Every now and again I peruse the Internet looking for cool toys to play with. WiFI tools of the trade are my toys and I love playing with them. So here is my top 10 list of software/hardware tools and I would love to hear from others on the tools they like (or don't like for that matter!) Here they are sorted by price from low to high in no particular order from least favorite to favorite.
10:
Netsh WLANMon
Cost: Free
Sometimes the best thing in life are free. Recently I was at a friends house and noticed he wasn't channel bonding on his 5Ghz! He went on to tell me that his WiFI performance and coverage was not optimal. So me being the good friend and wireless geek I am, could not let that stand, and had to help a brother out! As fate would have it, I was without any tools (not even my laptop) to verify spectrum and check channel usage. So what is a wireless professional to do? Enter the Netsh WLAN tool, written by Peter Mackenzie. This tool available for free on his GitHub expands upon the CLI syntax of the Windows netsh command, and provides a nice GUI with the important info you need in a pinch. It even provides a relative RSSI (Windows netsh only provides Signal %). I know what your thinking...your thinking why didn't you just download some advanced free trial software and load up your friends laptop with a bunch of applications that he will never use and/or take 10 minutes to install/uninstall everything? Nough said!
More information on this tool can be found on Peter's page
9:
TamoSoft Throughput Tester
Cost: FREE
"The WiFI is slow! The WiFI is slow!" yea yea...we know right? Well point the finger somewhere else (hopefully) with the throughput test tool from TamoSoft. This well designed free WLAN throughput tool consists of both a client and a server (one for each end you are testing to/from) and provides a no-nonsense clean view of your WLAN bandwidth situation.
8:
Kismet
Cost: Free
Kismet is a free wireless network and device detector, sniffer, wardriving tool, and WIDS (wireless intrusion detection) framework. It can be installed as a standalone tool but you can also find it installed in distro's of Kali linux or on the WLAN PI.
7:
Acrylic WiFI Suite
Cost: Low (under $100)
Acrylic WiFI provides several software tools including those for WiFI, Bluetooth, and even a law enforcement tool. Acrylic offers free trials for all of their products and with flexible licensing options, I find them to have the most reasonable prices of any other suite of software tools available. I will be covering the main 3 Acrylic WiFI tools I like to use
Acrylic Professional
Acrylic Professional is a wireless analyzer tool that provides the WiFI Engineer a detailed view of Clients, Access Points, Channel usage, RSSI/SNR. Professional also provides several data export options and reporting functions.
Acrylic WiFI Sniffer
Acrylic WiFI sniffer provides real-time capture in monitor mode/promiscuous mode with compatible wireless adapters. Sniffer relies mostly on Wireshark to function but also integrates with Acrylic Professional to provide a complete solution which is a very nice touch.
Acrylic Heatmaps
Acrylic WiFI heatmaps is an advanced, yet affordable wireless survey tool. Considering the cost of popular tools such as Ekahau, its price tag cannot be overlooked. I must say however that in my opinion, this product does not carry as big of an AP on a stick that Ekahau does. (carry a big stick..get it?) If anyone has done a side by side comparison of the two products I would love to hear about it...as much as I like Ekahau, most folks would rather spend their hard earned money on a nice used car or brand new furniture for their house!
6:
IStumbler
Cost: Low (under $100)
I don't normally use a Macbook, but when i do, i use IStumbler. This low cost tool is actually 6 tools in one..hence the multi-tool knife style logo. The IStumbler suite of tools provides information and metrics on wifi, bluetooth, and bonjour. Other tools are "Channel Surf with Style" for channel info, "Location, Location, Location" for location tracking and "The Spectacular Spectrum Analyzer" for well....the name says it all doesn't it?
5:
MetaGeek Professional Suite
Cost : Medium ($1500)
MetaGeek is hands down my favorite collection of software WiFI tools. While the cost is not as low as Acrylic, The best thing about MetaGeek is that they offer us a complete wifi professional kit consisting of both hardware and software. Granted you can probably hack a solution together for less cost, but if you're anything like me, I don't necessarily like to hack stuff together and fight with it to get it working all the time. If you want a solution that just works out of the box, then you can't go wrong with a MetaGeek complete kit. I will cover each individual component below.
WiSpy DBX
At the heart of the MetaGeek solution is their USB spectrum analyzer hardware known as the "WiSpy DBX" adapter. This adapter integrates with the MetaGeek Chanalyzer software.
Chanalyzer
Chanalyzer has become the standard goto application for performing spectrum analysis. When combined with their WiSpy adapter, you can monitor the dual-band spectrum (2.4/5Ghz) and detect sources of both WiFI and non-WiFI interference, locate dead spots, view channel usage and get the skinny on every access point and SSID in range. One of the features that is most useful for professional wifi consultants like me is their reporting functionality, which allows you to build custom reports and export to PDF.
Eye P.A.
One of the most frustrating things about WiFI packet analysis with tools like wireshark is the fact that you need compatible adapters that support both monitor and promiscuous mode. Add to it all, the fact that in order to diagnose, say a tough roaming problem, you need the ability to capture multiple channels at the same time. MetaGeek has made packet capturing and analysis so much easier with their Eye P.A. application. A list of compatible adapters can be found here. One of the features I like the most is the visualization of the airtime which allows you to see all the "Chatty Kathys" on your network. Eye P.A. does really good job at providing a visual representation of the wireless situation you are monitoring which can lead to some quick revelations. Eye P.A. also allows for export in .pcap format so all data can be viewed and filtered in wireshark, which is just the icing on the cake for this wonderful tool.
4:
WiFI Pineapple
Cost: Medium ($200)
No matter what hat you wear, black, grey, or white, your toolbox will not be complete without a pineapple. The WiFI Pineapple provides multiple penetration testing options as well as active and passive reconnaissance and surveillance....all from a nice web interface and neat package.
3:
WLAN PI
Cost: Medium ($200)
What's better than the ability to to OTA captures in the palm of your hand? This pocket sized customized raspberry PI provides packet sniffing, IDS, and spectrum analysis with supported adapters. I do not own one (yet) but i have heard from several folks who swear by them. I plan on building one myself and will be sure to share my build with everyone. If you want to skip building it yourself and just buy one, your going to have a hard time. They go for about $250 US but as of this writing, i haven't seen any available for purchase outside of maybe ebay.
2:
Ekahau Sidekick
Cost: High ($3500)
When its time to survey, there is nothing that comes close to the Ekahau sidekick from an accuracy perspective. With integration into the Ekahau Professional site survey software, this dual radio, all in one wifi diagnostic tool, not only allows you to determine the best placement locations for access points, but it also provides packet capture (with Ekahau Capture) on up to 2 channels at a time...or if your feeling frisky, you can capture both bands (2.4ghz/5ghz) simultaneously. Personally I like to mount mine on a backpack (as opposed to having it on my hip) to better simulate a device position while I roam test, since many people walk with a laptop above waist level or with a phone in their hand.
1:
NetAlly EtherScope nXG
Cost: High ($10,000)
https://www.netally.com/products/etherscopenxg/
As far as toys go, this one is the GI JOE Aircraft Carrier of WiFI toys. (I'm showing my age now!) But like all the best toys, they are not cheap and your going to spend a lot of time begging Mr. or Mrs. Claus for this one at Christmas! Speaking from my experience with the prior model known as the AirCheck G2 model, when I go onsite to access a wireless deployment or issue, it's always in my bag and more often than not, its all i really need. This device combines all of the common tools into a single handheld hardware device complete with a large color screen. To quote Ferris Bueller, "if you have the means, i highly recommend it..it is soooo choice!"
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