Wireless Access

When performing wireless surveys, I need a USB NIC that will roam more easily, or has built-in settings that can be adjusted for roaming.

The current laptop I am using only has a 2.4GHz antenna and does not support 5GHz, thus I need to use a USB wireless adapter.  I purchased a Linksys WUSB6300 from Staples, and once it associates to an AP it holds on like a babe on the breast!  This is leading to inaccurate surveys (actually, more detailed below) since I am in one part of a building and still connected to an AP very far away, instead of the one I am directly under.

In lieu of ending up with very inaccurate survey results...

Many times throughout the survey, I end up having to disconnect completely from the wireless and re-associate to a closer AP. This causes my laptop to lose connection with the stationary server (using WaveDeploy). Then I have to either wait for it to reconnect before continuing the survey, or, sometimes, stop the survey and manually force the re-connection. Which, if any of you are familiar with the WaveDeploy software, means you basically are starting a new survey and "lose" all the previous data points so you can't tell where you have already surveyed.

I know the customer can make some changes to their environment to reduce sticky client issues, but for all intents and purposes lets assume that we dont suggest any changes until the survey is complete.

TL;DR - Please suggest USB NIC that is good at roaming.

Thanks community!

Passive surveys do not require a device that associates or roams.  95% of surveys are passive surveys.  Are you trying to do an active survey?  If so, what client are you trying to emulate?

Thanks for the response, Colin.

In most cases, including my current situation, we are doing an active survey. We typically use a laptop to associate, and test TCP up/down to the stationary "server" we place in their datacenter. Of course, the passive survey is happening as well and we are providing signal heat maps.

-Brian

If you are using Airmagnet Survey pro, use the Proxim 8494.

As stated in the original post, I'm using WaveDeploy. But thanks for the suggestion.

Sorry for not reading your post in its entirety.  

This might be unrelated:  I used Wavedeploy in the past as far back as 2012 and I'm sure that it has been changed or improved since I last used it.  The question is do you need to have a client adapter that matches the clients that will be in that space, or do you purposely get a good roaming adapter as a good baseline, initially?

No problem.

It's funny, I would actually bet WaveDeploy really hasnt improved since you last used it. It really is in need of some solid user interface engineering.

To answer your question, my best case scenario would be an adapter with adjustable roaming settings. I haven't been able to find ANY adapters where the manufacturers actually detail any of the user adjustable settings.

I've just ordered the "Proxim ORiNOCO® USB-9100, MIMO 2x2, 802.11ac USB Adapter-US" off Amazon for $70. We'll see how that works out.

Thanks again for the suggestion and feedback!