World class wi-fi for business

Ekahau Site Survey version 8.6 released for both Windows and OS X (Beta)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=87vXdAmSnH8

The 8.6 release brings a number of exciting improvements to the Windows version as well:

• Support for high DPI display devices such as Microsoft Surface 3/4 and Dell XPS 13
• Photos for AP notes (for example AP installation images)
• Improved One-Click Reporting – now includes, for example, per-band reporting
• New crosshair cursors (once again, we’ll get them perfect one of these days), new APs as always, etc…

Read the full list of new features and improvements here: https://www.ekahau.com/release-notes-essLimitations of the OS X version:

• Surveying: The key reason we’re still calling it beta is the site survey piece is more limited than Windows version. We can only use the MacBook integrated Wi-Fi adapter for passive scanning. No multi-NIC. No control over channels to scan. No standardized passive survey readings as laptop antennas and adapters vary depending on the laptop model. And for active scanning, you can use the few external adapters that work on a MacBook (and the drivers for those provided by the adapter manufacturer aren’t always perfect). There is no support (and never will be) for NIC-300 / Proxim 8494 adapters on Mac OS X.Recap: Integrated adapter for passive scanning & external adapter for active scanning if you can find one. No Ekahau NIC-300 Support!
• Licensing: Using just one license on both operating systems is not super-easy for now, and is not supported by Ekahau at this time. We recommend just picking one operating system (best option for most), or purchasing another license if you’d like to run ESS on both operating systems (does not make sense for most).If you want to start using Ekahau Site Survey for Mac OS X, you can simply use your existing license key which you have been using with the Windows version. During the license activation process, the Windows activation will be automatically released and moved over to Mac OS X. No need to contact our tech support… hopefully

  If you absolutely want to use both Windows and OS X versions with the same license, there is an unsupported method with Windows Boot Camp on Mac. Read more about the unsupported method here: https://docs.ekahau.com/index.php/ESS_for_Mac_OS_X_Beta_-_Licensing

• No GPS support for outdoor surveys
• Stability is not quite up to the Windows version level yet. After all, the Windows version has been around several years and has been used by tens of thousands of customers. Fortunately, the Mac version has already gone through a massive beta test program and our QA team has been on Red Bull diet since May, so we don’t expect any huge issues. However, should you run into any problems contact our support at www.ekahau.com/support or @EkahauSupport on Twitter.

We’ll be improving the OS X version towards the end of the year with the goal of dropping the beta late this year or early next – stay tuned!

Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)

Signal-to-Noise Ratio visualization displays how much stronger the signal strength is than the noise in the given location. In ESS the noise is either measured by the Wi-Fi adapter (if available) or simulated via co-channel interference.

Signal must be stronger than noise for data transfer to be possible. If the signal is just barely stronger than noise, you may encounter occasional connectivity drop-offs or packet loss.

SNR visualization options has following unique options available:

Association mode: You can choose to two different modes for how the SNR is calculated. Default mode is Predicted Association, which calculates SNR from either measured or simulated Signal Strength and Interference results. Measured mode on the other hands gets the SNR results directly from the associated access points — which gives more direct results.

Note: Measured mode only gets results from one band, because you can only be associated to one radio at the time. Also, you will only get results from the APs where you associated during the survey. That is why default mode is the preferred option, because it will give user more comprehensive results across all APs.

• Noise settings: You can also choose whether you want to use measured noise from Wi-Fi adapter readings or simulated noise from estimated co-channel interference. By default this option is Automatic, which means that measured noise is used if there are surveys in the project and simulated co-channel interference is used if there are no surveys present.
• Network Load: This is a shared setting with Interference visualization. Network Load settings simulates the traffic for co-channel interference & noise. Network load simulates the overall utilization of the network and how it affects the overall noise level — higher the percentage, higher the noise levels. This options is disabled if you’re using Measured noise, because network load only affects simulated results.

Cain & Abel (Windows)

Cain & Abel (Windows)

Cain & Abel — это многоцелевое приложение для операционных систем Windows для восстановления и взлома паролей, которое также оснащено инструментами для перехвата и анализа сетевого трафика, в том числе и WiFi-сетей. Как и предыдущее решение (Acrylic WiFi Home), Cain & Abel является мощным сетевым анализатором, способным захватить и обработать большую часть беспроводного сетевого трафика.

Его графический интерфейс имеет относительно древний, упрощенный вид. Панель инструментов (старого стиля с иконками вверху экрана) используется для запуска различных утилит. Доступ к основным функциональным частям приложения осуществляется через вкладки окошек.

Через вкладку «Wireless» («Беспроводная связь») мы получаем доступ к функциональным инструментам для анализа сетевого трафика WiFi-сетей. В дополнение к обычной информации об идентификаторах SSID и различной информации о сигналах, здесь также можно найти список и детальную информацию о подключенных клиентах. Для точек доступа и клиентов Cain & Abel предоставляет информацию о количестве обнаруженных пакетов: всех пакетов, векторов инициализации протокола безопасности WEP (WEP Initialization Vector, WEP IV) и ARP-запросов. Любые скрытые SSID, обнаруженные из перехваченных пакетов, будут отображаться в графическом интерфейсе. Большую часть перехваченных статусов и данных можно экспортировать в простой текстовый файл.

Несмотря на огромный функциональный потенциал данного решения, такие недостатки, как отсутствие наглядных графиков, а также невозможность распознавать точки доступа стандарта 802.11ac и определять более широкие каналы, не позволяют назвать Cain & Abel лучшим выбором для наблюдения и анализа WiFi-сетей

На это решение стоит обратить внимание, если ваши задачи выходят далеко за пределы простого анализа трафика. С его помощью вы можете восстанавливать пароли для ОС Windows, производить атаки для получения потерянных учетных данных, изучать данные VoIP в сети, анализировать маршрутизацию пакетов и многое другое

Это действительно мощный инструментарий для системного администратора с широкими полномочиями.

Скачать Cain & Abel: http://www.oxid.it/cain.html

Spectrum utilization

Spectrum utilization visualization shows you how congested the measured band or individual channels on it are. High spectrum utilization can mean that there’s very much Wifi traffic in the air — leading to longer delays in transmissions or increased retry rates. Alternatively, this can also mean that there’s some intensive noise sources eating up all the available airtime, leading to poor Wifi performance.

This visualization gives you an idea how your Wifi band utilization looks like and helps you troubleshoot the congested hotspots with constant high utilization.

To display this visualization you need surveys with measured spectrum analyzer data. This visualization cannot be simulated.

Data Rate

Data Rate is the is the speed at which the client device and the access point are communicating at. The higher the data rate, the more data is expected to be transferred between the client device and the access point in a period of time. In 802.11, the advertised data rate is the theoretical maximum at which the devices are able to communicate. However, the net data throughput between two devices is typically less than half of the advertised data rate.

In ESS, the data rate is calculated using the following Visualization Options as parameters:

• Network Load: The higher the network load, the more interference. The more interference, the lower the SNR, and the lower the SNR, the lower the data rate.
• Data rate type: You can choose either simulated or measured mode. Simulated mode calculates the data rate based on the given parameters of the access point. Measured mode gets its data rate values from the beacon information of the surveyed access points.

The data rate is calculated only for access points that are marked as My APs. If you are visualizing with Selected Access Points view, the APs that are currently Selected will work as sources of noise.

Network Issues

Network Issues visualization is the brother of the Network Health visualization. If Network Health was showing you whether you network has problems or not, Net Issues will give you an overview what those problems are. If one or more of your network requirements are not met in one or more locations (see also Network Health), the Network Issues visualization will display which requirement is failing. If more than one requirement fail, only one failing requirement will be displayed.Network issues visualization also uses the «Pass condition» setting — for more information, check Network Health visualization (above). 

Network Health

Network Health provides a summarized overview of the network. It shows whether all of your network requirements (see also chapter Defining Network Requirements) are met or not. If one or more of the network requirements are not met, Network Health will fail, and red color will be displayed for those areas. If all of the network requirements are met, green color will be displayed. To adjust the requirements, click on the color legend or go to Project > Coverage Requirements.

Red spots on the map indicate areas where one or more coverage requirements have failed. Green? No problems!

Network Health also has a unique visualization option called «Pass condition». This specifies how strict the Network Health visualization is about the potential problems. Default option is 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz — this means that coverage requirement is considered fulfilled in a location if one of the frequencies fulfills it! More strict 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz option requires that BOTH frequencies need to fulfill coverage requirements — or else it’s time for the red pen.

Channel Coverage

The Channel Coverage visualization displays the channel of the AP with the strongest signal strength in each location. You can use the visualization to quickly identify the coverage area of each channel and how the neighboring coverage areas lay out. The Per-Channel Visualization simultaneously displays the primary coverage area for multiple access points in a contrasting format making it easier to verify the proper channel plan.

Channel Coverage has the following unique option accessible via Visualization Options:

The Show allows you to select is the visualization shown for the primary channel or for center frequency channel. Using center frequency channel option allows viewing channels with higher bandwidth than 20MHz.

1. Access points on channel 1
2. Access points on channel 11
3. Click to enable / disable contours 

LizardSystems WiFi Scanner (Windows)

LizardSystems WiFi Scanner (Windows)

Компания LizardSystems предлагает бесплатную версию своего программного обеспечения WiFi Scanner для некоммерческого использования, которая имеет те же возможности и функциональность, что и их платный продукт. На текущий момент доступна версия 3.4 решения. Помимо WiFi-сканера это решение также предлагает прекрасную функциональность для анализа и отчетности.

Приложение имеет современный графический интерфейс, интуитивно понятный и легкий в использовании. На вкладке «Сканер» представлен список обнаруженных SSID. Помимо стандартной детальной информации здесь вы также найдете значения уровня сигнала как в отрицательных значениях дБм, так и в процентах. Тут даже показано количество клиентов, которые подключены к каждому SSID. Также, наряду со спецификацией стандартов 802.11, решение может определять и сообщать о нескольких каналах, используемых любыми SSID с большей шириной канала.

Список видимых SSID вы можете использовать для фильтрации ввода по таким параметрам: уровень сигнала, поддерживаемый стандарт 802.11, типы безопасности и используемые полосы частот. В нижней части вкладки «Сканер» расположены графики, между которыми вы можете переключаться. В дополнение к типичным графикам с данными об уровне сигнала и используемым каналам, также доступны визуализированные данные о скорости передачи данных, загруженности каналов и количестве клиентов. В нижней части экрана отображаются сведения о текущем подключении. Во вкладке «Расширенные сведения» вы найдете различные данные о сетевой активности, вплоть до количества необработанных пакетов.

Вкладка «Текущее подключение» отображает более подробную информацию о текущем беспроводном соединении. Здесь вы получите доступ и сможете управлять списком профилей беспроводной сети, сохраненным в Windows 10, что может оказаться полезным, поскольку в этой последней версии операционной системы Windows больше не предоставляется нативный доступ к этому списку и управлению им. Во вкладке «Статистика беспроводной связи» представлены графики и статистические данные для различных типов пакетов, как для физического (PHY) уровня, так и для канального (MAC) уровня, которые будут полезны для проведения расширенного анализа сети.

Программное решение LizardSystems WiFi Scanner предлагает расширенные возможности для экспорта и отчетности. Базовая функциональность позволяет сохранять список сетей в текстовом файле. Кроме того, вы можете генерировать отчеты с кратким описанием типов сетей, найденных при сканировании, со всеми зарегистрированными данными SSID, любыми добавленными вами комментариями и моментальными снимками графиков. Это довольно впечатляющие возможности для WiFi-сканера в свободном доступе.

Таким образом, WiFi Scanner от компании LizardSystems действительно впечатляет своей функциональностью, в том числе возможностями фильтрации вывода данных и составления отчетности, а также расширенными сведениями о передаваемых пакетах данных

Он может стать важной частью вашего «походного» набора инструментов для обслуживания и проверки WiFi-сетей, но при этом помните, что бесплатна лицензия доступна только для личного использования

Скачать LizardSystems WiFi Scanner: https://lizardsystems.com/WiFi-scanner/

Capacity: Clients per AP

The Capacity: Clients per AP visualization displays how the client devices would be distributed between the access points. The visualization helps finding the problem spots in the network, such as an AP serving an overly large area, thus trying to serve too many clients.

This heat map shows how the clients are distributed across different access points. The actual distribution of these clients depends on multiple factors: simulated environment, density of AP network, AP parameters and other factors. By default ESS favors 5Ghz over 2.4Ghz and places more clients on 5Ghz frequency — but you can change this setting from Network Capacity Configurations, if the client distribution feels off to you.

In real life there’s a limit how many clients can be successfully associated to an access points. ESS also takes this into a consideration and therefore you can set a limit how many APs are permitted to associate to an access point (from Network Capacity Configurations). Visualization tool tip will display the client amount in red if it has exceeded this limit. Tool tips also show breakdown of the clients themselves and what is their typical usage.

Note: To use this visualization, you need to have areas on your map and the areas need to have some client devices assigned to them. Otherwise, this visualization will appear empty

Surveying

So now you should be ready to start the survey process; select the Survey tab on the top-left of the app, and then select the survey type you’d wish to use from the bottom-center screen:

Stop & Go is great for basic, non-technical user surveys and tricky areas that cannot be walked through easily. The stop & go survey, once activated, will give you a countdown timer of 5 seconds – ensuring that you stay in the same spot until the countdown has completed.

Continuous Surveys are best for areas that you can traverse through without too much hassle. The continuous survey will display additional information during the survey process, such as strongest 2.4 & 5GHz signal strength in the top left of the screen. You will also have access to an undo option during a continuous survey, allowing you to correct the positioning of a survey in the event of a mis-touch.

With Wi-Fi being a critical delivery medium today, some customers may require an iPad + Sidekick on-site for easy data collection, which can then be shared with a Wi-Fi expert. You’ll notice as you complete surveys that the floor plan will begin to be shaded in a blue color, indicating areas that have data captured from the Sidekick. Due to the iPad app being so easy to use, a simple explainer to a non-technical person doing the data capture, could be “make sure that the floor plan or reported Wi-Fi problem area is covered in blue.” Once the project is synced to the cloud, an expert can review the data capture — even from a remote location.

If at any point you need to delete or edit the survey location data, simply long-press on the screen to enter survey edit mode. You can tap the red “X” buttons to delete surveys, or touch-&-drag surveys to their correct location. Exit survey edit mode by tapping the exit button.

Packet Loss

Pinging (active survey mode) measures the latency of the network, but also measures the number of lost packets at the same time. Packet Loss occurs when ESS fails to receive a ICMP response packet to the ICMP request packet from the target host or when the UDP packets are lost during the throughput test. The Packet Loss can be caused by several factors such as interference and / or congestion in the network medium, corrupted packets, faulty network hardware, or faulty network drivers.

In case of active ping survey data, the Packet Loss visualization displays the relative Packet Loss % over the floor map. The Packet Loss % is calculated from the 10 last packets. In case of active throughput data, the packet loss is exactly as reported either by the server or the client.

If there exist both active ping and active throughput data on the same map, the visualization is always based on the throughput data due to the higher amount of data.

What Is the Purpose of Creating a WiFi Heatmap?

The purpose of creating a WiFi heatmap is to obtain accurate information about the quality of coverage of a WiFi network. As you may know, WiFi coverage is affected by many different factors, including:

• Your WiFi router: There are many different WiFi routers, and the quality of coverage they provide varies greatly. You can’t reasonably expect a budget WiFi router to cover a large home or office building with a strong WiFi signal no matter how well you position or configure it. A WiFi heatmapping tool can help you understand the limitations of your WiFi router and decide if you should get a new one. Modern WiFi routers have plenty of useful features intended to improve your online experience, so upgrading once in a few years is typically always a good decision.
• Other WiFi networks: Being stuck in traffic on your way to work is no fun, especially if you’re in a hurry and need to get there as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, something similar can happen to you when surfing the web, downloading files from the internet, or video chatting with friends because digital traffic jams can occur when too many WiFi networks in the same area broadcast on the same frequency and channel. Using a WiFi heatmapping software application, you can visualize frequency band coverage and configure your router accordingly.
• Physical obstacles: Your WiFi signal doesn’t like physical obstacles, especially those that are dense and thick, such as walls or large furniture. Materials like metal can also have a significant impact on your wireless signal, which is why you should never install a WiFi router near metal appliances. In extreme cases, physical obstacles can create dead zones, which can be clearly seen on a WiFi heatmap. Unfortunately, not all physical obstacles can be easily removed. You can, however, always improve your WiFi signal by installing a WiFi extender or additional router.
• RF interference: Radio frequency interference, also called electromagnetic interference, refers to the disturbances in the WiFi frequency spectrum (usually 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) caused by RF-emitting devices. Such devices include cordless phones, mobile phones, microwave ovens, medical scanner, baby monitors, wireless security cameras, and, of course, WiFi routers themselves. RF interference can manifest itself on a WiFi heat map as an area of signal weakness, and it typically correlates with the presence of some electronic device.
• Router configuration: Your WiFi router has many different settings that you can change to improve the quality of its signal. The main setting you should pay attention to is your WiFi channel. In the 2.4 GHz band, there are 11 channels (at least in North America), with channels 1, 6, and 11 being the only non-overlapping channels. You should also pay attention to your router security settings, because the last thing you want is to let other people use your internet connection without your approval. Most WiFi heat map software solutions can gather information about the configuration of your router, as well as other routers in the area.

5 GHz Channel Planning

Now that we have that covered, let’s move the discussion over to 5GHz. This is where the topic of channel width gets interesting. There is significantly more spectrum available in this band, with each channel occupying its own 20MHz non-overlapping slice. As was the case in 2.4, 802.11n gave us the ability to use 40MHz channels. From there, 802.11ac now allows for 80MHz and even 160MHz wide channels! These wide channels are created by bonding 20MHz channels together, again using the center frequency to denote the channel. For example, channels 36 and 40 (each 20MHz) are bound together to make 40MHz channel 38, etc.

Source: Wireless LAN Professionals 

The use case for these wide channels is throughput. The wider the channel, the more data can be pushed through it. You know those impressive throughput numbers vendor’s love to tout in the AP datasheets? Those are achieved by using these wide channels. Some vendor’s equipment these days is even set to these wide channels by default right out of the box.

Sounds great, right? So why not just set your APs to the widest channel available and call it a day? Let’s refer back to the beginning of this post, particularly where we discussed Co-Channel Interference (CCI). The 5GHz band allows for 9 20MHz channels in UNII-1 and UNII-3 (including ISM). There are another 16 in UNII-2, but these come with their own set of complications (a topic for another day). Let’s say we have decided to use 80MHz channels for our deployment. We just went from 9 non-overlapping channels down to 2. This means that half of the APs we deployed will be occupying the same slice of RF spectrum. Now, for APs that are at opposite ends of the facility that cannot hear each other too loudly, this is not really a problem. Where problems begin is APs that are in close proximity to each other (within a 20dB variance in signal strength). These APs, and any STAs associated to them, now all become part of the same cell, slowing everything down. All STAs need to wait their turn to access the medium.

The other item to consider here is that every time you widen the channel, (20MHz – 40MHz & 40MHz – 80MHz, etc.) you introduce an extra 3dB of noise to the channel. That is effectively doubling the noise. Simplifying this, you now have more noise and no gain in signal. This equates to a lower SNR (Signal-to-Noise ratio), which will in turn force a lower MCS rate, shrinking your throughput. This means that clients now take longer to transmit, driving up your airtime utilization.

One of the hallmarks of a high-performing WLAN is channel reuse. This is the practice of deploying channels in such a manner that they limit the amount if CCI introduced into the environment. The best way to achieve this is by having as many channels to deploy as possible. While a 20MHz channel will not achieve the higher data rates that are advertised with 80MHz, clients can still reach acceptable speeds, allowing you to optimally use each bit of available airtime.

All of this said, every situation is different. What if you have one AP at your SOHO and no neighbors/outside sources of contention? Set it to 80MHz or 160MHz and let it rip!

If you have a small to medium size deployment and have done your homework (with Ekahau Pro, of course!) to ensure you can use 40MHz channels, give it a shot.

The bottom line is that for most enterprise-type deployments with many APs, sticking with narrow channels will give you the spatial reuse you need for your WLAN to perform optimally and leave users satisfied.

Coverage Planning

Coverage is a support visualization for building better and faster simulated project models. This visualization effectively shows the AP coverage in real-time when you’re moving the AP on the map. This real-time coverage also take all the walls and other obstacles into account when it’s drawing the visualization on the map.

Coverage Planning is a great companion tool for Signal Strength visualization because it allows you to quickly see how the AP coverage looks, changes and spreads in different environments. Signal Strength provides more detailed information about the coverage, but Coverage Planning is an excellent and quick tool for drafting a simulated Wi-Fi coverage plan. Use these two visualization types together to get the best results.

Coverage planning in action!