http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20445244 en Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:59:05 EDT Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:59:05 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20448478 Instinctz : Hmm, much like cisco's spectrum analizer. At this point I cant really justify the $1000-$2500 price tags for them but possibly in the future as they look great.

So other than windows default "meter" there isnt much to use? Guess im missing a big part of this wifi information somewhere. Seems there would be tools that would show signal strength packet loss, the sort of thing.

I guess im off to buy a dang Pocket wifi finder eh?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20448478 Wed, 07 May 2008 21:22:20 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20447056 tubbynet : When deploying wireless in a new installation, I use software by a company called AirMagnet. This software/card combo will perform both a passive (just sniff the air, so to speak) survey which will give the results of all APs/SSIDs in the area along with their relative signal strength, as well as an active survey which will listen specifically to one SSID. Very powerful software, but it does require a lot of money (on the order of a thousand or so I believe) as well as a drawing of the area that is to be scanned. This allows for heat maps to be generated for deliverable documentation. The software also will calculate fresnel zones (and angular fresnels as well), and perform quite a few nifty calculations.

However, all of this is quite much, especially if you plan on only using this software once or twice. I do know that there is a poor man's site survey tool on TechRepublic.com. It uses NetStumbler and dumps the SNR, RSSI, etc. into an Excel spreadsheet that (if you know how to interpret the results) can give you similar data as the AirMagnet solution, sans the pretty heat maps of course.
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"Don't hate the media, BECOME the media..." ~Jello Biafra]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20447056 Wed, 07 May 2008 16:50:29 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20446512 Instinctz : Well I was wondering more along the lines of software to help show signal strength, packet loss, ect... possibly some other software which would allow site surveys of possible interferance and other AP's signals.

I've been looking around and havnt really found what I was looking for I guess.

Im new to point to point Wifi's, I work with short ranged omni stuff mostly.

I wanted to get this Cisco 350 card working as im familure with its site survey tool, and it allows me to hook up an external directional antenna... but I have had no luck with getting that to work. If ya'll have ever done that and would have some advice I would appriciate it.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20446512 Wed, 07 May 2008 15:23:45 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20445313 No_Strings : A lot of folks have mentioned using a laser pointer to help align the antennae.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20445313 Wed, 07 May 2008 11:57:37 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20445244 Instinctz : Hey all,
Another guy and me, where setting up a link thats about 1.5 miles apart. The equipment we have to use are two Cisco 1200ap's with two 14db luxul antenna's. Which we're setting up in a bridge configuration.

We jumped into it one evening but were never able to see signal on the far end of the link.. how ever we only had the antenna's "mocked" and placed on the roofs vs being installed like they needed to be. (Last minute deal that evening)

Anyways, I'm pretty confident that this weekend when we give it another attempt it'll work fine. As I intend to secure the antenna's.

I even tried installing a cisco 350 pc card into my laptop with an external antenna but for the life of me could not get that to ever work properly.

But what do you guys use for conducting the site survey's and any additional steps for alignment? ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20445244 Wed, 07 May 2008 11:47:48 EDT