Sniff Wi-Fi

Far be it from me to hate on a Wi-Fi vendor... ...but seeing Cisco's Wi-Fi recommendations for iPhones (and other Apple iOS devices) has led me to wonder whether The Cisco (Kid) is a Friend of Mine. Cisco released a Best Practices doc for supporting iPhones, iPads, et al. back in November.  For whatever reason I missed it back then.  I'm bringing it up now because Keith Parsons had something about it on his Twitter feed and Ekahau has a webinar coming up on designing a Wi-Fi network for iOS devices.   I am happy that Cisco is bringing up the topic of device-centric Wi-Fi design.  Wi-Fi is (or, at least, should be) all about the end user, and device-centric design implicitly acknowledges this. I am less happy at several of Cisco's actual recommendations.  They seem to have fallen into the trap of believing (or, more perhaps more accurately, leading) the Latest Trendy Wi-Fi Disease, throughputitis .   Throughputitis , as you all know, is Latin fo

The last Sniff Wi-Fi post; on why Wi-Fi professionals should stop disabling low data rates, was met some resistance.  Be it in the comments  or  on Twitter , several experienced Wi-Fi folks disagreed. All arguments in favor of disabling low rates  (the ones that were presented to me, at least) were refuted in the text of the Leave, Leave, Leave My Rates Alone blog post.  But text is a less accessible messaging method.  "A picture is worth a thousand words", as the old saying goes. If pictures will get the message across better, then pictures are what I'll use.  What follows is an illustrated look at why disabling low data rates is a bad idea. It's gauche to begin an illustrated work with text, but to understand the problem with disabling low Wi-Fi data rates one must first accept some facts about Wi-Fi devices (smartphones, laptops, etc.): 1. Wi-Fi devices -- not APs -- control associations and roaming. 2. Wi-Fi devices roam based on low received signal str

Sometimes you have to return to the classics.  Who better than less-than-memorable pre-gangsta rapper Hi-C to take us there? Much like the cool kids have embraced the neon colors and late-night TV comedy of the grunge decade, so too has this blog decided to embrace its past, only with a twist.  Five short years ago I  wrote a plea asking that Wi-Fi folks stop disabling high data rates on guest networks.  And they did!  (For the most part.)  Unfortunately, the pendulum has swung too far.  Now it's time to ask Wi-Fi folks to stop disabling low data rates; or, to paraphrase Hi-C: leave my rates alone. Wi-Fi folks are always looking for ways to make wireless channels more efficient.  That is a good thing.  Wi-Fi's one limited resource is channel time, and so it is great to see more and more Wi-Fi people looking for ways to get the most amount of data across a channel in the least amount of time. Disabling low data rates is a relatively recent trend that aims to impro