Top Five Network Diagnostics and Sniffing Tools for 2018
As easy as wireless networks have made our lives, they still manage to give us some incredibly nasty headaches. Fortunately we have a range of troubleshooting tools at our disposal. These sniffers, stumblers, and diagnostics tools are sure to help identify interference and get your network back on track in no time. Take a look!
Acrylic Wi-Fi
Acrylic Wi-Fi is a wireless stumbler and a scaled down version of the commercial offering. The user interface always shows the list of SSID and their details on the top of the application. Negative dBm values for RSSI are displayed, teh application is capable of naming the 802.11 standard and can recognize larger bandwidths and displays the multiple channels being used.
RF Explorer
RF Explorer is an affordable hand-held device that allows for network administrators to run run simple RF spectrum analysis. This can be done using the device itself or by plugging into a PC to conduct a more in-depth diagnostic analysis.
WiFi Eagle
WiFi Eagle is a PC-Based dongle/software combination offering WiFI diagnostics by using Indirect Measurement of Microwave Interference to detect data on how RF interference could be affecting 802.11 wireless channels.
Cain and Abel
Cain and Abel is primarily a password recovery and cracking application, but it also functions as a wi-fi stumbling, sniffing, and cracking tool. The main portion of the application is designed to organize the different utilities. Because Cain and Abel doesn’t include graphs and the ability to distinguish 802.11ac APs and larger channels widths, this tool might be a great choice for general wi-fi stumbling, although it can be useful for network stumbling.
Kismet
This is an open source wireless network discovery and packet sniffing tool, Kismet can help IT professionals find hidden wireless networks that could be interfering with their legitimate network. This tool finds networks by listening to beacon transmissions from access points rather than broadcasting for SSID.
Air Magnet
The AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer offers enterprise-class functionality for administrators looking for one comprehensive tool rather than a collection of half-baked free tools. This tool offers testing and diagnostics for throughput and connectivity problems, device conflicts and signal multipath troubles.