Testing Equipment for Wireless Survey?? 1

[paulk29]

Hi there again all,
I'm trying to get into the Wireless Networking Business and am wondering do I need to purchase or download some testing Equipment or Software? Can anyone recomend if needed a good piece of Testing Equipment to carry out Site Surveys and or to troubleshoot Wireless Networks? I have netstumbler but I'm not sure its strong enough for a professional..
Let me know what you think please.
Thanking you in advance
Slán
Paul

Paul Kilcoyne B eng. CCNA

 

[wybnormal]

I can tell you right up front that any prospective client who sees their highly paid consultant using a "Freebie" application like Netstumbler is going to question the value of said consultant. Stumbler is good for what it does but it does not do an audit or a real analysis of a wireless network. Clients feel alot better when I walk in with a paid for application like Airmagent which puts out very good information of more then just "here is the AP list and possible signal strength." The Airmagnet has excellent reporting and a while back I ran back to back tests between stumbler and AM. AM opened a can of whoop a** even though tumbler was hooked to an external 5db gain antenna and Airmaget was using a PCMCIA Cisco card.

Airopeek is an excellent wireless sniffer and I have used it with good success in several tough wirless (so they thought) problems.

Ethereal while free can look good if you take the time to set up the color coding and the proper protocol decodes. It's not "real" wireless but it can work in a pinch. I'm not impressed with NAI's wireless sniffers. I love their wired Sniffer but the wireless had some serious issues. Maybe with the new management team, they will finally get the resources they need.

I also carry a selection of cards. Some work better then others in a given circumstance. The Lucent Gold and Cisco 340/350 cards have been the best.

But, you will a dozen different opinons of what tools to use and how

MikeS

Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu

 

[paulk29]

Mike,
thanks a million for that. Are the Airopeek and Airmagnet run on Laptops and are they expensive? Also is it worth using a handheld device for testing?
I assume for a Site Survey I'd plug in a Wireless Router at where say their internet connection is located and from there roam around the building with my Wireless Laptop running the Airopeek/ Airmagnet software....
I know my queries seem basic but your help is much appreciated believe me.
Thanks
Slán
Paul

Paul Kilcoyne B eng. CCNA

 

[wybnormal]

Airopeek runs off a laptop. I have used it on both IBM Thinkpads and Compaq M700s Doesnt need to be fancy, PIII is plenty of power.

Airmagnet comes in two flavors (3 counting distributed).. PDA and laptop. I have both. THe NICs are married to the software by use of a custom burned firmware. Airopeek uses a software serial number so it's more "portable".

They each have their strong points. Airmagnet is the best for a site survey. Airopeek is a packet decoder.. a real sniffer in other words.

http://www.packetattack.com/wireless.html

I have a section on wireless sniffers. My real audio presentations are not working as I still need to move them from my old hosting service. But the flash demo is working for Airmagnet distributed which is the core of the laptop version.

MikeS

Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu

 

[mwr35]

Mike is so right on this one. The key thing to condsider when monitoring your wireless network is to do it all the time. Most people make the mistake of taking momentary snapshots to check for rogue devices. Filter by MAC address and don't worry about it.