what software can analyze wifi traffic? good signal but badnetwork access in some places...

Hi all -

Is there any software (hopefully for Mac but PC will do also) which
would analyze what's going on with my wifi signal? I have spots in the house
where the signal is good (3/5 levels) but my connection to the network there
is aweful. I wonder if these are places where there is another wifi network
nearby (neighbors, etc.), or some other kind of interference, or maybe good
incoming signal from the router but inability of my wireless card to reach
back to the access point? It would be great to have a tool to see what % of
the packets going back and forth arrive, are re-transmitted, etc. and what's
going on over the other adjacent channels. Anything like this exists?

Mike

I just bought a couple Orinoco Gold cards for $58.00 each. How is that
expensive compared to other cheap cards?

Jeremy

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bekatv$5vc2t$(E-Mail Removed)...
> In comp.sys.mac.comm Mike Levin <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > Hi all -
>
> > It would be great to have a tool to see what % of
> > the packets going back and forth arrive, are re-transmitted, etc. and
what's
> > going on over the other adjacent channels. Anything like this exists?
>
> I'm not an authority on wifi by any means, so I'll defer to somoene who
> is. But, in the meantime - I have a laptop which runs windows
(sometimes),
> and in it I'm using an Orinoco Gold PCMCIA card for a 802.11b network.
> The tools that came with the Orinoco (Lucent) card include one that does
> a site survey; it'll sweep through all the channels, and tell you what
> is out there on each of them. It'll also analyze a given link that you
> are using, and will tell you your packet statistics as well as
Signal:noise
> ratio, data rates, and all the stuff that you'd find useful.
>
> I used it to measure a wi-fi signal from my house to my neighbors, to test
> the feasability of sharing an internet connection. Kind of pricy to buy
> an orinoco card just to get that ability, but maybe you know someone
> with one, or maybe someone else here can suggest a similar tool for
> whatever hardware it is you have.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Dave Hinz
>
>

In comp.sys.mac.comm Jeremy Parr <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I just bought a couple Orinoco Gold cards for $58.00 each. How is that
> expensive compared to other cheap cards?

(by top-posting, you make it inconvenient to include context for your
question).

I didn't say the Orinoco card was expensive, I said if this is the
only reason you'd be buying a card and/or laptop, it's a pricy
way to get a signal survey. I have an Orinoco Gold card, I like it,
but if he only needs one signal survey and has no other use for it,
there may be better options.

Here's what I wrote, again, all out of order:

>> Kind of pricy to buy
>> an orinoco card just to get that ability, but maybe you know someone
>> with one,
(snip)

Dave Hinz

On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 16:51:48 GMT, Mike Levin <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> Is there any software (hopefully for Mac but PC will do also) which
>would analyze what's going on with my wifi signal?

Hello Mike. Some of the sniffer tools are able to measure and display
the signal strength. You can browse the three sections below for both
freeware and commercial tools/z.

http://www.wardrive.net/wardriving/tools
http://www.wardrive.net/security/tools
http://www.wardrive.net/general/tools

Jacco Tunnissen
--
http://www.wardrive.net/
Wireless Networking Security
and Wardriving Resources