Sniff Wi-Fi

Do you own, manage, or provide technology services for a classy hotel?   Yes??   Then this blog's for you.   No, we are not going to reveal the secrets of luring wealthy clientele via watered-down booze and disreputable ladies.  Those things are obvious, and if they're not obvious you should ask a French person.  (One of my best friends is French, so I can say that...  I think.)   We are going to reveal how to quickly validate your other most important service -- Wi-Fi -- using free, built-in Mac software. The nice thing about providing Wi-Fi service at an upscale hotel (or other hospitality environment; convention centers, cruise ships, et al. count too) is that wealthy people hate to complain.  (Publicly, that is.  Privately that's all they do.)  The not-so-nice thing is that wealthy people are big fans of ghosting.  They will abandon your upscale hotel with the quickness if service of any kind dips ...

A year ago yours truly wrote about the importance of device location when capturing Wi-Fi frames in a post titled, " Worthless Capture ".  Well, recently another Wi-Fi sniffing bugaboo has become more prevalent: devices that lack the physical capability to capture a  data frames. This whole problem really stems from 802.11n.  As many people (including the author) found out when the iPad was released in 2010, not all 802.11n devices have the same capabilities .  That is an annoyance to consumers, but it's downright dangerous to Wi-Fi professionals.  Most Wi-Fi networks require sniffing at some point (for surveying, for event preparation, for troubleshooting, etc.), but most Wi-Fi sniffing devices are incapable of sniffing high rate data frames. One more time: Most Wi-Fi sniffing devices are incapable of sniffing high rate data frames. The Linksys WUSB600N, which yours truly uses to sniff with WildPackets OmniPeek?   Only 2 radio chains (a radio chain ...