Labels

Friday, November 4, 2011

MetaGeek Wi-Spy 2.4 GHz Spectrum Analyzer

| Wireless Driver & Software

In Use, Continued

Figure 6 shows the measurements made from my Location 3, which is a floor above, but closer (straight-line distance) to the test WLAN than Location 2. Once again the change in Cognio and Wi-Spy measurements track pretty well -65 to -75 dBm and -35 to -45 dBm respectively.

Wi-Spy and Cognio - Location 3

Figure 6: Wi-Spy and Cognio – Location 3
(click image to enlarge)

I also tried my more difficult Locations 4 and 5 and found that the Cognio could still capture a signal, while it was difficult to tell whether the Wi-Spy was really measuring anything or just random noise. It was these measurements made of low-level signals that convinced me that Wi-Spy users will probably find the Maximum Trace feature more useful than the Data (real-time) and Average traces.

I finally moved back to Location 3 and then ran a microwave oven that was located about 20 feet and a few walls away, with the results shown in Figure 7.

Wi-Spy and Cognio - Location 3 w/ Microwave

Figure 7: Wi-Spy and Cognio – Location 3 w/ Microwave
(click image to enlarge)

Due to the intermittent nature of the microwave interference (I ran it for only around 10 seconds), I had to rely on the maximum trace feature of both products, which produced remarkably similar results.

No comments:

Post a Comment