Network Instruments Observer User's Manual
Contents
1. The quality of the signal as seen at the last poll Min Strength The lowest strength signal seen expressed as a percentage of the optimum Max Strength The highest strength signal seen expressed as a percentage of the optimum Latest Strength The strength of the signal seen at the last poll Min Data Rate The slowest data rate seen expressed in Mbits sec Max Data Rate The fastest data rate seen expressed in Mbits sec Latest Data Rate The data rate seen at the last poll Min Rate The slowest rate of total 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 Network Wireless Vital Signs To start Vital Signs select Statistics from the main menu then Network Vital Signs The Wireless Vital Signs mode shows current wireless activity mapped with current wireless error conditions on your WLAN The Vital Signs mode displays a comprehensive snapshot of error conditions and of their criticality in the context of current WLAN activity To pin down aggregate problems Network Instruments LLC 11 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 Ob2. unwired or another Access Point Avg Strength The average strength of the signal expressed as a percentage of the optimum strength 8 Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless 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 The total number of bytes seen CRC The total number of CRC errors reported by the AP Retries The total number of transmission retries reported by the AP Associations The number of associations connection sessions that have been established with this AP Station Polls The total number of poll requests by station a high number means that a station cannot connect to an AP In the 802 11b protocol a station first polls for an AP then associates with a responding AP Min Quality The poorest quality signal seen expressed as a percentage of the optimum Max Quality The best quality signal seen expressed as a percentage of the optimum Latest Quality The quality o
3. sent by the system Probe Request The number probe requests sent by the system Retries The number of transmission retries sent by the system Type The type of station Wireless or Access Point AP Used The access point used by the system Network Instruments LLC 13 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 address i e the hardware address Packets The total number of packets sent by the system Avg Strength The average strength of the signal expressed as a percentage of the optimum strength Avg Quality The average signal to noise ratio of the signal expressed as a per centage of the optimum Avg Data Rate The rate of data packets on the wireless network Avg speed The speed of all packets data control management beacon on the wireless network Util The percentage of bandwidth utilized Pkt 1 The number of packets captured at 1Mbit sec Pkt 2 The number of packets captured at 2Mbit s
4. ID Specify the Basic Service Set ID of the Access Point you want to monitor ESSID Specify the Extended Service Set ID of the net work you want to monitor Scan Chan Only available if you have chosen to monitor by nels Channel Scan the selected channels To select channels to scan click Channel Map WEP Encryption Choose Wireless Equivalency Privacy encryption settings To use WEP check the Use WEP keys to decrypt wireless traffic checkbox and click Edit WEP Keys to enter the appropriate encryption keys Antenna to use Specify the type of antenna connected to your system Antenna Use the stronger signal from the two antenna Diversity ports This is the recommended setting for the standard snap on antenna Primary If you are not using the standard snap on antenna Antenna choose this option if the antenna you are using is Only connected to the primary antenna port see your NIC manual for details If you are not using the standard snap on antenna choose this option if the antenna you are using is Secondary connected to the secondary antenna port see Antenna your NIC manual for details Only Network Instruments LLC 7 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 de
5. NIC driver from the Observer directory 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 LT zaxi action vew gt pe a we E A CATIE E Computer Disk drives 3 Display adapters 8 DVD CD ROM drives H Floppy disk controllers 9 Floppy disk drives Ga Human Interface Devices IDE ATA ATAPI controllers Keyboards Monitors EEY Network adapters S Accton Cheetah PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter 89 NI Gigabit Ethetrnet Anah Helper Di can not be used for standard network connectivity LEJ y N Adapter A Ports COM amp LPT d Sound video and game controllers o Storage volumes EM System devices 2 Universal Serial Bus controllers 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 Upgrade Device Driver Wizard EK d Welcome to the Upgrade Device Driver Wizard This wizard helps you upgrade a device driver for a hardware device To continue click Next 5 Click Next 2 Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless Network Instruments Custom Driver Installation The Wizard asks you how you want to update the driver Upgrade Devi
6. Networks e mobilty 802 11b Wireless LAN PC Card Network Instruments NI Nortel Networks e mobility 802 11b Wireless LAN PC Card Network Instruments ss EI Current installed and recommended diver 2 11 Wireless LAN PC Card lt Back Next gt Cancel 4 Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless 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 Digital Signature Not Found x The Microsoft digital signature affirms that software has been tested with Windows and that the software has not been altered since it was tested The software you are about to install does not contain a Microsoft digital signature Therefore there is no guarantee that this software works correctly with Windows NI Nortel Networks e mobility 802 11b Wireless LAN If you want to search for Microsoft digitally signed software visit the Windows Update Web site at http windowsupdate microsoft com to see if one is available Do you want to continue the installation No More Info 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 W
7. P errors reported on the sending and receiving stations Equivalency Privacy WEP encryption decryption errors reported on the sending and receiving stations Expert Analysis also displays the following conditions weak signal and low signal quality per station missed ACKs failed associations and whether WEP is used on a particular AP or station Network Instruments LLC 15 Observer Software and Wireless LANs The tracked Wireless Events are described below Event Description Station 1 gt Shows the wireless station sending and the wireless lt 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 acceptable event parameters A red or yellow status will display when any expert event for the pair occurs You can customize the criticality thresholds by clicking the Expert Thresholds icon to the left of the Expert Analysis win dow Packets gt Displays the number of packets in each direction of the pair s commu lt Packets nication Associations gt lt Associations The number of association attempts from the sending and receiving stations CRC PLCP Errors gt The number of cyclical redundancy check physical la
8. ay the list of available cards Select the NI Analyzer driver for your wireless NIC 2 Once the wireless Probe appears in the Probe list right click on it and choose Probe or Device Properties which displays the Local Observer Configuration dialog 3 Click on the 802 11b tab to display wireless properties x Edit Probe Entry Probe Parameters Adapter Speed Wireless 802 11b Site Profile Default Wireless 802 11 Site Profile DI Edit profiles r Monitor Wireless Traffic by Channel Channel 6 7 C BSSID AP address z ESSID network identifier name z Scan interval sec 5 Scan channels WEP Encryption IV Use WEP keys to decrypt wireless traffic Edit WEP Keys Antenna to use 4 Set the wireless configuration options to match your network Note that if your wireless network is configured for WEP you must activate WEP and enter the WEP key s in the Edit WEP Keys dialog in Observer 6 Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless 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 BSS
9. ce Driver Wizard Install Hardware Device Drivers Q A device dive is a software program that enables a hardware device to work wih TAS an operating system This wizard upgrades drivers for the following hardware device ES Nortel Networks e mobility 802 11b Wireless LAN PC Card 2 Upgrading to a newer version of a device driver may add functionality to or improve the performance of this device 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 Upgrade Device Driver Wizard Install Hardware Device Drivers I A device driver is a software program that enables a hardware device to work with I an operating system This wizard upgrades drivers for the following hardware device Se Nortel Networks e mobility 802 11b Wireless LAN PC Card 2 Upgrading to a newer version of a device driver may add functionality to or improve the performance of this device What do you want the wizard to do Display a list of the known drivers for this device so that can choose a specific driver lt Back Cancel 7 Choose Specify a location and click Next Network Instruments LLC 3 Observer Software and Wireless LANs A file locator dialog is displayed x Insert the manufacturers installation disk into the drive selected and then click OK Cancel Copy manufacturer s files fr
10. e NETWORK INSTRUMENTS 5 BSERVER Observer User Manual Addendum 802 116 Wireless Installation amp Operation March 2002 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 Windows XP or greater based computers Observer Network Instruments and the N with a dot logo are registered trademarks of Network Instruments LLC and may be registered in certain jurisdictions Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless Contents Hardware amp Software Support ns nnnnnnnnnrs 1 Supported e 1 Supported Microsoft Windows Versions nneerseennnnnennennnnennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nn 1 Network Instruments Custom Driver Installation unsnssnnnnenneeennnnnnneennnnenne 1 Configuring Observer for Wireless Operation unnnssnnensnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nn 6 New Features for Wireless Support nn 8 Wireless Access Point Statistics New Mode 8 Wireless Channel Scan Monitor New Tool nneersnsnersseennnnnennnnnnnen nenn 10 Network Wireless Vital Signs ss 11 Top Talkers Three New tabs A 13 Wireless Typ amp 8 ee nn 13 Wireless Spe amp ds 2 22h 14 Wireless Latest 14 The Expert Analysis Wireless Events Button uuusmeersnnnesnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nenn 15 New Filtering Enhancements ss 17 Router Obsewer unse seta np per ernennen AEN 17 Sav
11. e Capture Buffer iii 17 Wireless Observer Troubleshooting es 18 Network Instruments LLC iii iv Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless 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 amp Software Support Supported NICs e Symbol Spectrum24 41x1 models e Nortel 41x1 models e Cisco Aironet 340 350 series models e Intel 2011b models Supported Microsoft Windows Versions e 2000 e XP Network Instruments Custom Driver Installation For Observer to properly analyze 802 11b wireless packets the driver must pass through all of the packets not just those packets addressed to that NIC i e it must put the card in promiscuous mode Observer must also have access to the raw 802 11b wireless packets Because standard wireless drivers do not support either raw or promiscuous mode NI has written a custom driver so that you can use Observer as a wireless protocol analyzer Before you install the driver you must e Verify that the NIC is operating correctly with the manufacturer supplied driver as described in the manufacturer s installation instructions e Install Observer Refer to the Observer User Manual for details You must install Observer so that you can update the
12. ec Pkt 5 5 The number of packets captured at 5 5Mbit sec Pkt 11 The number of packets captured at 11Mbit sec Wireless Latest This tab shows the strength quality and speed of the wireless network as seen at the last poll as opposed to the other Top Talker displays which present running averages 14 Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless 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 D icon from Packet Capture Then select the Expert Analysis tab at the bottom of the decode display 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 the toolbar along the left of the display Observer tracks network conditions between wireless stations and logs The station sending and the station receiving the wireless event A color coded status indicator showing the criticality of the event each level of criticality can be configured by clicking the Expert Thresholds icon to the left of the Expert Analysis window The number of packets going in each direction for the event The number of association attempts from the sending and receiving stations Cyclical Redundancy Check Physical Layer Convergence Protocol CRC PLC
13. f the signal as seen at the last poll Min Strength The lowest strength signal seen expressed as a percentage of the optimum Max Strength The highest strength signal seen expressed as a percentage of the optimum Latest Strength The strength of the signal seen at the last poll Min Data Rate The slowest data rate seen expressed in Mbits sec Max Data Rate The fastest data rate seen expressed in Mbits sec Latest Data Rate The data rate seen at the last poll Network Instruments LLC 9 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 channel scan monitor e You must set the channels to scan in the Probe or Device Properties dialog see page 6 of this manual e When Observer is scanning channels the other modes such as Top Talkers Access Point Statitistics will no longer be able to present complete view of the network as Observer s data sample is limited to the current channel being
14. isplay anything WEP not activated or incor rect WEP key s Configure the WEP key s See Configuring Observer for Wireless Operation on page 6 of this manual Network drive becomes disconnected after running Observer This can happen when you reconfigure the driver either through vendor utilities or Windows while Observer is running Use Explorer to reconnect to the drive Wireless NIC becomes dis associated after running Observer This can happen when you reconfigure the driver either through vendor utilities or Windows while Observer is running Re install and configure the Network Instruments wire less analyzer driver Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless NOTES 2002 Network Instruments LLC 19 kl NETWORK INSTRUMENTS 8800 West Highway Seven Fourth Floor Minneapolis MN 55426 USA phone 952 932 9899 fax 952 932 9545 info networkinstruments com www NETWORKINSTRUMENTS com 2002 Network Instruments LLC Network Instruments Observer and the N with a dot logo are registered trademarks of Network Instruments LLC Minneapolis MN USA
15. izard Note that you can switch wireless operation between analyzer i e promiscuous mode and standard NIC mode without re installing the driver The table below shows what driver to select for each of the supported wireless NICs NIC Analyzer Driver Symbol Spectrum24 41x1 models NI Symbol LA 41x1 or 41x3 Spectrum24 Wireless LAN PCMCIA or PCI Card Driver Nortel 41x1 models NI Nortel Networks e mobility 802 11b Wireless LAN PC or PCI Card Driver Cisco Aironet 340 350 series models NI Cisco Systems 340 or 350 Series PCMCIA or PCI Wireless LAN Adapter Intel 2011b models N Intel R PRO Wireless or PRO 11 Wireless 2011 LAN PC or PCI Card Driver Network Instruments LLC 5 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 along with other NICs you may have to Select a Different Network Adapter by choosing that option from the Tools menu or by clicking the NIC icon on the toolbar Observer will displ
16. nalyzed 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 Observer has seen since the last polling period Top Talkers Three New tabs The Top Talkers statistical mode displays three tabs showing wireless data when Observer is capturing packets via the wireless NIC Wireless Types Wireless Speeds and Wireless Latest These tabs are described in detail below Wireless Types This display shows the type of each station sensed in the air whether it is a LAN station talking over the air to wireless stations a wireless station or an AP For stations it shows which APs they are using For APs it displays the Service Set Identifier SSID and whether WEP is enabled on that AP It also displays Control Data and Management totals per station As with other tabular displays in Observer right click on the column headings to configure the column view Statistic Description Alias Alias of the Top Talker system if one is available Address Media Access Control MAC address i e the hardware address Packets The total number of packets sent by the system Management The number of management packets sent by the system Control The number of control packets sent by the system Data The number of data packets
17. om IC Observer Files DRIVI 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 Upgrade Device Driver Wizard Driver Files Search Results The wizard has finished searching for driver files for your hardware device The wizard found a driver for the following device Bi Nortel Networks e mobilty 802 11b Wireless LAN PC Card 2 suitable driver for this device is already installed To keep the currently installed driver click Cancel To search another location for a different driver click Back or to reinstall the current driver click Next EI amp Wwint inf oemzinf The wizard also found other drivers that are suitable for this device To view a list of these drivers or install one of these drivers select the following check box and then click Next TT Install one of the other drivers 9 Choose Install one of the other drivers and click Next The wizard displays a list of compatible drivers Upgrade Device Driver Wizard E Driver Files Found Ss Which driver do you want ta install Gs gt Nortel Networks e mobiity 802 11b Wireless LAN PC Card Windows found the following drivers which ate suitable for this device To install one of these drivers select it from the list and click Next Provider WildPacket 11b Wireless LAN PC Card Nortel Nortel
18. scanned Therefore you should only use the Channel Scan monitor by itself The table below describes each Channel Scan Monitor statistic in detail Note that some fields are hidden by default to reconfigure the display right click on the statistics column heading Statistic Description Channel Channel being tracked in this row of data Avg Strength The average strength of the signal expressed as a percentage of the optimum strength Avg Quality The average signal to noise ratio of the signal expressed as a per centage of the optimum Avg Data Rate The rate of data packets on the wireless network Avg Rate The rate of all packets data control management beacon on the wireless network CRC Total number of CRC errors reported on this channel 10 Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless 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 percentage of the opti mum Latest Quality
19. scribed 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 passing through any Access Points APs visible to the Observer wireless NIC This mode is an all purpose tool for maintaining performance and security on a WLAN that uses APs showing you e Wireless stations that are connected to an AP e Non wired stations that they communicate with e Levels of signal strength quality data transfer rates and non data transfer rates on each station on the access point e AP traffic totals For example you can immediately see if there is a station connected to the wrong AP or if an unauthorized AP has been installed AP statistics will display whether a station has a problem with quality or range of connection based on the number of reassociations and retransmissions or whether a station is misconfigured based on station poll totals The table below describes each statistic Note that some columns are turned off by default right click on the column heading to set which statistics you want to display Statistic Description Access Point The MAC address of the Access Point for this row of statistics Station The MAC address or alias of the station communicating with the AP Type The type of device connected to the AP aa wireless station a station
20. server 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 display Observer Wireless Vital Signs Local Observer a DS File view Capture Statistics Trending Analysis Tools Actions Options Mode Commands Window Help l8 SANS Hi tae ere opd EEEE Data Pkts Non Data Pkt E rors i Wireless Access Point Statistics Local Wireless Vital Signs Local Observer Ready licensed to Catie EI Evaluation Only 8 Network Instruments LLC Running in Demo mode CPU 12 In Dial View vital signs are plotted against 4 axes each representing one of the four 802 11b defined bit rates 1 2 5 5 and 11 Mbits sec This allows you to see the relationships between e Data Packets packets with a payload e Non Data Packets control management and beacon e Errors of all types broken down by type in the table to the right of the graph display 12 Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless 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 a
21. y or Wireless network select the appropriate network type radio button and choose or type a DLCI or cess Point AP address check the Exclude button if you want to exclude a particular DLC or AP address Cancel Router Observer Router Observer mode now shows statistics for wireless access points as well as routers Save Capture Buffer You can apply WEP decryption by supplying the key profiles in the Save Capture Buffer dialog These are the same key profiles configured in the Device or Probe Properties dialog described on page 6 of this manual Network Instruments LLC 17 Observer Software and Wireless LANs Wireless Observer Troubleshooting Most problems with wireless analysis are the result of problems unrelated to the Observer software or its configuration such as unconfigured or incorrectly configured WEP keys Make sure that you have the wireless NIC working with your network as described in the vendor supplied manuals before you install Observer or the Network Instruments custom NIC driver The table below describes some problems that you might run into their likely causes and the remedies to correct the problems Symptom Possible Cause Remedy Observer does not display any protocol or IP statis tics WEP not activated or incor rect WEP key s Configure the WEP key s See Configuring Observer for Wireless Operation on page 6 of this manual Expert Analysis doesn t d
22. yer convergence errors reported on the sending and receiving stations lt CRC PLCP Errors WEP Decode The number of Wireless Equivalency Privacy encryption decryption Errors gt errors reported on the sending and receiving stations lt WEP Decode Errors Note also that the Expert Summary now displays wireless events 16 Observer User Manual Addendum Wireless New Features for Wireless Support New Filtering Enhancements You can now filter by the wireless access point hardware address in addition to the standard MAC address and IP address filtering that has always been available in Observer You can choose to either capture or exclude packets by the AP Add Edit Address Filter Entry xi 802 11 Wireless payload fiter Address 1 Direction Address 2 ANY_ADDRESS Le hd ANY_ADDRESS El Address 1 Type Network Address Type Address 2 Type Hardware address Ethernet Token Ring or FDDI Hardware address IP address C Frame Relay IP address IPv6 address IPv6 address IV Use payload filter I Use Wireless Access Point Filter ANY_ADDRESS El Mie Select a filter address type You can select Hardware IP or IPv6 filter independently for source or destination You can enter an address directly or right click on either address field and select an address from the popup menu Choose a filter direction and exclude or include mode If you are monitoring a Frame Rela
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