Posts
Field Plate 07: the five radio types that fight your Wi-Fi for airtime
Only a handful of radios in your building actually fight your Wi-Fi for airtime. There are 5 types, and most everything else people wave at you sits somewhere your Wi-Fi devices never hear. BLE...
Is that window eating your signal? The lighter test for low-E glass
Hold a lighter up to a double-glazed window and count the flames you see in the glass. You'll see four reflections, one from each glass surface. If all four are orange, it's plain glass. If one is...
I just bought a portable monitor to travel with, and setting it up reminded me how many...
useful Mac laptop features people never find. Here are a few I'd show anyone with a MacBook. Use the right cable for an external display. You need a video-capable USB-C, USB4 or Thunderbolt cable. A...
If you own a WLAN Pi and you have only ever read its spec sheet, you are leaving most of...
the device's capabilities unused. The WLAN Pi Cookbook (wlanpi.gitbook.io/cookbook) is where the WLAN Pi community wrote down how to actually wield the thing. It is the part nobody else in our field...
AA is smaller than A.
. The doubled letter means smaller, and the ladder runs N, AAAA, AAA, AA, A, B, C, D. Two of those rungs left the retail shelf decades ago, which is why the sizes you can buy look like they skip. I...
The credential you have not yet obtained is the work assignment you cannot complete.
. Having a contract for a job is not the same as being allowed on the job site. Plenty of locations will not allow you into the work area without a specific credential, a background check, an...
I have been looking things up in the Wireshark Wi-Fi wiki, on and off, for more than...
twenty years. I have never read it. That is not a complaint. It is the highest compliment you can pay a reference. Nobody reads a dictionary. You go to it with a question, you get your answer, you...
If you are interested in the details of Wi-Fi and Ethernet on devices in the Apple...
ecosystem, here is the current updated website. https://lnkd.in/e7A9QXzr
The second largest market for my Wi-Fi Toolbox is a country I have never marketed to.
. I found that out this week. Then I found out I was wrong about why. I only noticed it at all because I finally built something to read my own App Store numbers. Looking at updates... I saw United...
Download any Wi-Fi analyzer onto an iPhone and watch what it cannot tell you.
. It will not list the networks around you. It will not show you a single frame that was not addressed to your own device. It knows what your phone is connected to and almost nothing about the air it...
iOS Wi-Fi Tools NEED a Hardware Sensor
Apple put a wall around the Wi-Fi radio in iOS, and that one decision explains the entire iOS Wi-Fi tools market. No public interface lets a third-party app put the radio into monitor mode, which is...
We taught users to diagnose, then got annoyed when they did.
. Last week I wrote about the five shapes a Wi-Fi support ticket takes. The one I care about most is the shape where the user has already decided. The AP is bad, the channel is wrong, the new phones...
The floor plan tells you the room.
. The Reflected Ceiling Plan tells you whether your Access Point can actually go where you drew it. Most coverage designs die on the ceiling, not the floor. An AP dropped dead-center of a room looks...
The most expensive line in a Wi-Fi support ticket is the one nobody wrote.
. I have spent 25 years reading other people's Wi-Fi tickets and then spending a morning reconstructing what the person actually saw. After enough of them you stop seeing individual tickets and start...
Showing how to use Orb to test just Wi-Fi… with Josh Hardy.
. With a little test setup. #WiCoFest
Wi-Fi Checklists
Send two engineers from the same team into the same building and you will get two different reports. Not because either one is careless. Because they are each running a slightly different list in...
A speed test is step twelve.
. Somebody hands you a small number from the back bedroom and asks what is wrong with their Wi-Fi. That number tells you the path from that phone to a server somewhere was slow while the test ran. It...
Being unprepared is how a job ends before it starts.
. Two things decide whether an install day goes well. The gear that gets you badged onto an active site, and a short list of hazards that mean stop and call someone else. None of this is compliance...
If you run Wi-Fi for a living and you have only ever read the Intuitibits blog for its...
release notes, you are leaving the best part on the table. The blog belongs to Adrian Granados, co-founder of Intuitibits and the engineer who first shipped WiFi Explorer back in 2012. Most people...
The most useful Wi-Fi tool in my bag this month is not an analyzer.
. It is a travel router, and what it does is more interesting than the reason it gets sold. Here is the whole of it. A travel router is two radios wearing one name. Upstream it is a client, and it...
Your 6 GHz cell is only as big as the client's power budget.
. The client transmits up to 6 dB below the access point it joined, and 6 dB is the smallest that gap ever gets. It holds at 6 dB only on a 320 MHz channel. At 20 MHz, a Low Power Indoor client sits...
My sniffer decoded 95% of what the client transmitted and 49% of what the access point...
transmitted. Same capture. Same signal level. That gap is not noise, and it is not a bad adapter. It is transmit beamforming doing exactly what it was designed to do. Beamforming shapes the...
The biggest change in Wi-Fi design across my career is that we stopped designing for the...
Access Point and started designing for the client. 25 years, 118 countries, CWNE #3. That number mostly means I got in early, not that I was smart. I have designed Wi-Fi from the top of the Empire...
Six code articles account for most of the NEC (National Electrical Code) trouble a WLAN...
installer walks into, and the skill you need is recognition, not compliance. Recognize each one on site, then hand it to the Authority Having Jurisdiction (the AHJ: the local building official or...
On of the best Wi-Fi blogs I recommend has not published anything since June 2020.
. I still send people there every month. WifiNigel is Nigel Bowden's site. Nigel is CWNE #135, a UK-based independent wireless LAN consultant, and he spent from 2011 to 2020 writing what amounts to a...
Wi-Fi has taken me all around the world...
... it has been a wonderful life! Today I was able to see the moon set at sunrise in Qaqortoq Greenland... with icebergs in the channel. Not bad, not bad at all.
A troubleshooting tool giving you an answer isn’t enough.
. You need to know why that answer is right. That matters even more when we start putting AI into network operations. Packt is running a hands-on Build an AI Assistant for Network Troubleshooting...
When you run the WLAN Pros Toolbox and the number it gives you doesn't match whatever...
internet speed test you were looking at five minutes ago, the Toolbox is not wrong. Neither is the speed test. The two tools are answering different questions, so they return different numbers, and...
Ever heard of Class I - Div II?
This might be a newsletter to help you know the differences. It will come in handy sometime in your career.
Wireless in Hazardous Locations: Class, Division, and Why an Access Point Can't Go Everywhere
Mount a standard commercial Access Point in a refinery, a grain elevator, a fuel depot, or a spray booth, and you have installed an ignition source. That is the whole verdict. A normal AP carries...
A throughput test measures one thing: the path between the client you start from and the...
server you measure to. Move the server and you have measured a different network. That is why the speed test a client forwards you as proof the Wi-Fi is broken usually says nothing at all about the...
Early today I posted a graphic to show the differences between WHERE the throughput...
testing server might be, and how different locations test different things. I posted it as a PDF so folks could download and print it for their customers. But... it was the DARK version, that may...
Earlier I admitted my analogies were just not working, and asked how others explain the...
difference between Wi-Fi, cellular, Ethernet, fiber and the internet. Fourteen different answers. (Big thanks to those who answered my query) Reading them together finally showed me what separates an...
I’m looking for some help in explaining the differences between Wi-Fi, Cellular,...
Ethernet, Fiber and the word Internet. It frustrates me when people misuse Wi-Fi when they mean internet backhaul, and see “bars” to mean internet, or wonder why their “Wi-Fi” isn’t working when...
Stop treating Wi-Fi client isolation as a security boundary.
. AirSnitch just proved why. If you lean on station isolation, AP isolation, or PSPF to keep guest, hospitality, or BYOD clients apart, read this. Researchers tested 11 consumer and enterprise...
Reading AP Status LEDs:
There is no universal key for Access Point status LEDs. The same color carries opposite meaning across vendors. So the only safe way to read the light on the front of an AP is to resolve the vendor...
Network Commands in Your Pocket
The commands you reach for are no longer chained to a Windows box. And where Apple blocks a reading, the Toolbox says so instead of faking it.
A Feature I Have Used Constantly
One of those additions that quietly became part of the daily routine, and now works wirelessly too.
Get the Attenuation Objects Before Your Next Hamina Design
Hamina ships profiles and drawing tools and leaves the furniture to you. That is why a loaded warehouse ends up modeled as one big block.
An Indoor AP Needs a Phone to Know Where It Is
Standard Power at 6 GHz needs AFC, AFC needs coordinates, and on an indoor job those coordinates often come from a technician's phone.
The First iPhone Could Not Find You
No satellite receiver, no positioning of any kind. A modern phone leans on whichever input is least wrong, and indoors that is usually Wi-Fi.
What I Configure to Get the Best From Apple Clients
Apple publishes its recommendations. These are mine: put 6 GHz radios on the Preferred Scanning Channels, and design so a device always has a choice.
Ten Wi-Fi Recommendations, in Apple's Own Words
WPA3, one SSID across all bands, never hide it. I did not write these. Apple did, and every item links to the Apple page it came from.
Three MacBooks, Same Floor, Two Different Networks
An M1, an M2 and an M4 walked the same route for 40 minutes and came back with 26, 37 and 39 roams. The gap changed the design conversation.
A Year of Posting, and What Landed
221,096 people, 1.7 million impressions, 11,388 followers. The posts that worked came from making useful things and being in the room.
Ten Thousand Downloads in Two Months
An idea for an app to help Wi-Fi professionals work better and teach students more, and what happened after it went out free.
Test Wi-Fi Clients in the Right Order
The goal is to find where a test fails so you can fix it. Most people start the list backwards and cause the problems they are chasing.
Four Channel Charts, Corrected and Free
Some were right when drawn and the regulation moved. A couple were wrong from the first draft. All four are fixed, print-ready and free.
Standard Power Buys Power by Spending Channels
At 20 MHz it reaches 41 of 59 channels with 18 dB more power. At 160 MHz, 4 of 7 with only 9 dB. Widen the channel and both halves move against you.
Geofenced Variable Power, and Why It Is Still Paper
The FCC authorized a fourth class of 6 GHz device in January 2026. No geofencing system is approved and no GVP access point exists yet.
LPI or Standard Power: What Your 6 GHz Client Inherits
A client never picks its own power. LPI caps it at 24 dBm EIRP; Standard Power raises that to 30. The headline +6 dB is honest only at the widest channel.
LPI vs Standard Power: What It Means for Your 6 GHz Clients
Your 6 GHz client never picks its own power. It inherits whatever access point it joins. Attach to a Low Power Indoor (LPI) AP and your client is capped at 24 dBm EIRP with a −1 dBm/MHz PSD ceiling....
Wi-Fi Checklists, Put to Work
A walkthrough of using Wi-Fi Checklists alongside tools most of us already reach for daily, applied to real troubleshooting.
Free, on Five Platforms, With Nothing Tracked
No registration, no cost, no data tracking, nothing saved to your device. Built for Wi-Fi professionals, their customers, and their families.
In 6 GHz the Client Transmits 6 dB Below the AP
Not a vendor default you can tune away. In the US it is written into 47 CFR 15.407, and it sets the real limit on your link budget.
Narrow Channels in 6 GHz Cost You Coverage
EIRP in 6 GHz is governed by power spectral density, measured per MHz. Going narrow for cleaner air quietly makes clients weaker and later to roam.
The Fastest Wi-Fi Check on a Mac
Hold Option and click the Wi-Fi icon. Channel, transmit rate, signal level and PHY mode, without opening a single application.
Your Guest Portal Still Fails on an iPhone
RFC 8908 has existed since 2020. The network hands the device a JSON API instead of hijacking a probe and hoping the device guesses right.
"Is the Wi-Fi Good Here?" Depends Who Is Asking
Three MacBooks, same hallway, same minute. The M1 stayed on 5 GHz all walk. The 6E machines lived on 6 GHz. All three readings were correct.
The Toolbox Gets Better Because Users Say What Broke
A network name that would not refresh. A graphic sized wrong. Neither dramatic, both exactly the reports that sharpen the tool.
Step Through a Security Handshake, Frame by Frame
An interactive reference built against IEEE 802.11-2024 that walks the security exchanges we all have to reason about, one frame at a time.
We Went Hunting for Our Own Mistakes
A week after release we audited the Toolbox and found Ping Sweep calling dead hosts alive. What broke, what shipped, and what did not.
We released the WLAN Pros Toolbox, 170+ free Wi-Fi tools, a week ago.
. A couple days later, we went hunting for our own mistakes. We found them. Ping Sweep scans a subnet and tells you which devices are alive. It was calling dead ones alive. You cross it off your...
Opening the Toolbox: What Is in It and Why It Is Free
A conversation about what the WLAN Pros Toolbox contains, how it was built, and the decision to give it away.
Six iPhone Privacy Warnings, Ranked by Falsehood
All six settings are real. Almost every reason given for fearing them is invented. Ranked from least false to most false.
"The Wi-Fi Is Slow" Costs You Twenty Minutes
Four words, no signal level, no channel, no timestamp. One tap and a Copy button puts a labeled Connection Report on the user's clipboard instead.
The Missing Meter on Your Phone
Wi-Fi, internet and cellular are three different things, and confusing them is why a phone shows full bars and still reaches nothing.
Why a WLAN Person Should Care About IP Ratings
These codes are on every outdoor AP, antenna, injector and enclosure spec. A rating describes a lab test, not a guarantee at your mount point.
The WLAN Pros Toolbox Is Free on Five Platforms
iOS, macOS, Android, Windows and the web. No account, nothing to buy, and 100+ tools that used to need a different app each.
One Access Point per Classroom Makes Wi-Fi Worse
Capacity is a frequency-reuse problem, not an AP-count problem. Written in 2014 and unchanged after more than 4,000 classrooms.
The Rising Cost of a Quiet Hour
Directing a team of AI agents made the work faster. It also quietly re-priced every hour that is not work, including the ones with family.
dB Math You Can Do in Your Head
Keep the decibels on the left where you add and subtract, and the real math on the right where you multiply and divide.
Easy dB Math in 5 Minutes
You can do dB math in your head, with no calculator, faster than you can find the calculator. Three building blocks and two rules cover every decibel value you will ever meet on a survey, in a link...
A Tool for Playing With RF Spectrum
An interactive way to visualize and explore RF spectrum. I wish I had had this years ago for teaching.
The Interactive Spectrum Chart: One Free Tool That Lets You See the Whole Band at Once
If you teach Wi-Fi, design channel plans, or argue with anyone about 6 GHz, open [spectrum.potatofi.com](http://spectrum.potatofi.com) right now and leave it running in a tab. It is a free,...
I Solve My Hardest Design Problems in the Shower
The Default Mode Network is real, and the viral version of it gets the science wrong in five specific ways. Here is what holds up.
The Case That 802.11 Needs Its Own Forwarding Plane
Wi-Fi was adopted by pretending to be Ethernet. The scarce resource is the transmit opportunity, and most tools cannot see that layer.
I solve my hardest Wi-Fi design problems in the shower.
. After 25 years, I trust that more than my whiteboard. There is a brain-science post going around about the Default Mode Network, the part of your brain that lights up when you stop concentrating...
Read the Capture the Way the Author Does
When a CWAP author who co-wrote the study guide shows you how he reads a trace, that is worth more than squinting at raw frame lists.
PPSK, MPSK and DPSK, Explained Properly
Clear, concise, and detailed exactly as far as the situation needs. This is how a technical blog post should be written.
Most Wi-Fi Problems Are Not Wi-Fi Problems
The ticket says Wi-Fi. The fix is usually the cable, the PoE, the VLAN, the DHCP scope or the DNS. Faster radios make the trap worse.
A Post Worth Stopping For
Some posts make you stop and think. This is one of them, and it is worth a few of your minutes.
When You Really Need to Go High
Sometimes the survey needs a tripod that reaches. Worth bookmarking before the day you need it.
A Third-Grade Book Report, Finished Fifty Years Later
I wrote about Lake Titicaca when I was seven in Oslo. This month I stood on the floating islands, and rode a reed boat.
Ten Years of Weekly Wi-Fi Mentorship, Free
Clear To Send has published an episode every week since 2015, hosted by two CWNEs running real consulting practices.
The Community Built Its Own Field Tool
WLAN Pi is a pocket-sized open-source analysis platform born at WLPC in 2016. Not a $35 Raspberry Pi any more, and no per-seat license.
WLAN Pros Weekly
**Prague Call for Presentations closes Monday, June 29** Last call. The #WLPC Prague 2026 CFP closes Monday, June 29, and the lineup gets built from what the community submits. If you've been sitting...
Your Wi-Fi Is Slow Because Everyone Is Waiting
Co-channel contention ruins more Wi-Fi than every other RF problem combined, and it hides because it shows up as silence, not errors.
Throughput Testing Is Not One Number
Everyone runs a speed test because it ends in a number people like. Where and how you test decides what that number is worth.
Where You Test Your Throughput Changes the Number
## One internet speed test cannot tell you whether your Wi-Fi, your local network, or your WAN is the limiter. It tells you one number, from one device, to one server, and people read that one number...
Nobody Can Measure Cell Overlap Percentage
Twenty years of vendors quoting an overlap percentage, and no method for measuring it. If you cannot measure it, it is not a requirement.
The Fallacy of Cell Overlap in Percentage
*By Keith R. Parsons, CWNE #3. First argued in 2009. Updated for 2026.* There is never a correct time to specify Wi-Fi coverage as a percentage of cell overlap. Not for general coverage, not for...
The Best Free 802.11 Frame Reference Nobody Shows You
One engineer has documented real captures field by field since 2012. If you are studying CWAP and have not been pointed at it, start here.
The best free 802.11 frame-analysis resource I know is a blog one engineer kept up since...
2012, and most people studying CWAP have never been shown how to use it. It is called mrn-cciew, at mrncciew.com, written by Rasika Nayanajith (CWNE #153, 2x CCIE). The "mrn" is his initials. He...
Learn Wireshark From Laura Chappell
Most of us learned packet analysis by staring at captures until it clicked. Laura built the on-ramp the rest of us wish we had had.
Three Bands, Three Kinds of Road
Why the service road, the highway and the toll road is the analogy that sticks, and the RF underneath it that makes the picture honest.
Which iOS Wi-Fi Tools I Would Actually Buy
I bought all ten. Here is what I would purchase again at each budget, and the one Apple rule that governs every choice on the list.
Wi-Fi Radiation, With the Numbers Run
Non-ionizing radio cannot break a chemical bond. Here is the arithmetic behind that, set against the sunlight you sit in without a second thought.
Quit Worshiping the False God of dB
RSSI is one number among many. A design built on signal strength alone misses most of what decides whether the network works.
The Sun Versus Your Access Point
Solar irradiance is around 1,000 watts per square meter. A nearby access point delivers microwatts. The fear confuses non-ionizing radio with X-rays.
Designing Wi-Fi Should Not Be Difficult
Wi-Fi design gets hard when you skip the rules. Follow them in order and most of the difficulty was never there.
Why I don't mind paying to be in the same room with PEOPLE!
The value of a conference is what you learn and who you learn it with. That is the whole return. The swag goes in a drawer, the keynote ends up on YouTube anyway, and getting scanned at a booth so a...
Every iOS Wi-Fi Tool Is Shaped by One Apple Rule
Apple locks third-party apps out of monitor mode. Ten tools from free to $6,990, and how each one routes around that wall or ignores it.
iOS Wi-Fi Tools, Side by Side
A single comparison chart for ten iOS Wi-Fi tools, covering what each can measure on Apple hardware and what it cannot.
Ten Rules for Designing a Production WLAN
Designing to a heat map color and a vendor ratio is not engineering. Real design starts with requirements and ends with measurements.
Gartner Magic Quadrant Moves for 2026
Where the vendors landed in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant, and what the movement between quadrants is worth reading into.
Why I Stopped Charging by the Hour
Hourly pricing taught clients to watch the clock instead of the outcome. Switching to per day and per project changed both the work and the income.
The 2026 Gartner MQ for Enterprise Wired & Wireless LAN dropped yesterday.
### Heres what actually changed, and what it means if you live in WLAN every day. Let's compare changes from the last report honestly, then talk about what a WLAN professional might want to do with...
After 25+ years in Wi-Fi, I've stopped arguing about these 5 myths.
. I just send clients this ↓ Which one are you still hearing in 2026? #WiFi #WLAN #WLANPros #Myths Well, I kind of told a fib above, we still argue a LOT about these myths, they can't seem to die.
HPE Networking at Mobility Field Day
## What the Self-Driving Story Actually Means for Wi-Fi Engineers After 90 minutes with [Bob Friday](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfriday/), [Sudheer...
I met Anil perhaps 15 years ago, when we were doing the first Wi-Fi Stress Test in Utah,...
and he was there representing the HP entrant. Time flies. Anil was the sole presentar at #MFD14 for Wyebot. The most important update from Anil Gupta's WyeBot session: they added SCEP support to...
What's the BEST Wi-Fi tool?" is the wrong question.
". After 25 years in Wireless LANs, here's the question I ask instead, plus the 10 portable tools I'd actually consider, ranked by what they're built to do. What's in your troubleshooting kit? 👇...
For those of you contemplating moving from a full-time employee position in the Wireless...
LAN field, to one of an independent contractor, I found this article by Jonathan Finney with some experiences he's had in this arena. This is coming from his experiences. My own experiences are a bit...
My actual Wi-Fi toolkit after two decades in the field.
. Ten years ago, I'd show up to a site with a rolling case full of gear. Spectrum analyzers. Dedicated survey laptops. Specialized adapters. Cables for days. It weighed a ton and cost a fortune....
Over the decades, five presenters have fundamentally shaped how I think about Wi-Fi.
. Each taught me something different about what it means to be an expert: Devin Akin - Know the REAL protocol. Not the marketing version, not the simplified explanation. The actual 802.11 standard....
There is a sound I think each of us carries inside us, the sound of our mother speaking...
our name. Not urgent, not angry. Just the soft, ordinary calling of someone who wanted to know you are alright. Most of us heard it a thousand times and never thought to memorize it. And yet,...
On one of the Slack channels dedicated to the Wi-Fi community there has been an on-going...
discussion on working with 'contractors' - how some unscrupulous companies sell time at thousands of dollars per day to the end customer, but then only pay those doing the work $500 or so. And the...
What separates good Wi-Fi engineers from ones who really can troubleshoot anything?
Linux. Understanding Linux—from packet capture workflows to using tcpdump to how USB NIC drivers work—will set you apart from other engineers. Guest Bryan Ward joins the show to break down why you...
WLAN Pros Two-Day Troubleshooting Boot Camps
WLAN Pros Two-Day Troubleshooting Boot Camp...
Of COURSE someone has come up with a much better WHOIS tool...
... but it is pretty cool. You might want to check it out. https://lnkd.in/gGY6WQAM
Every #WLPC Talk Since 2014 — In One Searchable Library
Victor Njoroge, a WLAN Pro based in Sydney, Australia, built a searchable video library that pulls in every WLPC conference talk from 2014 to 2026 — 1,027 talks across 454 speakers and 12 years of...
When you start to get confused about all the complexities of Wi-Fi...
... you can refer back to this framework to help see how different networking bits are connected and reliant on each other. I built this graphic to help me teach others about the fundamentals of...
I've been a strong advocate for using MCS Index metrics to show the 'health' of the RF in...
your Wireless LAN for some time now. Each and every single frame sent over the medium works through an algorithm to choose which Modulation, Coding Scheme, Channel Width, Error Correction, etc....
Working with the WLAN Pi team, as well as the great folks at Orb - my partner and...
friend Ferney Munoz and I have been working on a very cool solution that takes advantage of the Orb platform, and the WLAN Pi device. We now have running on WLAN Pi R4's, M4+'s and Pros a...
Tom Hildebrand: 17,000 clients on Wi-Fi across 330 APs in Toronto
A large customer in Canada needed a temporary network for a corporate hackathon — 24 hours a day, five days, at the Enercare Center in Toronto. The venue's existing network wasn't going to cut it....
I was reminded this morning of a post I made a LONG time ago called, "Fallacy of Channel...
Overlap" - and people today are still talking about how one Wi-Fi access point's cell 'overlaps' with another. And even put it in their requirements documents. If you can not easily calculate it,...
Over 30 #WLPC events in, and four requests keep coming up:
- Bring it closer. - Hold more of them. - Give us a deep-dive-only event. - Make it cost less. So Ferney and I built something that answers all four. Two days. 12+ hands-on labs. No presentations....
The majority of Wi-Fi issues are, at least in part, caused by too much of a good thing.
. 1 - Wi-Fi client devices would like to see a 'clear winner' in their decision matrix when choosing which access point to associate to. 2 - For each and every single 802.11 frame being transmitted,...
Great post by Keith Miller - this IS a 'thing' with AP vendors and Wi-Fi Design Tool...
vendors. No one is to blame, but you NEED to understand how your AP vendor calculates Tx power in the dashboard, and how the Wi-Fi Design Tool vendor calculates Tx power in their design tool....
20 MAR 2026 - WLAN Pros Weekly
Nick Turner calls BadgerWiFi-Tools an “evenings and weekends kind of project.” At WLPC Phoenix 2026, he walked through how it got from a folder of Python scripts to a signed, packaged application —...
A quick update on the current state of Wi-Fi Tools for new MacBook Air M5 and Apple Neo.
.
I do NOT think this argument about 5G versus Wi-Fi is valid.
. They both have their positives and negatives - tied to costs, physics, RF spectrum, etc. - They both have places where they work much better than the other. As well as totally distinct business...
Tested the new Apple Neo laptop with A18 Pro chipset as well as a new MacBook Air 13" M5...
with the Apple N1 communication chip. Pleased to report Adrian Granados' WiFi Explorer Pro 3, AirTool 2, and WiFi Signal all work properly. As well as Bill Bushong's NetViews and Orb's apps all work...
There is a big difference between Wi-Fi hearing other Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi hearing non-Wi-Fi...
signals. The protocol is 100X more sensitive to other Wi-Fi than non-Wi-Fi... So another Wi-Fi device on the same channel is called CCC - Co-Channel Contention... that IS how the protocol is designed...
This is quite interesting...
... but also misleading. Though they offer Windows, Linux, and macOS versions - that ONLY support RSSI... the *Real* system they are using needs ESP32 devices, up to 6 of them in a mesh in order to...
If you want to engage with helping to shape the Wi-Fi Industry Design Guidelines, here's...
your chance.
WLAN Pros Newsletter
## HW072: Wireless-Adjacent Products from Digi International Digi International has a whole lot of things that aren’t exactly in the Wi-Fi space, but are close enough to be of interest to WLAN...
I agree with Peter Mackenzie on this...
... words have meanings, and CCI implies some level of 'interference' - when in fact, 802.11/Wi-Fi is specifically engineered to have only ONE device transmit on a frequency at a time... so another...
What is in your macOS menu bar?
I like this configuration where I can quickly see details of my current Wi-Fi connection. Network LED to see if I can get to the Internet, and WiFi Signal with details behind my current Wi-Fi...
Jake shared his wisdom and insight in this post.
. Great Wi-Fi doesn't happen with only a single thing. Not Wi-Fi design tools, or the best access points, or even with the best Wi-Fi consultants. All you need is "X" is a trigger to know you are...
The best camera is the one you have with you when you need to take a photo.
. Likewise, the best tool for diagnosing Wi-Fi may just be the one on your iPhone because it is with you. Ben Toner has done an amazing job at taking the information already inside your iPhone and...
We recognize Jussi Kiviniemi with this Lifetime Achievement Award for a career that has...
materially improved how the world designs, validates, and troubleshoots Wi-Fi networks. Over roughly 20 years in wireless, he’s helped shape the tools and practices many of us rely on, contributing...
Bruno Tomas - I'm 100% in the camp that Wi-Fi is/should be mission-critical.
. Treat it like ANY OTHER amenity. Public venues provide escalators, elevators, clean spaces, garbage bins, air-conditioning, etc. ALL of those are provided to end customers for free/gratis. Wi-Fi...
Want a quick way to check your Wi-Fi?
You can use any 'tool of choice' to find the answers to these checklist questions.
Beta testing Adrian Granados AirTool Pi app, connected via USB-C cable to the Hamina...
Wireless new Clip Wi-Fi data acquisition device... with 2 tri-band radios you can do packet/frame captures over two Wi-Fi NICs in whichever band/channel/channel width you configure. Additionally,...
Orb in containers... why not?
We have been using Orb on WLAN Pi devices as a new lab in our Wi-Fi Troubleshooting course... working with the Orb team has been great.
We've been using Orb as a great additional tool to monitor and troubleshoot networks.
. Specifically by adding Orb to a WLAN Pi - to track both Wired and Wireless connectivity. It has a lot of things going for it... you might want to check it out. Look for some new information about...
Thank you Bill Krutke for a well written article to help explain roaming behaviors better.
. Loved your line about "Sticky Clients" just being more risk aware... so true. Many times we who work on the infrastructure want to be in control and 'manage' our networks better... but it is ALWAYS...
On my way back home after being live at the Hamina Clip new product announcement...
... and wanted to share updated pricing. I posted an update to my Wi-Fi Tools pricing spreadsheet... but some asked where I got the Hamina Clip pricing. Hamina Clip plus 6-months Hamina Onsite - $990...
Here's an update to the Wi-Fi Tools post I've made in the past, with updated pricing for...
the new Hamina Clip added to the mix.
I think the issues surrounding upgrading to 6GHz is that you SHOULD do a full redesign...
specifically for the 6GHz. Too many places, especially schools, and hospitals continue to 'reuse' existing cable drops and do merely a 'rip-and-replace' thinking they are getting an upgrade. But...
Someone asked for this list of a variety of Wi-Fi Tools for professionals who might be...
starting their own consulting business. This list might help.
Wireless LAN Weekly - 19 JAN 2026
#WLPC Phoenix is just weeks away. Thanks again to the community for contributing another great lineup. Wi-Fi 7 is clearly a high-interest topic — just looking at the 30-minute sessions (the...
This is a definite winner...
... we've always known it is better to design Wi-Fi with directional antennas... but it has added extra costs, costs for the external-antenna-capable Access Point, cost for the external antennas,...
Nearly 40,000 steps later...
... I exited Las Vegas with tired feet, and a head full of new technology ideas from #CES2026. Wi-Fi 8 is starting it's marketing blitz, even before most people have even contemplated moving to Wi-Fi...
This is important information from Jamie G Price on the differences between Wi-Fi...
Retries, and TCP Retransmissions. There is an additional 'penalty' imposed by 802.11 protocol on Wi-Fi Retries - each time it happens to a frame, there will be additional delay time added to the next...
I'm so glad to see folks at Candela Technologies, Inc.
. have posted their results from REAL WORLD testing! With REAL clients, in REAL situations. Since no one uses Wi-Fi in lab conditions... These real world tests are showing the ACTUAL results of WI-Fi...
Thanks to a blog from Rasika Nayanajith, as a trigger to upgrade my Ubiquiti Inc.
. wireless network at home to the latest code... (10.1.68 now in Early Release) and now I too have AP Names in the Beacons! Thanks to Adrian Granados for having the foresight to already include in...
Part of Rasika Nayanajith's on-going series on how to do 802.11 Frame Captures in...
different ways, and on different platforms. Here is information on Ubiquiti access points as data collectors.
I've found this to be a fantastic addition to my Wi-Fi analysis toolkit, even better...
since it is ALWAYS with me on my iPhone! Check it out.
Working with the WLAN Pi App has been quite eye-opening.
. Today Ferney Munoz and I worked on getting WLAN Pi devices to work with Adrian Granados tools, Wi-Fi Explorer and AirTool - using one of the Wireless LAN NICs, and an Orb Client running on BOTH the...
My first reaction is to NOT blame the Wi-Fi...
... I've seen it NOT be the Wi-Fi way more times... My very first thing to look at is the current client connection. Option-Click on the Wi-Fi symbol on the top of your macOS screen to see all this...
I learned about neverssl.com from François Vergès a while ago, and now another option for...
“tricking” your device to make a captive portal trigger. Here are a couple other options: To trigger an Apple captive portal login page, try manually browsing to the non-HTTPS URL...
Don't use Internet Throughput Tests Incorrectly!
I remember a customer once who wanted to PROVE the Wi-Fi was working properly by having hundreds of people all run an Internet Throughput Test AT.THE.SAME.TIME! Think for just a minute on that......
One of the reasons for keeping ALL 6GHz available for Wi-Fi.
. Plus you got to see a great game for the Cougars!
For anyone with customers or client in Canada, this is a well-written and detailed report...
on the state of 6GHz in that country. Remember - you need to follow all recommendations and guidelines of each geography for designing, installing or troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks around the globe.
Some good insight here from one now on the other side of looking for a wireless position.
. Any other tips on getting noticed IF you do have wireless design, validation, and troubleshooting experience Jonathan Finney ?
Well, it is NOT a "Wi-Fi problem"...
... Hey Tony Fortunato, What tool/software were you using to capture that graphic above? Getting one screen that shows actual Wi-Fi from client to Access Point separate from the traffic going to the...
Tom… you are truly part of our wireless LAN community!
Great post. It IS all in the details. Passpoint / OpenRoaming MAY be a wonderful solution… when it works. We still need a better way of getting client profiles, and to make it easier for...
I just LOVE this! Not to mention, you can also have a remote sensor with Wi-Fi Explorer...
I just LOVE this! Not to mention, you can also have a remote sensor with WiFi Explorer Pro 3 or AirTool2 for Wi-Fi analysis at the same time, with the same WLAN Pi!
I think my top issues relate to needing to explain how Wi-Fi actually works… why...
throughput testing isn’t what some think it is, or why “green is good” is not really the answer, and of course why “one AP per (fill in the blank) is probably not the correct answer.
I think we would all LOVE to leave WPA-2 Personal in the far past...
... but sooooo many people/companies/vendors/customers were enamored with the ease of using iPSD/dPSK/mPSK (pick your flavor) - rather than embrace 802.1X solutions that are available. That, and the...
Great post Rowell, I've been using a WLAN Pi Go now for a while during some of the beta...
tests. Totally agree with you. This IS in a permanent place in my backpack. Small, light, and yet very powerful indeed. My 'go to' tool has always been Adrian Granados WiFi Explorer Pro 3 on macOS......
Thanks for posting this article.
. It is a HUGE problem for Wireless troubleshooting. Thanks for adding color and details to support this idea. I'll also be posting soon a white paper on the subject. There are fantastic ways to use...
Oops... that was for my demo that I didn't have time to run at #WiCoMTL...
... WLAN Pi R4 connected to a GLiNet Cellular Modem - as an Orb client... WLAN Pi M4+ as an Orb Client over Ethernet, and over Wi-Fi...
I've been working with Ben and Dylan Toner to update a WLAN Pi image to use a WLAN Pi...
device with Orb! OK, the Orb team released instructions way early on how to load Orb client on a WLAN Pi... but that was for reporting the wired interface. We can now use a WLAN Pi's Wi-Fi NIC as a...
Late yesterday I posted a little set of ways to test network metrics...
... but failed to ask which method is YOUR favorite. What other ways do you use that were not on this list? What is your personal 'go to' way to test your networks, either Wired or Wireless?
Part of doing 802.11/Wi-Fi tuning and troubleshooting requires capturing the 802.11...
frames from the air. Here are a couple of options to do this in the field. I've used all of these techniques - my favorite has been using macOS laptop and AirTool 2. There are options that require no...
Part of doing 802.11/Wi-Fi tuning and troubleshooting requires capturing the 802.11...
frames from the air. Here are a couple of options to do this in the field. I've used all of these techniques - my favorite has been using macOS laptop and AirTool 2. There are options that require no...
Ookla has announced a new service to 'certify' the Wi-Fi in public-facing properties like...
hotels and venues. Called 'Speedtest Certified™ , this combination of a service and product is something that can help consumers and users understand better the Wi-Fi they can expect at their...
The new WLAN Pi Go is small, lightweight Wi-Fi testing tool.
. It can sniff Wi-Fi frames, measure signals, decode packets, and more. The tool snaps to the back of your phone and connects via a short cable for data and power. The small form factor makes it...
Good post Mika and love the graphic to support the text.
. Most people think of the 2.4GHz vs 5GHz comparison, but it works EXACTLY the same with 6GHz... in fact one end of the 6GHz spectrum compared with the other end also has quite a differential!
100% agree with Dean Bubley on this issue of the absolute awfulness of #captiveportals...
and the asinine idea of #wifimonetization. What customers want is Fast, Free, Frictionless access to the Internet. (If we go with OpenRoaming or SIM Auth we can also give Secure to that list as well)...
I am not at all disagreeing with Rowell, but the opposite issue is also a valid one.
. If you ARE in your equipment lifecycle today and are looking for replacement gear, why would you NOT move to Wi-Fi 7 access points? Would you really recommend buying OLDER technology today? So I...
Here is my list of what I'd recommend to someone who wants to get in the Wireless LAN...
industry for a starter toolkit for under $2,000. A new MacBookAir with Wi-Fi 6E and associated software tools, a WLAN Pi R4, books and accessories. This setup would help someone learn, and even do...
Truth in advertising...
... I've seen companies say things like: "Provide Cellular Coverage using Wi-Fi" or "Improve and control Cell Phone Coverage in All Your Facilities..." or "A feature that allows cellular devices to...
Conference Wi-Fi
As a conference organizer, I do realize the difficulties in bringing great WI-Fi to conference attendees. A lot has to do with the venue you choose. Some locations REQUIRE you to use their...
Positive update about the Wi-Fi at the #NetworkXAmericas joint conference with the...
Wireless Broadband Alliance #WGCAmericas. I went over to the Westin Hotel - where the WBA held their member meetings earlier in the week... and a FAR BETTER conference Wi-Fi experience. First - the...
But what if your vendors WANTS to sell you multi-gig switches?
Just because Wi-Fi does not *need* multi-gig, is NOT a reason to refrain from upgrading to new switches. Newer AP's require much higher levels of PoE... like PoE++ so you might be needing to upgrade...
Looking forward to another session of our new Wi-Fi Authentication course - with these...
new 'network in a box' kits... router, switch, inbound Wi-Fi client, two access points, built-in WLAN Pi, all pre-loaded and pre-configured ready to do lab exercises from Open, through various forms...
Wi-Fi Authentication Course
**Student Kit - Gear** Ferney Munoz and I have developed a new course for teaching the various versions of Wi-Fi Authentication. From Open, through various forms of PSK, to 802.1X and finally to...
Three companies... all working together for the Wireless LAN Community produced a pretty...
cool thing for practitioners in our field. Adrian Granados, the guy who has brought us the fantastic Wi-Fi Explorer tool, also has a packet capture software for macOS called AirTool2 - that has been...
Many of the best things about #WLPC are tied to the shared knowledge presented in the...
conference sessions. But every now and then even those presentations take on an even more important aspect of the conference. To build up the Wireless LAN community! Case in point - François Vergès...
Though Joel Crane was not able to attend this year's #WLPC...
... he was still able to make a big splash by announcing and posting his fantastic new website to help people visualize the RF spectrum used in wireless LANs. You too can check it out here:...
I had a great time with Jussi and the entire Hamina team in Helsinki.
. Some great new features... I especially liked the company leaning in to Troubleshooting. I was amazed that my MacBook's NIC's details that show up in Adrian's Wi-Fi Signal were nearly identical to...
Thanks Kevin for picking up this issue and bringing it to the forefront.
. The use case is strong, but moving off of WPA3 being required for 6GHz is also quite strong, and I don’t see that going away… ever. This all could be preempted by a ‘Enterprise’ vs ‘Home’ tag on...
Well done Dean!!
Anyone involved in Wi-Fi should READ THIS post. You bring up some very relevant issues, as well as a fact-checker against the cellular world’s singular view of spectrum being something ONLY they can...
There is a new book available for folks involved in the world of Wireless LANs.
. I highly recommend you go straight to Amazon today and purchase your own copy! It is called: Wi-Fi Explorer Pro 3: The Definitive User Guide Written by Nigel Bowden and Adrian Granados, it takes a...
6GHz Spectrum - the Future of Wi-Fi!
Short training video https://lnkd.in/e74uv-Q #training #video #wlan #wifi #education
Wireless LAN Community - Compensation Survey
Wireless LAN Professional, We would like to encourage you to participate in this year’s Wireless LAN Community Compensation Survey for 2020. The data we collect will be collated and analyzed and the...
Comparison Chart of WLAN Spectrum Analysis Devices
Updated Comparison Chart of Wireless LAN Spectrum Analysis Devices