Metageek is back! It’s been awhile since we’ve heard of Metageek at any Tech Field Day events. It was very nice and refreshing to hear from them and hear them present what they have been working on.
If you want to catch back with the presentations and watch them, here are the links you need:
- MetaGeek Light as Air: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354064768
- MetaGeek Integrated App that Remember and Share: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354065251
- MetaGeek Client Traffic Analysis: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354066229
For more insights from the other delegates, please read the following articles:
- Metageek Plus Pro and Rampart by Jake Snyder: https://todsfromds.com/2019/09/03/metageek-plus-pro-and-rampart/
- I Spy a Wi-Spy: https://thewlan.com.au/2019/09/03/i-spy-a-wi-spy/
You can also read the blog post written by Adam from Metageek where he talks about his experience at Mobility Field Day: http://blog.metageek.net/2019/08/rampart-client-traffic-analytics-and-air-viewer-new-awesomeness-brewin-metageek-for-mfd4/
Presenters from Metageek:
- Ryan Woodings – Chief Product Officer (@RyanWoodings)
- Adam Miedema – Product Manager (@ARMiedema)
Improving the User Experience
They talked to a lot of customers and found out that customers didn’t like to always have to take their “big” laptop out to be able to use their applications.
So they started to see how they could leverage mobile devices.
A new product came out of this: the Wi-Spy Air.
This device can be connected to a mobile device (iOS, Android) and collect Wi-Fi information.
They actually working on a new application called Air Viewer. It is a Wi-Fi scanner that discover Wi-Fi networks (similar to InSSIDer but for mobile device).
Advanced features:
- You can select the channels you want to scan.
- Client details
- Client Roaming events
- Channel health including spectrum data
- Context based scanning
However, this is not new! The Wi-Spy have been released back in February. Now, let’s talk about the new stuff 🙂
Rempart
Metageek started their presentation talking about their current line of product and stating that each application is currently working in its own silo; not communicating to other applications.
Here is the list of their most popular applications today:
- InSSIDer
- Eye P.A.
- Chanalyzer
- Air Viewer
Lately, they have been wanting to change this and allow their customers to be able collaborate using different sources.
So they are introducing a new product which allows them to break the silos and bring everything together. This product is a cloud-based product called Rempart. (Screenshots provided by Adam Miedema, thank you Adam!)
They also wanted to add more context information to their applications so the user could document the location of the measurements. For instance, when taking measurements in InSSIDer, you could specify your location and it would remember it as well as upload it to Rempart so you could compare measurements and keep history.
In Rempart, you can now see the snapshots collected by InSSIDer and or AirViewer.
Features available in Rempart:
- Compare different snapshots (Wi-Fi Data)
- See the list of BSS detected
- Channel Utilization (QBSS)
- See all the comments uploaded by onsite Engineer (Description for the site & location)
- Signal Strength over time
- Create a benchmark and see if you have any deviations
It is a really nice start and they keep on working on it to improve the platform over time.
Plus, Pro and Expert licenses will be available. The Plus and Pro will include InSSIDer, Air Viewer and Rempart. The Expert will also be supporting Chanalyzer and Eye P.A.
Client Traffic Analysis
Leveraging additional WI-Fi adapter (for instance the Wi-Spy Air), Metageek is trying to get more data from the packet collected into InSSIDer and provide more analysis.
Data Collected:
- Channel Utilization (Looking at the packets, duration ID)
- Drill down to one particular BSS
- Data Rate per client
- Packets per client
- Signal per client
- Utilization per client
- Drill down to one particular Client
- Signal strength
- Capture a pcap
- See roaming events (see pcap)
- Ability for the software to define which AP model is used
- Ability for the software to define the client model (if the associated is captured)
On this following link, you should be able to find the list of supported NIC to be used by both Eye P.A. and the new inSSIDer: https://support.metageek.com/hc/en-us/articles/203627620-What-wireless-packet-capture-sources-can-I-use-
Note: The screenshots you see below are showcasing the next major of inSSIDer (inSSIDer v 5.0) and should be released this or next week and will be available to MetaGeek Plus and Pro subscribers. The version number on the screenshots is internal pre-release and will be updated for production.
