Analyse Your WiFi Environment Objectively #2

When you have a WiFi LAN, and want to find out why it doesn't perform as well as you'd expect to, the first thing most folks will instruct you is

Do a WiFi site survey. Find out what your neighbours are doing.

When a site survey must be done, the best known procedure is to run NetStumbler.

But NetStumbler, for all its highlights of being easy to use, and well known, has shortcomings.

• It doesn't support 802.11n client equipment.
• It doesn't reliably detect 802.11n networks.
• It doesn't run under Windows Vista.

Fortunately, there are new WiFi spectrum analysers, available now, that may provide help where NetStumbler fails. Two such products are InSSIDer (from MetaGeek), and the Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor Gadget for Windows Vista.

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