Patent ID: 6879812

Claim:
An apparatus for analyzing a wireless local area network, comprising: a portable wireless network analysis device embodied on a pocket personal computer, the portable wireless network analysis device comprising: a wireless network interface that communicatively couples the portable wireless network analysis device to the wireless local area network and receives data flowing on the wireless local area network; a network traffic analyzer, communicatively coupled to the wireless network interface, that receives the data and performs an analysis of the data received from the wireless local area network, wherein the receipt of the data is based at least in part on a service set identifier (SSID); the portable wireless network analysis device capable of being operated by user at one location and transported to second location, the portable wireless network analysis device operable to continue to monitor data on the wireless local area network while being transported from the first location to the second location; the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of collecting information selected from the group consisting of source addresses, destination addresses, dropped packets, packet types, and packet sizes; the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of collating statistics selected from the group consisting of packet totals, distribution of packet sizes, numbers of broadcasts, numbers of multicasts, numbers of errors of varying types, channel use statistics, utilization statistics, and packet rate the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of generating alarms based on conditions involving the statistics; the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of filtering the data; the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of buffering the filtered data; the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of decoding the filtered data for providing summaries, details, and hex-formatted information associated with the data; the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of detecting noise associated wit the receipt of the data; the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of detecting a power level associated with the receipt of the data; the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of changing a channel on which the data is received; and the portable wireless network analysis device further capable of detecting rogue access points on the wireless local area network.