Making the Wi-Fi connection

Wi-Fi discovery and connection tools have existed since the early days of 802.11. But while many of these tools have their roots in hacker tools like AirCrack, WEPCrack, AirSnort, CoWPatty, and AirSnarf, which were all originally developed to exploit the fundamental weakness in Wired Equivalent Privacy, these tools now legitimately embody the client-side user interface elements that help establish essentially every wireless LAN link.

Today's commercial and open source discovery and connection tools – as shown in this Clear Choice test of nine software packages, the second in our series of tests homing in on the various layers of WLAN management wares -- range in function from the very basic (take Microsoft's Zero Configuration approach) to robust enough to enable diagnostic use in throughout the enterprise (such as PassMark's WirelessMon and Sandy Road's Wi-Fi Hopper, our Clear Choice winner and runner-up, respectively, in this test).

A good connection manager can complement the functionality of a centralized WLAN management console, providing a view of clients' radio and network parameters not readily available from most enterprise-class WLAN management products today. A network operations person would actually tap into the client (possibly over a remote-control or similar connection) to apply the data gathered by the connection manager. A smaller organization lacking a centralized management console could use one of the more feature-rich tools in place of that console for many troubleshooting activities. (Compare WLAN management products in our Buyer's Guide as well.)

The simple case

While many (if not most) Wi-Fi users rely on the Microsoft's Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC) connection tool, along with the Wireless Auto-Configuration service in Microsoft's servers and WLAN AutoConfig in Vista, these are inadequate for all but the most basic discovery and connection functions. (Read a related story about tools to find Wi-Fi hot spots.)

Click to see: Net results, scorecard

WZC, unfortunately, provides only very basic functionality, little more than a list of potential connections for a user to choose from, and the ability to enter and save security-key data. Because this capability is so limited, we usually suggest that most users at least opt for the connection manager included with the Wi-Fi adapter/driver combination shipped with their mobile computer. These tools (often touted as competitive differentiators by WLAN adapter vendors) provide both quicker connect times and often report more detailed information on available networks (often including connection performance statistics) than is available in WZC.

A good example of this class of product is the Intel ProSet/Wireless connection manager that comes with the Intel Pro/Wireless 2915ABG wireless adapter built into the Dell 710m notebook running XP SP2 we used for most of our testing (see How we did it). In addition to its simple user interface and its ability to list and enable client connections for networks within range, this tool reports a wealth of connection information, including detailed 802.11 protocol data and statistics (including bytes transferred by individual 802.11 connection rates), Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), roaming events, and even such low-level 802.11 protocol details as beacon frames seen, which are used to advertise the availability of a given WLAN.