). Note that because this is an early beta (a.k.a. "alpha"), candidates who pass it will not receive credit toward their CNA 6 certification (Novell reserves this credit for the second beta round).

The final version of this exam, originally scheduled to be released by March of this year, is now expected to debut sometime in Q3 2002.

Novell originally announced the requirements for its NetWare 6 certifications back in June 2001. However, according to a recent Novell brochure, the titles themselves will not go live until Q3 and Q4 2002.

For more information about participating in this beta, click here. For more on Novell certification in general, click here. - B.N.