Sniff Wi-Fi

Editor's note: In the original publication of this article, the relationship between Wi-Fi channel width and SNR was described imprecisely.  While the point of the article was correct -- that wider channel widths increase the likelihood of Wi-Fi frame failures for mobile client devices -- the mistakes have been corrected.  Thank you to Adrian Granados . Ahh, roaming. Few things capture the spirit of freedom like the ability to Roam wherever you want to go. Wi-Fi has its own brand of roaming, and there is one aspect of Wi-Fi roaming that often gets overlooked: 40 MHz and 80 MHz wide channels can make Wi-Fi users feel like they've been bounced from the Love Shack. Much has been written and spoken about the pros and cons of the three Wi-Fi channel widths: 20 MHz, 40 MHz, and 80 MHz. 20 MHz wide channels allow for the highest number of APs to be deployed -- nice for ultra high-density Wi-Fi -- because each AP takes up less of Wi-Fi's scarce frequency space.  ...

Device vendor secrecy makes Wi-Fi worse for users. "Wi-Fi is all about the users."  It's my Pinned Tweet  and my professional operating philosophy.  I don't care about AP vendor preference or network management or heatmaps or anything else that doesn't improve the user experience.  I want every device for every user to work everywhere at all times, period.  That's the goal. It is frustrating to me, therefore, that Wi-Fi device makers are so tight with their information.  I've gotten a lot of blowback for my writing and Tweeting about what a mistake it is to set the Minimum Basic Rate (MBR) above 6 Mbps .  Most of it is balderdash from BS artists and other people who don't know Wi-Fi.  A not insignificant amount, however, is from people who know Wi-Fi, at least to some degree.  And the common refrain from those people can be summarized thusly: "Wi-Fi devices use more than just RSSI to determine when to roam."  Maybe things h...

Chatty smartphones have been an issue for years.  Whether you're concerned with security or performance  (or both), the amount of Probing being done by unconnected iPhones, Galaxies and the like has been worrisome.   Today, things have changed.  Smartphones don't Probe as much.  This is probably for the better, but there could be a catch. I'm an Apple guy.  Even when I was using PCs in college (things were different back in the 90's , I tell ya), it was always because they were free.  Once I finally had to buy a computer, I went straight to the very first iBook in 2001.  I own an iPod, iPad, iPhone and MacBook Air.  My next computing purchase will probably be an iMac (to better record those promised-but-not-yet-delivered online training videos on WiFi that I touted six months ago).  So, I like the company.  And I like bashing its competitors sometimes.  (Not my most magnanimous trait, but nobody's perfect.) I liked poi...