Sniff Wi-Fi

WildPackets has a sizable discount for OmniPeek Professional right now if you bundle it with three OmniWiFi 802.11a/b/g/n 3-stream USB adapters.   WildPackets OmniPeek has long been my favorite WiFi sniffer, and the OmniWiFi USB adapter is currently my favorite capture device.  So getting a package of OmniPeek Pro with three OmniWiFi adapters at a $900 discount would seem to be an awesome deal, right?  Sort of. There are several versions of WildPackets OmniPeek , and for the most part the more expensive versions add features that are far more useful for wired sniffing than for wireless sniffing.  One look at the OmniPeek comparison chart reveals that the Compass screen and roaming testing are the only features that could possibly maybe justify a WiFi person spending $3,000 (discounted to $2,400 as part of the deal referenced above) on OmniPeek Pro rather than $1,200 on OmniPeek Basic. Compass is nice , and if you have a relatively large budget for ...

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...