Acrylic WiFi professional – Network troubleshooting
- 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac sniffer and WiFi networks analyzer.
- Maximum rates supported by WiFi devices.
- Access Points and clients packet retry rate information.
- View reachable wireless devices (APs, phones, laptops,..).
- Packet viewer and Wirehark integration.
- Detailed information about WiFi connected devices.
- Unlimited device inventory.
- Monitor mode and Airpcap Classic, TX and NX cards supported.
WiFi analyzer – Acrylic WiFi Professional
Acrylic WiFi Professional is the best WiFi analyzer software to identify access points and wifi channels, and to analyze and resolve incidences on 802.11a/b/g/n/ac wireless networks in real time.
It is a perfect tool for advanced users and professional WiFi network analysts and administrators to control their office wireless network performance and who is connected to it, identify access point data transmission speeds, and optimize their company’s WiFi network channels.
Access WiFi network detailed information, including hidden wireless networks, and make the most of unique features such as monitor mode to capture and analyze all wireless device traffic, device viewer, equipment inventory, and WiFi speed analysis.
Hardware
Basic data capture with WLAN API and advanced monitor mode capture with NDIS compatible devices and airpcap hardware.
Incidence Resolution
All the information you need to detect performance issues and improve WiFi network distribution in your home or at your office.
Monitoring
Network and client traffic, signal strength, WiFi channels and WiFi device activity monitoring in real time.
OTHER FEATURES:
Minimum system requirements
Operative system: Microsoft® Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista
System components: Microsoft® .NET FRAMEWORK: 4.5
Screen resolution: 800×600 (1024×768 or higher recommended)
Memory: 1GB RAM
Wi-Fi: Internal or USB.
Compatible monitor mode Wi-Fi cards under windows
Acrylic WiFi software works with all existing WiFi cards on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Monitor mode WiFi capture is and advanced capability supported by Acrylic with most WLAN cards.
Some WiFi cards drivers don’t adequately report information about the signal level or WiFi channel on which the measurement is made, limiting its use to generate WiFi coverage maps under monitor mode. There are two main WLAN cards groups that support monitor mode WiFi under Windows, as shown below:
1 – Generic monitor mode WiFi cards: Standard WiFi cards (less expensive ones) on which monitor mode is supported by the hardware and by vendor drivers under windows. Its performance has been verified with Acrylic WiFi NDIS Driver and supports Wireshark integration. WiFi cards with Broadcom chipsets are fully compatible with NDIS and monitor mode under windows.
| Chipset/model | Driver / WLAN Card details | Packet capture | Signal levels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dell wireless 1702 b/g/n | integrated with Dell vostro | ★★★ | ★★ |
| Ralink RT2870/3070 / Alpha | external usb | ★★★★ | no |
| Qualcom Atheros AR5BMD222 b/g/n | Integrated Acer Iconia W700P( Drv 10.0.0.270) | ★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| D-Link DWA-182 Revision A1 a/g/n/ac ( Broadcom BCM43526 ) | external usb | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Asus USB-AC53 (Broadcom BCM43526 Nano NOT supported) | externa usb | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| D-Link Wireless G DWA-110 b/g ( RT73 chipset ) | external usb | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Atheros AR9485WB-EG b/g/n | lenovo laptop (internal) | ★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| UBIQUITI SR71 USB | With driver 3.5.0.4. (FCS invalid) | ★★★ | ★ |
| Proxim 8494-WD | ORiNOCO 802.11a/b/g/n (driver 2.2.0) | ★★★ | ★ |
| Cisco Linksys AE3000 | driver 3.2.8.0 (packets with wrong FCS) | ★ | no |
| Edimax AC1200 | driver 1.0.16 | no | no |
| Edimax AC 600 | n/a | no | no |
| TP-LINK TL-WN722N v1 (v2 NOT supported) | Con driver 2.0.0.62 | ★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| NetGear A6200 (Broadcom) | 1.0.0.26 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| NetGear WiFi A6210 (Broadcom) | n/a | ★★★★★ | no |
| Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 B/G/n | internal card | ★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| Atheros AR9002WB-1NG (internal card) | 9.2.0.206 | ★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| Broadcom BCM94352HMB 802.11ac 2×2 WI-FI Adapter | Driver 6.30.223.170 2013.09.06 (not verified) | ★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| D-Link DWA-645 agn – AR5416 | Driver 6.30.223.170 2013.09.06 (not verified) | ★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| AR5008X ABGN (integrada DELL) | n/a (not verified) | ★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| RTL8187 chipset (bg) | n/a (not verified) | ★★★ | ★★★ |
| Atheros 802.11a/b/g/n | AR5B97 (tested with driver 9.2.0.439) | ★★★ | ★★★ |
| Atheros AR5B95 | AR5B95 (tested with drv 9.2.0.412) | ★★★ | ★★★ |
| Belkin F9L1106az v1 | Tested with driver 6.30.61.21 and Windows 10 x64 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| BT 11ac Dual Band Wi-Fi Dongle 900 | Driver 6.30.145.9 en Windows 10 x64 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Buffalo AC866 N300 Dual Band Wi-Fi Dongle (WI-U2-866D) | Driver 6.30.145.9 en Windows 10 x64 | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Linksys AE2500 | external usb | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
2 – Professional hardware: WiFi hardware product developed by Riverbed that supports native capture under Windows with excellent performance and signal precision levels. Airpcap devices are expensive (200$ – 600$) and are compatible with Acrylic WiFi Professional and Acrylic WiFi Heatmaps.
Airpcap Classic
b/g/nAirpcap Tx
a/b/g/nAirpcap Nx
Recommended monitor mode WiFi cards
We hope to increase the number of compatible WiFi cards supported by improving our driver and by contacting manufacturers to include NDIS support properly. Hoever, any card can work using native capture mode “WLAN API”, by disabling monitor mode on Acrylic WiFi device selector. We recommend your to purchase D-Link DWA-182 Revision A1 (Revision C1 uses an incompatible chipset), Netgear A6200 or Asus USB-AC53 for fully monitor mode capable Wi-Fi cards.
If you have compatible hardware, want to test your WiFi card and want to try an advanced WLAN sniffer give a try to our products:
Acrylic WiFi Free: Free WiFi scanner for windows that provides information about networks, channels, connected clients and speed.
Acrylic WiFi Profesional: Professional WLAN analysis and advanced wireless networks information (Trial available).
Acrylic WiFi HeatMaps: Wireless site survey WiFi, coverage analysis and WiFi heat maps (Trial available).
Who is it for?
Our WiFi analyzer is designed for advanced users, system and network administrators that need a powerful and intuitive WiFi analyzer tool for wireless network incidence resolution and monitoring.
How does the full license work?
Acrylic WiFi Professional licenses are available for 1Year or perpetual and can be installed in up to three different computers. You can evaluate Acrylic WiFi Professional by downloading a fully working trial.We offer our products free of charge to all educational institutions. Request your free license here.
Monitor Mode and Native Capture Mode in Acrylic Wi-Fi
The Monitor Mode (Promiscuous Mode or Listening Mode) and the Native Capture Mode or Normal Mode are the two capture modes supported by Acrylic Wi-Fi Professional and Acrylic Wi-Fi Heatmaps. The Monitor Mode can be enabled using any standard wireless card that is compatible with our NDIS drive or by using a professional hardware such as an AirPcap card.
The amount of information obtained about our Wi-Fi network will depend on the selected capture type. Continue reading to find out what information each capture type provides.
Native Capture Mode
The Acrylic Wi-Fi suite is compatible with any wireless card available in the market on Native Capture Mode or Normal Mode. When monitoring on Native Capture Mode, the wireless card operates as any standard Wi-Fi device.
By using Windows native mechanisms, the wireless card only captures a certain type of Management packets, specifically Beacon packets, that are originated by the access points. These packets are transmitted several times per second by the access points to indicate which network or networks are currently broadcasting.
Acrylic Wi-Fi tools analyze and read these packets, displaying the information contained in the packets and saving this information to the current project.
To perform a native data capture, no special hardware is required.
Information available on Normal Mode using Acrylic Wi-Fi ProfessionalIn Acrylic Wi-Fi Professional, the native capture mode provides information on: SSID, MAC addresses, signal strength, channels, bandwidth, IEEE 802.11, maximum packet transmission rate, WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPS, password, WPS PIN, manufacturer, AP first detected time, AP last detected time, type of established connection and latitude and longitude (this information is available when a GPS device is connected).
Monitor Mode with NDIS driver
The monitor mode is a data capture mode that allows the use of a wireless network card Wi-Fi on listening mode or promiscuous mode. Operating on this mode, the wireless network card is able to capture all types of Wi-Fi Management packets (including Beacon packets), Data packets and Control packets . This way, it is possible to visualize not only the access points, but also the clients that are transmitting within Wi-Fi frequency bands.
To enable the monitor mode, you should have a wireless network card that is compatible with our NDIS driver or a professional wireless network card such as an AirPcap card that supports both native capture and monitor mode.
To enable the Monitor Mode using a wireless network card that is supported by our driver, you need to install the NDIS driver: from Acrylic Wi-Fi, click the NDIS driver installation button next to the Monitor Mode Capture button.
Information available on NDIS Monitor Mode using Acrylic Wi-Fi ProfessionalWhen performing a data capture on Monitor Mode, Acrylic Wi-Fi Professional offers, besides all the information available on Normal Mode capture, information on all client devices connected to the different access points (#), Retries, Data Packets and Management Packets (Mgt).
Charts available on NDIS Monitor Mode using Acrylic Wi-Fi Heatmaps
When performing a data capture on Monitor Mode, it is possible to visualize, besides the plots available on a Normal Mode capture, the Cell Density graph (density of client devices connected to the selected access points) and the Retry Rate (packet retransmission rate).
Monitor Mode with AirPcap card
We can also perform a capture on Monitor Mode using professional Wi-Fi analysis hardware, such as AirPcap cards, developed by Riverbed. These cards support native capture and monitor mod; since they are engineered with this purpose, they can offer a better performance. Therefore, if we perform a capture on monitor mode with an AirPcap card, we will be able to visualize, besides all the information available from a capture on monitor mode when using an NDIS driver compatible wireless network card, SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) related information.
SNR is a good parameter to measure communication quality, since it takes into account the received signal strength and the noise present in the wireless medium. Its value ranges from 0 (weakest) and 100 (strongest). 60 or over is considered a good value.
SNR is available in both Acrylic Wi-Fi Professional and Acrylic Wi-Fi Heatmaps. Are you ready to give it a try?
Professional WiFi analyzer software features
Resolve incidences and verify the good performance of your wireless networks with a unique set of functionalities not available in any other software today.
802.11 Versión
Detect WiFi access points and clients type (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) and update obsolete devices that lower your WiFi speed.
Supported Speeds
Information on maximum data transmission rate supported by access points and WiFi clients, and a complete list of supported data transmission rates through deep network packet inspection to ensure a fast and efficient data transmission.
Packet Retry Rate
Statistics on packets retried by access points and WiFi devices to help identify data transmission and network coverage issues.
Device Information
Performance and behavior details on all WiFi devices in range.
Inventory
Assign WiFi device names by replacing the MAC field with a description for easier network analysis.
Hardware
Acrylic WiFi analyzer software works with any WiFi device thanks to its Windows API, and supports monitor mode to visualize all devices and packages with Airpcap cards and with compatible WiFi hardware.
Detailed View
Get device model information and capabilities on device detailed view.
Exportar data
Generate html reports from WiFi networks of nearby access points and work with pcap files.
Documentation Acrylic WiFi Heatmaps
Quick guide in English
this document provides a quick overview about how to use the software.
How to use Acrylic WiFi Network Scanner on Windows
On this link you’ll find information about how to use the WiFi network scanner
WiFi network device behavior analysis
Here you’ll find information about how to use the ‘Stations’ section and analyze the WiFi devices behaviour.
How to use WiFi AP and station inventory
This page will explain how to use the station inventory on the software, easing the analysis an tracking of Acess Points and WiFi devices.
How to generate WiFi reports for network and WiFi channel usage
This section explains how to export the data obtained during a WiFi monitorization (scan).
How to use WiFi pcap files on Windows
This section explains how to use a PCAP file, which is the standard format file used to store network traffic captures.
Videotutoriales Acrylic WiFi Profesional
WLAN monitor mode
Learn what monitor mode is and its relevance with WLAN sniffers to capture wireless frames under windows.
more info on a video…
WLAN Scanner
Acrylic WiFi WLAN Scanner usage, main functions and advanced network and channel information.
more info…
WLAN reports
You can quickly and easily export WiFi monitoring results by generating an HTML WiFi report including all access points within the network range.
more info..
WiFi Inventory
How to use Acrylic WiFi inventory to identify wireless devices and access points.
more info…
Behavior analysis
When all wireless network packets sent by each device are captured by analyzing WiFi traffic, it is possible to know how a detected WiFi device is behaving.
more info…
PCAP files
The PCAP specification is the file format used to store wireless network traffic captures from network analyzers (sniffers).
more info…
Wireshark integration
Acrylic WiFi NDIS driver and airpcap replacement for wireshark support.
more info on the blog…
WiFi measurements with GPS
It is possible to use an NMEA compatible GPS device to support WiFi network measurements.
more info…
WiFi online maps
How to perform a wireless capture on 802.11 networks, including the localization of the detected devices and networks on a small project (KMZ).
more info on the blog…
WiFi Passwords
Learn how to test default WEP, WPA and WPA2 WiFi passwords with acrylic wifi password bruteforce module.
more info on a video…
