![]() ![]() The WLANPi also has a Gig Ethernet port, which allows high speed data transfer between the WLANPi and a laptop. It has no onboard wireless adapter, but there is good driver support for the Comfast CF-912AC adapter, which is relatively low cost NIC that can be plugged in to the USB socket of the WLANPi. It also has low power requirements, so can be run from the USB port of a laptop. The WLANPi is a Linux-based (Debian), single board computer in the same vein as the Raspberry Pi, but is provided as a much smaller form factor. A number of excellent open source tools already exist, and were included in the distribution he created for the platform (find out more here). Jerry’s idea was to develop a single board computer platform equipped with a suite of free tools for wireless LAN pros to use in their testing and commissioning work. These are OK(ish).but they don’t provide the flexibility and depth of information I need to see for activities such as troubleshooting.Įarlier this year, I became interested in the “ WLANPi “initiative started by Jerry Ola at the Phoenix 2018 WLAN Pros Conference. Limitations include the inability to select capture channel widths and limited/inaccurate RadioTap header information. I’m guessing this is because they aren’t operating directly at the NIC driver level. ![]() There are a few lower cost software solutions that support Windows packet capture, but they rely on wireless NDIS drivers that have a number of compromises when capturing packets. There are one or two software companies that provide specialist NIC drivers that they have developed for their own capture software for Windows, but these are only available with the purchase of specific packet capture software, which has a significant price tag. It simply isn’t worth the development costs for NIC manufacturers to code in the capability for their wireless NIC drivers to support monitor mode (as most users will never need it!). I’m guessing this is down to the huge variety of NICs that may be used by Windows devices. Windows wireless NIC drivers, unfortunately, do not provide the required monitor mode capability to allow wireless packet capture. It was something I dreamed of the whole time I was studying for my CWAP in the days before I could afford a Mac! It’s been a goal of mine to find a low-cost solution to enable Windows users to be able to perform over the air captures. This is a trivial exercise for Apple Mac users, as the native drivers on Macs allow their adapters to be put in to monitor mode and capture frames over the air. I’ve been a long time Windows user and have often looked at how I might best use my Windows laptop to capture 802.11 frames over the air. I’ve always felt really bad for Windows users who want to use their laptop for wireless packet capture purposes. With the WLANPi being powered from the USB of the laptop, this is a super convenient, portable and powerful capture method that gets Windows users a little closer to the capabilities of their cousins on Apple Macs. ![]() In this article, we take a look at how we can use a WLANPi unit as an adapter to capture traffic over the air, straight into Wireshark on a Windows machine. Windows users don’t have the luxury of this native wireless capture capability. This is extremely useful for wireless pros who want to take a quick over-the air-capture into Wireshark to analyze traffic for troubleshooting purposes. One huge advantage that Apple Mac users have over owners of Windows 10 machines is the ability to perform a native 802.11 wireless packet capture direct from their built-in wireless NIC. Please use the information on this page until I get this artcile updated: *** ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |