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Observer User Manual Addendum
802.11b Wireless Installation & Operation
March 2002
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© 2002 by Network Instruments, LLC (Limited Liability Corporation). All rights reserved. Network Instruments' Observer for use with Microsoft Windows 98/Me, Windows NT 4.x, Windows 2000,WindowsXP,or greater basedcomputers. “Observer”, “Network Instruments” and the “N with a dot logo” are registered trademarks of Network Instruments, LLC, and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. ii Observer User Manual Addendum (Wireless)
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Contents Hardware & Software Support .......................................................................... 1 Supported NICs ............................................................................................ 1 Supported Microsoft Windows Versions .................................................... 1 Network Instruments Custom Driver Installation ............................................ 1 Configuring Observer for Wireless Operation ..............................................
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iv Observer User Manual Addendum (Wireless)
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® Observer Software and Wireless LANs An Addendum to the Network Instruments Observer User Manual To use Observer in an 802.11b wireless environment, you must follow the instructions for custom driver installation (see below) and Observer setup (see page 6 of this manual). Hardware & Software Support Supported NICs Symbol Spectrum24 - 41x1 models Nortel41x1models Cisco Aironet 340-350 series models Intel 2011b models Supported Microsoft Windows Versions 2000 XP Network Instruments Custo
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Observer® Software and Wireless LANs To update the driver, follow these steps: 1. Right-click on the ‘My Computer’ icon and choose Properties. 2. Click the Hardware tab and then the Device Manager... button to display the Device Manager: 3. Right-click on the wireless driver (e.g. Nortel Networks e-mobility) and choose Properties. 4. Click on the Driver tab and then click the Update Driver... button. This starts the Update Hardware Wizard: 5. Click Next. 2 Observer User Manual Addendum (Wireless
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Network Instruments Custom Driver Installation The Wizard asks you how you want to update the driver: 6. Choose “Search for a suitable driver for my device (recommended)” and click Next. The Wizard asks where you want to search for the driver: 7. Choose “Specify a location” and click Next. © Network Instruments, LLC 3
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Observer® Software and Wireless LANs A file locator dialog is displayed: 8. Enter (or browse to) the following directory (assuming that C:\Observer Files is your Observer directory): C:\Observer Files\drivers\wireless The Wizard displays the following: 9. Choose “Install one of the other drivers” and click Next. The wizard displays a list of compatible drivers: 4 Observer User Manual Addendum (Wireless)
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Network Instruments Custom Driver Installation 10. Choose the appropriate analyzer driver with the “NI” prefix (“NI/Nortel Networks e-mobility 802.11b Wireless LAN PC Card,” for example) and click Next.* The Wizard informs you that the driver lacks a Microsoft digital signature: 11. Click Yes. Network Instruments has tested the driver and verified that it works with Windows and with Observer. When the installation is complete, click Finish to close the Wizard. Note that you can switch wireless o
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Observer® Software and Wireless LANs Configuring Observer for Wireless Operation Once you have installed the wireless NIC and Network Instruments’ custom driver, you will be able to see the wireless Probe in the Probe List. Check the setup options before you begin capturing packets. 1. Start Observer. If the new wireless card is the only installed NIC in your system, the wireless Probe will appear in the Probe List under the Wireless Advanced Probes heading. If the wireless card is installed alo
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Configuring Observer for Wireless Operation The configuration options are described below: Option Description Site Profiles Site Profiles let mobile users save and retrieve wireless parameters, rather than re-keying the parameters every time you change sites. Monitor Traffic By Choose the method to monitor traffic. The three available methods are as follows (choose one): Channel Specify a channel to monitor. BSSID Specify the Basic Service Set ID of the Access Point you want to monitor. ESSID Sp
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Observer® Software and Wireless LANs New Features for Wireless Support In addition to decoding and analyzing 802.11b wireless LANs (WLANs), Observer has updated a number of statistical modes and added some new ones. These new and updated features are described in the sections that follow. Wireless Access Point Statistics (New Mode) This mode is available on the Statistics menu whenever Observer is analyzing through a wireless device or Probe. The Access Point Statistics mode shows traffic passin
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New Features for Wireless Support Statistic Description Avg Quality (%) The average signal-to-noise ratio of the signal, expressed as a percent- age of the optimum. Avg Data Rate The average rate of data packets on the wireless network. Avg Rate The average rate of all packets (data+control+management+beacon) on the wireless network. Packets The total number of packets seen. Data pkts The total number of data packets seen. (Directed) Multicasts The total number of multicast packets seen. Bytes T
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Observer® Software and Wireless LANs Statistic Description Min Rate The slowest rate of total packet throughput seen, expressed in Mbits/ sec. Max Rate The fastest rate of total packet throughput seen, expressed in Mbits/ sec. Latest Rate The rate of total packet throughput seen at the last poll. Wireless Channel Scan Monitor (New Tool) The Wireless Channel Scan Monitor shows activity by channels on your wireless network. This mode is available on the Tools menu. Two things to note about the cha
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New Features for Wireless Support Statistic Description Packets Total number of packets (data+control+management+beacon) seen. Data pkts Total number of data packets (packets with a payload and an (directed) address) seen. Beacons Total number of beacons seen. Bytes Total number of bytes seen. Retries Total number of retries reported on this channel. Min Quality The poorest quality signal seen, expressed as a percentage of the optimum. Max Quality The best quality signal seen, expressed as a per
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Observer® Software and Wireless LANs revealed by Wireless Vital Signs, go to Access Point Statistics, Top Talkers, and Errors by Station. Another way to use this "at-a-glance" view of network health is to install Observer on a wireless laptop and watch what happens to the vital signs as you move the system around your office. The display below shows the “dial view” of Wireless Vital Signs. Other views are available by clicking the different view buttons on the tool bar to the left of the graph d
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New Features for Wireless Support This lets you immediately see each statistic in its proper context. For example, an error rate of 50% is insignificant if Observer has only analyzed two packets, but quite significant if thousands of packets have been analyzed. The bar graphs to the right of the dial show current bandwidth utilization (U), the average strength (S), and the average quality (Q) of the signal. These meters also indicate (with watermark “floats”) the minimum and maximum values that
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Observer® Software and Wireless LANs Wireless Speeds This tab shows details of signal strength, quality, the overall rate and data rate, as well as the packet distributions for different rates. As with all of the statistical displays in Observer, you can configure the mode to display only the statistics that you are currently interested in by right-clicking on the column headers. Statistic Description Alias Alias of the Top Talker system, if one is available. Address Media Access Control (MAC) a
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New Features for Wireless Support The Expert Analysis Wireless Events Button Expert Mode can be used in both real time and post-capture: For real-time analysis, when capturing packets, select the View icon from Packet Capture. Then select the Expert Analysis tab at the bottom of thedecodedisplay. For post-capture analysis, open a (previously captured) buffer and select the "Expert Analysis" tab at the bottom of the decode display. The Expert Analysis tab includes a Wireless Events button on
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Observer® Software and Wireless LANs The tracked Wireless Events are described below. Event Description Station 1-> Shows the wireless station sending and the wireless <-Station 2 station receiving. Where possible, the client is listed first and server second. Status Displays a colored box indicating the status of the conversation. Red indicates a critical event has occurred. Yellow indicates a marginal event has occurred. Green indicates that the conversation’s communication is within acceptabl
