Wi-Fi Packet Capture Made Easy
Recently, there have been multiple instances of Wi-Fi issues related to iPads. Apple has also acknowledged some of the issues - e.g.,an iPad may not automatically rejoin a known Wi-Fi network on a dual band router . Also, Princeton university has faced serious network problems due to iPad. This has been attributed to a problem in the DHCP client on iPad. Here is an interesting theory on how the IEEE 802.11 Power Save mode may be playing a role in this. The Wall Street Journal reports that such issues have lead to the ban of iPads at several universities. This is a cause for concern.
With Wi-Fi becoming ubiquitous and newer implementations entering the market on a regular basis, such problems will not go away. To debug such problems, network administrators need to be able to collect raw packets on the wireless. Such traces can be used for self analysis/debugging or to seek help from external parties (e.g., vendors, Wi-Fi experts). Roaming around with hand-held tools to collect such packet traces is possible, but, not practical - problems are temporal and may happen in remote sites. Hence, an ability to capture packets remotely is highly desirable. Wireless IPS and performance monitoring systems such as SpectraGuard readily offer such solutions. Thus, with just a couple of clicks, a network administrator sitting at corporate headquarters (say, in US) can monitor/troubleshoot Wi-Fi problems globally. Don’t you think that this is Wi-Fi packet capture made easy? Would love to hear your experiences.
