AirMagnet is introducing a new version of its portable analysis products, designed for laptop or PDA users: The upgrade is free to existing customers. The new version extends the new look and functionality of AirMagnet's distributed product that it released earlier in the year. The tool includes 19 new alarms, including one that detects a denial of service attack recently identified by researchers in Queensland. That attack made headlines when it was first uncovered but AirMagnet hasn't seen or heard of any such attacks in the market. Still, customers asked for protection against it. "One reason we hopped on this so quickly was that the press picked up on this aggressively and our customers called to say they'd like an alarm for it," said Rich Mironov, vice president of marketing for AirMagnet.
The new product also supports various authentication and encryption schemes. The software appears to the network like a client that can be running WEP, Cisco's LEAP, Microsoft's PEAP, TLS, or Cisco's latest, EAP Fast. Mironov said it's important for network administrators to have a tool that can support the method their network uses because often other tools will shut off security to do the diagnosis but problems could stem from the security mechanisms themselves.
The tool also offers some network monitoring capabilities for customers who may be running voice over WLAN. It depicts the signal strength of each packet, so a flat line indicates that a call will be delivering good voice quality but a jittery line indicates interference. Other tools can then help administrators figure out where the interference is coming from to correct the problem. The tool can also monitor how long handoff takes between cells, which will indicate if calls are being dropped as users move. Additional security diagnosis capabilities specifically for voice over WLAN will be available in future upgrades, Mironov said.