Wi-Fi Analyzer

Sat Dec 30 19:26:08 UTC 2017

Thanks for all of the great suggestions, both on- and off-list!!

Cheers and Happy New Year, everyone.

On 12/29/17 1:16 PM, Eric Kuhnke wrote:
> In addition to the other tools already recommended by previous posters, I
> recommend buying one of these:
> 
> https://www.ubnt.com/airmax/nanobeam-ac-gen2/
> 
> It's a directional antenna/radio integrated unit and is intended as a point
> to point or point-to-multipoint WISP client radio. The one feature you can
> get from it very cheaply is a directional, 2x2 MIMO 5.x GHz band spectrum
> analyzer that sees things *which are not 802.11 or wifi based.*
> 
> The airview spectrum analyzer tool built into it looks like this:
> https://www.google.com/search?q=ubiquiti+airview&num=100&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0gtLI9q_YAhUC62MKHbZoAogQ_AUICygC&biw=1744&bih=994&dpr=1.1
> 
> Highly useful for tracking down a specific source of non-wifi 5 GHz band
> interference. There's all sorts of random consumer grade things people can
> buy and introduce into an environment which do not broadcast MAC addresses
> or SSIDs, and do not show up on purely 802.11(abgn/ac) based tools.
> 
> It will of course also see hidden SSIDs and standard+non-standard
> 802.11abgn(ac) emitters.
> 
> There are also 2.4 GHz versions of similar products which will let you find
> non-802.11 emitters in the 2300 to 2500 MHz band. At $79 a lot less
> expensive than a "real" spectrum analyzer.
> 
> You can get DC PoE injectors for them which will connect to a Makita drill
> battery if you want to make it portable and wander around with a laptop.
> 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 7:17 AM, Bryan Holloway <bryan at shout.net> wrote:
> 
>> Curious if the community has any recommendations and/or positive
>> experiences to share for a handheld Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) analyzer.
>>
>> Software/laptop-based solutions can be unwieldy in certain environments.
>> However, given rave reviews, I'm open to the idea as long as it's
>> Mac-compatible.
>>
>> Should be able to show detailed spectra, help locate sources of
>> interference, have mapping capabilities, etc.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>