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Last year, network managers contemplating the rollout of enterprise 802.11 wireless LANs found that the analysis and troubleshooting tools they used on their Ethernet LANs simply didn't exist for wireless systems. Most obvious was the absence of a capable protocol analyzer. Sniffer Wireless hit the market earlier this year (see "Sniffer Wireless: A Traffic Analyzer in a Class of Its Own," at www..nwc.com/1207/ 1207spl.htm), but the product's upscale capabilities come at a BMW price that's too high for network managers with Honda budgets.
I took the new Honda of network analysis-WildPackets' AiroPeek Wireless Protocol Analyzer-for a spin. I'm not talking Yugo here, where the quality is as low as the cost. We're talking functional, affordable, stylish and easy to drive. Building upon the clean functionality of its EtherPeek analyzer, WildPackets (formerly the AG Group) delivers a solid product that lets you monitor and analyze your wireless network.
START YOUR ENGINES
I installed a beta version of AiroPeek 1.0 on a Dell Computer Latitude P-600 with 128 MB of RAM in our Real-World Labs at Syracuse University. I later upgraded to the shipping release, which corrected a few minor installation and wireless channel navigation bugs found in the beta. This release of AiroPeek works only with Cisco Systems' Aironet 340 wireless NIC. WildPackets says it is planning to add support for Symbol Technologies' wireless NICs in version 1.1, scheduled for release sometime this summer, and for Agere Systems' Orinoco card at a later date.
Upon firing up AiroPeek, I was greeted by a clean interface with two windows. The network statistics window, using the familiar dashboard visual metaphor, provides a real-time summary of utilization and packets per second. The AiroPeek log window gives information about significant events, most of which are generated by plug-in modules and provide expert analysis of network traffic. WildPackets includes a number of generic plug-ins with AiroPeek; these provide useful functions, such as finding and logging duplicate...