Sniff Wi-Fi

Today it was announced that 7 Signal  would be a first time presenter at Wireless Field Day in August.  7 Signal offers a product that uses distributed sensors that analyze a WLAN. Wait a moment.  This sounds familiar... It was a mere fifteen months ago that yours truly spouted a  negative opinion of distributed sensors for WLAN analysis and troubleshooting.  To be precise, distributed sensors were accused to producing a worthless capture. A company like 7 Signal, then, offers both good news and bad news. The Good: People are starting to care more about WiFi sniffing and analysis.  A company like 7 Signal can only exist if networking folks appreciate the value of seeing what it happening in the air. The Bad: Distributed sensors produce worthless captures.  Does it matter if a 7 Signal sensor can connect if an iPad cannot?  Does it matter if good channel quality is seen at the ceiling (where the Sapphire Eye sensors are supposed to be m...

As long time readers of this blog might know, WildPackets OmniPeek has been my favorite WiFi sniffer for nearly a decade.  Then I found out about WildPackets' OmniWiFi 3-stream 802.11n USB adapter and I fell even more in love.  Now I learn that OmniPeek 7.5 has added wireless features to the Compass screen.  A good product has been made better (though time will tell if it lasts). First, OmniWiFi: The fact that different 802.11n devices have different capabilities is one of those things that sometimes flies under the radar.  The standard may say 600 Mbps, but just on the Apple website one can buy 802.11n devices with maximum rates of 65 Mbps (iPhone 4S), 150 Mbps (iPad Mini), 300 Mbps (Macbook Air 2012) and 450 Mbps (Macbook Pro 2012). 450 Mbps WiFi devices are the ones that give WiFi pros trouble because so many sniffing tools fail to capture 450 Mbps traffic.  The popular (at least with Wireshark devotees) AirPcap NX from Riverbed, the beloved (at least b...