Network Instruments Observer manual

Marc h 2002 Observe r User Manu al Adde ndum 802.1 1b Wireless Install ation & Oper ation[...]

ii Observer User Manual Addendum (Wi reless) © 2002 by N etwor k Instrum ents, LL C (Limit ed Liabil ity Co rporatio n). All r ights r eserve d. Netw ork Instruments' O bserver for use with Micr o soft W indows 98/M e, W i n dows NT 4.x, W i n d o w s2 0 0 0 ,W i n d o w sX P ,o r g r e a t e rb a s e dc o m p u t e r s . “Observer”, “N[...]

Cont en ts © Net work Ins tru ment s, LL C iii Hardw are & Sof twar e Suppor t . ..... .. ..... .. ..... ... .... ... .... ... ..... .. .. ..... .. ..... .. ..... ... .... .. 1 Sup ported NI Cs .... .. ..... .. .... .. .. ..... .. .... .. ..... .. .... .. ..... .. .. .... .. ..... .. .... .. ..... .. .... .. .. .. 1 Sup ported Mic roso ft Wind[...]

iv Observ er User M anual Adde ndum (Wir eless )[...]

1 Observer ® So ftware and Wireless LAN s An Addendum to the Network Instruments Observer User Ma nual T o use O bs erver in a n 802 .1 1b wireles s env ironm ent, y ou m us t follo w t he i nstructions for custom drive r installation (see below) and Observer setup (see page 6 of this ma nual) . Ha rdwa re & Soft ware Supp or t Supp or te d NI[...]

Ob serv er® So ftwar e an d Wir eles s LANs 2 Obs erve r User Ma nu al Adde nd um (Wir ele ss) T o upd ate the dr iver , fo llo w these s teps : 1. Righ t-cl ick on the ‘My Comput er ’ ic on and choos e Properties . 2. Click t he Hardwa re tab a nd th en th e Devi ce Man ag er ... bu tton t o di splay the Device Manager : 3. R ight- click on t[...]

Ne two rk In str umen ts Cus to m Driv er In stal latio n © Netw ork In s trum e nts , LL C 3 Th e W izard ask s you how you want to update th e driver : 6. Ch oose “Sea rch for a suit able driv er for m y devic e (r ecomme nded) ” and click Next . The W izar d asks where you wan t to s ear ch for the driv er: 7. Ch oose “Speci fy a locati o[...]

Ob serv er® So ftwar e an d Wir eles s LANs 4 Obs erve r User Ma nu al Adde nd um (Wir ele ss) A f ile locator dial og is d ispl ayed: 8. En ter (o r brow se to) the f ollowi ng di rec tory ( assum ing th at C:Obser ver Files is y ou r Ob s erv er dire cto ry) : C:Observer Filesdriverswireless Th e W iz ard dis play s the f ollo wing: 9. Cho o[...]

Ne two rk In str umen ts Cus to m Driv er In stal latio n © Netw ork In s trum e nts , LL C 5 10 . Choose th e appr op riat e analy zer dri ver wit h the “N I” pr efix (“NI /Norte l Netwo rks e-mobilit y 802.1 1b W ir eles s LAN PC C ar d,” for example) and click Next.* The W izard inf orm s you tha t the dr iver lac ks a M icrosoft di git[...]

Ob serv er® So ftwar e an d Wir eles s LANs 6 Obs erve r User Ma nu al Adde nd um (Wir ele ss) Conf igu r ing O bs erve r fo r Wir ele ss Op er atio n Once you hav e installed the wirel ess NIC an d N etwork Instruments’ cu sto m driver , you w ill be able t o see the w ir el ess Probe in the Pro be L ist. Ch eck the setup options before you beg[...]

Co nf ig uri ng Obs er ve r f or W ire le ss O p era tio n © Netw ork In s trum e nts , LL C 7 Th e conf igura tio n option s are des cri bed bel ow: Option Descri ption Site P rofiles Sit e Pr o fil es le t mo bi le us ers sav e an d re t ri ev e wi rel es s pa ram e ter s, rat he r than r e -ke ying t he par amet ers e ver y tim e you c ha ng e [...]

Ob serv er® So ftwar e an d Wir eles s LANs 8 Obs erve r User Ma nu al Adde nd um (Wir ele ss) Ne w Featu res for Wir ele ss Supp ort In addi tion to de coding and anal yzin g 802.1 1b wir eless LANs (WLANs), Observer has updated a number of statistica l mo des and added some new ones. T hese new and up da ted features a re described in the sec ti[...]

New F eatu res f or W ire le ss Sup por t © Netw ork In s trum e nts , LL C 9 A vg Qu alit y (% ) Th e aver a ge sig na l-t o-n oise r at io of t h e sign al, e xp ress ed as a p erc en t- a ge of t he op ti mu m . Avg Data R a te T he a ver age r at e of data pa ck ets on t he wir el es s ne twor k. A vg Ra te The av erage r ate of al l p acke ts[...]

Ob serv er® So ftwar e an d Wir eles s LANs 10 Obs erve r User Ma nu al Adde nd um (Wir ele ss) W irel ess Chann el Scan Monitor (New T ool) T he W ir el e ss C ha nn el Sca n Mo nit or s how s act ivi ty by c h an nel s on y our wireless net work. This mo de is a vailabl e on the T ools me n u . T wo t hin gs to no te about t he cha nnel sca n mo[...]

New F eatu res f or W ire le ss Sup por t © N etwork In struments, L LC 11 Net work (W ireless) V ita l S i gns T o start V ital Signs, se lec t Statis tics fro m the m a in m enu , then N etwork V ital Sign s . The W ireless V ital Signs mode shows curre nt wi r eless activit y m apped with cu rr ent wir eless er ror c ondit ion s on your WLAN. T[...]

Ob serv er® So ftwar e an d Wir eles s LANs 12 Obs erve r User Ma nu al Adde nd um (Wir ele ss) r ev ealed b y W ireless V ital Sign s, go to Acces s P oint Statis tics, T o p T a lkers , and Errors b y St ation. Anothe r way to use th is "at-a-glanc e" view of netw ork hea lth is to ins tall Observer on a wir eless laptop and watch what[...]

New F eatu res f or W ire le ss Sup por t © N etwork In struments, L LC 13 This le ts you imm ed iately see ea ch stat istic in its proper co ntext . For exam ple, an err or rate of 50% is insignifi cant if Observer has onl y analyzed two packets , but q uite significant if thousands of packets have been analyzed. The bar g raphs to th e right of [...]

Ob serv er® So ftwar e an d Wir eles s LANs 14 Obs erve r User Ma nu al Adde nd um (Wir ele ss) Wi rel ess Sp eed s Th is tab show s det ails o f signal strength, qualit y , the o vera ll rate an d data rate, as well a s the packet distributions for di ffer ent rates. As with all of the stat istic al displays i n Observer , y ou can confi gure t h[...]

New F eatu res f or W ire le ss Sup por t © N etwork In struments, L LC 15 The Exper t Analysis Wireless Ev ents Button Expert M od e ca n be used in bo th r eal time a nd post-captur e: • For r eal-time analysis , when capturing pac k ets, s elect the V iew ic on fr om Packet Capture. Then select the Expert Ana lys is tab at the bott om of t h [...]

Ob serv er® So ftwar e an d Wir eles s LANs 16 Obs erve r User Ma nu al Adde nd um (Wir ele ss) The tracked W irel ess Events ar e described below . Note also tha t the Expert Summary n ow displays wir eless events. Event Description St a ti o n 1 - > <-Station 2 Show s the wirele ss st atio n send i ng and t he w ire less stat io n r ec eiv[...]

New F eatu res f or W ire le ss Sup por t © N etwork In struments, L LC 17 New Filteri ng E nhan cemen ts Y ou can now filter by the wirel ess access point h ardware ad dress in addit ion to th e standar d MAC address a nd IP addre ss fil tering that has al ways been avail able in Obs erver . Y ou can choose to either captur e or exclude packets b[...]

Ob serv er® So ftwar e an d Wir eles s LANs 18 Obs erve r User Ma nu al Adde nd um (Wir ele ss) W ir ele ss Obse rv er T ro ub les hoo ting Most p r ob lems w ith w ireless analysis a re the result o f problems un related to the Observer software or its configuration, such as unconfigured or incorrectly configured WE P keys. Make sure that you h a[...]

NOTES © 20 02 Network In struments, LLC 19[...]

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