Sniff Wi-Fi

If there's one recent change in the Wi-Fi world that has brought some heat and light to your humble blogger's cold, dark heart, it's the awareness of device differences.  But there's a difference between understanding that Wi-Fi devices have differences and creating an infrastructure that supports them.  And an important step in setting up a good Wi-Fi infrastructure is finding out whether the APs' transmit power is too high, too low or juuuuuuust right.  It has long been the recommended to have matching transmit power for devices engaging in two-way wireless communication, but with Wi-Fi that rule is often broken.  Breaking the rule is understandable because Wi-Fi environments are often vendor-neutral.  Most Wi-Fi deployments are not like the beaches of Normandy, where everyone had the same model of radio. Sometimes we need really, really good Wi-Fi, and matching the transmit power levels of APs and stations can go a long way towards fulfilling that need....

I recently got into a little tiff on Twitter.  In part it was an argument about blogging and reaching a broad audience, but mostly it was about site surveys.  Site surveys are hot right now, but I find that surveyors often overlook an important aspect of WiFi: different devices act differently. Conventional wisdom for WiFi site surveys is to get some site survey software , upload a floorplan and start a-surveyin'.  First predictive (letting the software estimate where coverage will go), then active (temporarily mounting access points in the locations chosen in the predictive survey and testing connectivity) and finally verification (walking the site after APs have been installed). The problem with all three types of surveys (predictive, active and verification) is that they are done with site survey software.  Site survey software is great for selling APs or pacifying execs, but it usually requires using a specific adapter.  So every time you verify conn...

So I'm milling around Twitter one afternoon when someone told me that Fluke AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer was overwhelming.  Well, it is if you don't know what to look for.  And since I'm in the midst of developing an online class about WiFi sniffing, I decided to whip up a shabby-looking 10 minute video that might help those who feel overwhelmed. If you like my blog, you can support it by shopping through my  Amazon  link or donating Bitcoin to  1N8m1o9phSkFXpa9VUrMVHx4LJWfratseU Thank you.

In my last (real) post, I detailed how I used WildPackets OmniPeek to solve an iPhone 5 QoS problem.  But what about AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer?  I am a fan of both of those fine WiFi sniffers, so I figure it's a good idea to show you how QoS can be analyzed with Fluke Networks' signature WiFi protocol analyzer. WildPackets OmniPeek is more of a hardcore protocol analyzer than AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer is.  If you're going to be doing the type of sniffing I detailed in the last blog post , you will have an easier go of it with WildPackets' product.  But AirMagnet is popular and both tools are expensive.  So if you happen to be a gal (or guy) who needs to troubleshoot WiFi voice or video and you have AirMagnet, this brief tutorial should help. To begin analyzing QoS, one must first capture on the VoFi devices channel.  In my case I associated my iPhone 5 to a network with the SSID of "R&T".  Then I looked at the Start screen in AirMagnet: The "...