Sniff Wi-Fi

At the 2018 Wireless LAN Professional Conference (WLPC), I was scheduled to give a ten-minute "Ten Talk" on Wi-Fi surveying without using site survey software.  I aborted that talk at the last minute in favor of a talk on Ghost Frames .   After the WLPC, Matthew Norwood told me on Twitter that he was looking forward to the talk about surveying without using site survey software.  I don't want to disappoint Matthew, or anyone else who was looking forward to that scheduled Ten Talk.  Here, then, is a YouTube version of the aborted talk on Wi-Fi surveying without using site survey software: ****** If you like my blog, you can support it by shopping through my  Amazon  link or becoming a Patron on  Patreon .  Thank you. Twitter:  @Ben_SniffWiFi ben at sniffwifi dot com

The recently completed Wireless LAN Professionals Conference (WLPC) was nice enough to gift attendees a Wi-Fi Stand .  The product is a clever one, but as a person who believes in measuring Wi-Fi propagation accurately when surveying, I was concerned.  When I tested it, my results showed that my concerns appear to be unfounded. The Wi-Fi stand is an apparatus that screws in to the top of a tripod to make a vertical, rectangular structure that allows enterprise APs to be hung upside down from standard ceiling mounts.  If that is a little bit hard to visualize, here's my best shot at describing it: The graphic on the left is what the Wi-Fi Stand looks like and the graphic on the right is how the Wi-Fi Stand looks on top of a tripod. I am a big believer in designing & surveying Wi-Fi using real, production devices, and a longstanding problem with that has been temporarily mounting APs for the design/survey.  I've tried zip ties, and velcro.  I've gone...

Back in my day, we called it The Corner .  Nowadays, the kids call it The Trap . (WARNING: Very NSFW) The average IT professional may not view Wi-Fi "Design" as being directly analogous to the inner city drug trade.  Yet, when Wi-Fi Professionals go through the process of choosing AP installation locations, they should know what even the most novice  B.G. drug dealer knows: that The Corner is also The Trap. When embarking on a Wi-Fi "Design", some things are obvious.  Coverage is needed everywhere.  The number of available APs must be appropriate for the number of expected Wi-Fi devices.  Physical objects (walls, doors, et al.) should be accounted for. A less obvious part of Wi-Fi "Design" is avoiding Hidden Node problems.  The Hidden Node problem occurs when two or more devices on the same channel A) cannot "hear" each other, and B) can interfere with each other. The reason why Hidden Node is a problem is that Wi-Fi devices rely o...

This week's big Wi-Fi news was Ekahau's introduction of the Sidekick , an easy-to-carry, laptop battery-conserving device designed to make Wi-Fi site surveying more elegant.  Unfortunately, it appears to do more to exacerbate Wi-Fi problems than to solve them. What is the number one problem in enterprise Wi-Fi? It surely can't be security.  Security is a hot topic, but Wi-Fi security isn't really a problem anymore.  Even security problems that Wi-Fi gets blamed on -- Pineapple hijacking, Wi-Phishing, man-in-the-middle -- either aren't problems for modern devices & applications, or are problems that extend beyond Wi-Fi. Maybe it's user density?  Or supporting a variety of devices?  Maybe it's connection issues; when moving or when the device is idle for too long? Whatever the answer, chances are it comes down to one overarching issue: different Wi-Fi devices behave differently.  Capacity testing gets done using laptops, then smartphones cause th...

In the beginning, there was Coverage.  And so it was that 802.11 and his only begotten Son, WiFi were blessed upon PCMCIA cards who doth receiveth adequateth Coverage. And then as Coverage grew and the lands of Tablets wereth discovered, so came Capacity.  And thus did Capacity grow to represent all that was good and great about deploymenteths upon this fruitful land. And now, my Sons and Daughters, things have changeth again.   For Coverage and Capacity will both leave the Higheth of Densiteth WiFi wanting.  And so we shun them both.  For it is Neither -- Coverage nor Capacity -- that will taketh thy to the WiFi promised land. In case it was unclear, designing wireless LANs for Capacity has become an article of faith in some circles.  Keep it to 40 devices per AP.  Or 50.  Or 150.  Whatever the number is, the whole concept is misguided. WiFi uses radio frequency as its physical layer, and ther...