Wireless Testing Software

[staningrimsby]

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Well things have advanced in my search for a wireless solution and both Meraki and Ruckus are sending me some equipment so I can do some testing of my own, both of them have very good sales people each saying there product is the best but due to the construction of our school i.e. 2ft thick concrete walls I would like to see them both in action.

 

I have created a series of tests to perform and will then write up a report to give to the head and chair of governors, what I am looking for is a piece of software (preferably free) that will monitor wireless performance whilst carrying out the tests, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated either for windows or ipad preferably.

 

Regards,

Stan.

Edited February 10, 2013 by SYNACK
title spelling :)

[Steve21]

Depends what you want to test, but inSSIDer – Discover The Wi-Fi Around You | MetaGeek does a lot of things and is free. Strength blahblah

 

Steve

[SYNACK]

As much as I hate Ruckus for only supporting Apple, they do have an app for iTrinkets that may help assess at least the Ruckus gear.

Mobile Apps Speedflex | Ruckus Wireless

[truebluesteve]

There is a very good android app called Wi-Fi Analytics that will give you fair amount of useful information. It's free of course :-)

 

If you want an IOS app then you are going to be very disappointed as Apple have restricted them, or rather what information they give.

[timbo343]

I tested ruckus myself, did my own survey then got a couple of companies in to see how far off i was, me and another company got about 25 to 28 ruckus APs and another company got 12 - 13. I think the company who suggested 12 - 13 were mainly looking at coverage rather than throughput as the had put one AP for 6 classrooms. I was always told 1 AP per 2 - 3 classrooms with 30 students in.

 

For best testing use a laptop with an atheros wireless card. Broadcomm cards are the worst (from what ive been told) however this may work to your advantage depending on your thinking. My thought track would be test with a crappy card for worst case scenarios or do two tests.

 

Another plus for inssider and when you get to -70 look at putting another AP in the area. Use Ruckus zpad whoen testing your speeds on a laptop. Not sure how much you know about wireless but i have found on smartphones there is about a -20 db difference with smartphones been worse.

[Destinova]

For best testing use a laptop with an atheros wireless card. Broadcomm cards are the worst (from what ive been told) however this may work to your advantage depending on your thinking. My thought track would be test with a crappy card for worst case scenarios or do two tests.

 

For testing wireless you should only test with the clients you will be using. There's no point in testing with an Atheros card if all of your laptops are Broadcomm. Also if you are testing for 1x1 devices (ipads, etc.) don't test with a multiple antenna card. Test with an iPad.

 

Test to meet real-world expectations.

[timbo343]

@staningrimsby have a look at this... Ruckus Wireless. There are 2 PDF reports on there which compare different wireless vendors.

[psydii]

I've become quite a fan of Mark Russinovich's psping. It can measyre TCP latency, and throughput... both are very important to real-world applications. It is interesting to watch the results with differing numbers of clients and network activity.

 

I agree with @destiniova, test with the devices you will have to ascertain as close to realistic results as possible. Another good thing to check is two adjacent classroom full of devices. Also watch the impact of B or G devices on 2.4Ghz N. If at all possible you will want to keep them off the same channel as N to give your newer devices the best chance of running at the advertised speeds.