Wi-Fi hotspot testing simplified

Wi-Fi Hotspots are hot. From coffee shops, to airports, to sport venues, to gas stations and Laundromats, they’re springing up everywhere and are projected to grow 350 percent by 2015.

This incredible growth is being driven by two major factors. First, the “instant access anywhere” mentality of everyone today is flooding networks with the latest mobile gadgets, smartphones and tablets, as the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) phenomenon continues to dominate the market. This means more users, more devices and the need for more connectivity.

Second, carriers are desperate to offload 3G network traffic to free up additional bandwidth. As a result, carriers are beginning to deploy hotspots throughout their networks at a staggering pace.

Without question, more deployments – both within enterprises and from carriers – bring more challenges for enterprise WLAN networks. Hotspots present more variability in the number of users and amount of bandwidth accessed, and the type of applications being accessed.

AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer 9.5 takes these challenges head on. It redefines the One-Touch Connection Test feature, enabling wireless network engineers to easily and quickly assess the performance of a hotspot.

The following tests can be performed using this tool:

• Ping and Trace testing tools allow the user to verify end-to-end network connectivity.
• FTP and HTTP connection testing tools allow the user to connect to a specific FTP/HTTP server, and verify both upload and download throughput rates in the case of FTP, and download throughput in the case of HTTP.
• Multimedia tests allow the user to test connectivity to media such as a movie or audio file.
• The Web Authentication tool lets the user test authentication procedures for hotspots. Users can create profiles of web portals, as well as record login and logout procedures. Authentication tests can be executed against these portals at any time resulting in time and cost savings.