AirTraf Network Analyzer

network administrators of today are faced with a challenge. The challenge is to effectively deploy numerous access points within their organization to provide wireless coverage for all users, and at the same time make sure that everyone who is granted access is able to operate in a fast, robust network environment.

AirTraf is a 100% passive packet sniffing tool for the wireless 802.11b networks. It captures and tracks all wireless activity in the coverage area, decodes packets, and maintains acquired information associated by access points, as well as detected individual wireless nodes. It dynamically detects any access points in the area, finds association between wireless clients and access points, and builds information table for each packet that is transmitted via the air. AirTraf is able to maintain packet count, byte information, related bandwidth, as well as signal strength of nodes.

And best of all, its open-source, and distributed under the GPL. Other comparable products that perform wireless network analysis price their products above $10,000 (such as Sniffer Wireless), and is limited to single-licenses of copy, while AirTraf can be installed at any detection location you choose, enabled to run in (Server Mode), and polled periodically via the polling server to retrieve active wireless data from multiple stations at once, resulting in consolidation of wireless information over your entire organization into a single point of access (database), and able to be administered via a web interface, visualizing your wireless network performance in a single glance. At absolutely no cost to you, or your organization.

However, AirTraf is still a work in progress, meaning much of planned features, such as injecting packets into the network to test Access Point security, are not available yet. But it is constantly being worked on, and soon it will prove to be a critical tool in managing healthy wireless networks in the future.