I’ve been using and evaluating Wyebot in different wireless environments for the last 18 months or so. One of the things that I most like about the company behind the sensor product and their Wireless Intelligence Platform (WIP) is their willingness to listen to what tech-savvy customers want, versus just adopting the mindset of “we’ll tell YOU what you need in a dashboard” that comes with competing products. My own requests have helped to shape the product, and I’ve listened in on calls where other wireless processionals have described what they feel is important. Wyebot listens, and iterates where it makes sense while not necessarily duplicating what everyone else is doing, or diluting their core strengths by trying to be all things to all people. This strikes me as a small, smart, agile company with a good product (and some good competition). My past coverage:
- In IT Toolbox, April 2019
- Right here at Wirednot (2.2 software release)
Now, we have a new 802.11ax sensor and version 3.1 code to improve Wyebot’s already impressive capabilities of WLAN/LAN characterization, troubleshooting, and alerting.
Continuous Improvement
Here’s the latest incarnation of the main page in the Wyebot dashboard, to get the juices flowing:
Whether you install Wyebot sensors for long-term monitoring, or use them more in a tactical role for point-in-time troubleshooting, there is a lot to appreciate. I love that with three radios, you get the flexibility of using wireless backhaul from the sensor when no network wiring is available. But what about the new magic in 3.1?
Unfortunately, you have to be logged in to see the details of each feature, but most of these are probably fairly intuitive to those in the business of Wi-Fi. Let’s talk about a couple.
The Wyebot sensor does a fantastic job of characterizing a given WLAN environment. You may see a list of SSIDs on your phone or PC, but Wyebot will distill it all down to how many APs are in each SSID (within it’s receive range, of course) along with all of the 802.11-related particulars you’d ever need to know. From there, you can add your own classification- is it a friendly? A threat? an unknown? Sounds simple, perhaps, but this on-the-fly graphical note-taking with security overtones helps keep busy environments straight as you pick them apart.
At the bottom of the list of test profiles, we see a new option- Link Doctor. With this, you exercise core network services and device-to-destination connectivity to get a sense of network health. Run it on demand, or at regular intervals for trending.
Hopefully you get a taste for Wyebot’s look, feel, and general aspirations as a test and monitoring platform. For a more analytical look at the entire platform, check out this presentation from Bryan Daugherty.
What Do I Like Best?
From the first time I experienced Wyebot, I fell in love with a few aspects of the sensor and it’s cloud framework, That affinity continues, and here’s what keeps me smitten:
- As a permanently-mounted sensor, Wyebot would be welcome in any WLAN environment. But to me it has as much value as a pop-it-in short-term analysis tool, almost like a NetAlly hand-held product. Even if you don’t buy into sensor overlays, a Wyebot sensor two on hand could bring unique troubleshooting value.
- You just don’t get as many false alarms with Wyebot as you do with certain competitors.
- It’s awesome to take wireless packet captures gathered elsewhere and to load them into Wyebot, and have them displayed as if Wyebot did the capture. Pretty slick.
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