WifiNigel

I've had a number of occasions when it would have been really useful to deploy a wireless client device on a WLAN to monitor performance over time from a client perspective. Too often, when troubleshooting a wireless network, everything looks fine from the data provided by your infrastructure kit, but the user experience is a whole different story. Unfortunately, when this requirement has arisen, persuading anyone in the organization in which I was working to invest in a wireless probe-type solution has been an uphill battle. Around 18 months ago I got to the point when working on an issue that I could not progress and had no choice but to roll my own rudimentary client probe solution. It was a Python script installed on a Raspberry Pi acting as a client on a particular SSID that was having issues. It reported wireless connectivity data and a few client tests (e.g. speedtest & ping) to a Google spreadsheet. The same code also ran on a WLAN Pi, so that I could have two pro

I'm often asked how to burn a new image on to the WLAN Pi, so thought a video might be useful for anyone who wants to update their WLAN Pi image. When we release new code for the WLAN Pi, it's released as a single image file that needs to be burned on to the micro-SD card of the WLAN Pi. This video provides a practical demonstration of the process.  Here are the links for the web sites shown in the video: Direct link to Youtube video: https://youtu.be/sD4WlNyyWDs WLAN Pi image repo: https://github.com/WLAN-Pi/wlanpi/releases balena Etcher web site: https://www.balena.io/etcher/ Get the micro-SD to USB adapter: https://amzn.to/30BO4cx

I was very fortunate to receive an award for my blog recently from the Cisco-sponsored IT Blog Awards . I also recently remembered an article I wrote quite some time ago for publication elsewhere that never made it to the presses. I thought it would be kind of appropriate to publish it myself to share what I've learned over the past 9 years or so of blogging. It will hopefully encourage others to sharpen their virtual pencils, helping them to learn, get their name "out there" and contribute to the wider community. Apologies for the length of the article, but I can't help myself when it comes to detail...sorry!   I was originally motivated to set up my own blog in 2011 after reading the articles of people like Andrew Von Nagy, Devin Akin and Keith Parsons. I was in awe of their depth of knowledge, and the fact they were performing such a valuable altruistic act, freely sharing their valuable knowledge and content. I was also starting to gain more real-w