Agnivo Roy

WiFi or wireless fidelity is a quite common term to people these days. Most modern offices, businesses and workplaces are opting for wireless networking and wireless internet access as the local networking backbone for it’s ease of use, expandibility and no hassle of laying and managing cables physically. Adding a new node to the network is as simple as making it wifi enabled. Not only this, cafes, hotels, airports, lounges, etc. have started offering WiFi service and wireless net access to the visitors.

As we know, WiFi enables users to roam about in the “hotspot” connected to the network without the need for plugging in traditional LAN cables. This means high portability and ease of use. Intelligent devices and gadgets like PDAs, smartphones, wireless security cameras are becoming highly popular and getting them connected to a wireless network is a breeze and increases productivity highly.

Some of the most important aspects of wireless networks are speed, connection quality and security. I guess regular WiFi users have faced connectivity problems often at their home, public hotspots or office. You may have found that your WiFi signal drops all of a sudden, loses connectivity or gets terribly slow. Don’t just blame it on the backbone equipments or misconfigured setups; they may be due to poor planning while placing access points, interference from devices working in the same band (spectrum) which hamper the normal functioning and is responsible for unstable WiFi connections and fall in speed of your wireless network.

Though today’s WiFi equipment have good security standards like WEP, WPA and helps make encrypted and authenticated connections, but still wireless security is not full proof. A poorly configured or general wireless network setup is prone to packet sniffing, rogue access points, WiFi jammers and DOS attacks. Level I intrusion detection systems can’t always track and show them up.

Proper spectrum analysis and professional wireless network planning is required for mid to huge wireless network deployments in business, offices, schools, institutions, public hotspots and workplaces to minimize instability and enhance wireless network security.

Cognio is one of the leaders in enterprise class wireless network and RFID spectrum analysis and security solutions. Their Spectrum Expert software can track and pin point the exact sources of interference; like microwave ovens, cordless phones, bluetooth access points, PDAs, wireless headsets, etc. It can also locate the “black pockets” with little or no signal, scan and locate rogue access points and jammers.

Spectrum Expert can also detect various other unknown,hacked, intruder and hidden devices that may harm your network, decrease speeds or are potential security threats. Their spectrum analysis solution also helps plan the network layout of the devices to be located in your establishment by monitoring and auditing signal strength and interference; suggesting best equipment placements so that you get maximum possible network speed, security and reliability. It can also seek out legacy non-compliant 802.11 equipment, locate equipment that is operating out of power transmit specifications and determine if neighbors are interfering with your WiFi network.

Spectrum Expert for WiFi is a complete WiFi instability and interference monitoring software solution that runs on a Windows based computer ( preferably a laptop ). You just have to simply insert the PC card sensor and launch the rich Windows based application and you will be able to gain immediate visibility into your WiFi’s spectrum.