Happy May Day! Last May I started an R&D project code-named “Red Panda” that combined the basics of WiFi scanning with the power of WiFi packet capture. As far as I know, that was the first time anyone in the world had done this. It turned out so good that we incorporated the concepts into inSSIDer and have continued to build on the foundation from Red Panda. Here’s a look at what has changed in inSSIDer since the Red Panda project began in May 2019.
Free
A year ago MetaGeek offered inSSIDer for free and had an inSSIDer Plus subscription that added more functionality. inSSIDer is still available for free, and inSSIDer Plus has transitioned to MetaGeek Plus.
At first glance inSSIDer may look like the same application it was a year ago, but when you start to look a little closer you’ll see that it has changed a LOT!! One of the biggest visual changes is that like almost every other application these days, inSSIDer has a Dark Mode.
A few features that required subscription are now available for all users. The Channels View and the ability to give access points aliases (nicknames) is available to all users. Filtering by network name, channel, and MAC address has a much simpler interface and is also available to all users.
inSSIDer now scans the local network for devices and can identify many devices by type (computer, printer, mobile phone, etc). This makes inSSIDer a more powerful tool for managing home and small business networks. Another new feature for managing networks is Configuration Observations that alert users to potential issues with their WiFi configuration.
For troubleshooting WiFi problems inSSIDer now also exports a summary .pcap file for analysis using packet capture tools like Wireshark.
MetaGeek Plus
inSSIDer Plus was renamed to MetaGeek Plus when it grew beyond just inSSIDer. Now MetaGeek Plus is not only enhancements in inSSIDer, it also adds Network Snapshots that are viewable at my.metageek.com. Network Snapshots show the history and trends of your WiFi network.
inSSIDer with MetaGeek Plus now also has real-time packet analytics, which is the successor to the Red Panda project from May of last year. By using WiFi packet capture inSSIDer not only gathers information about each access point in your WiFi environment, it can also see all active clients, which clients on your network are hogging the bandwidth, which clients are very slow, which neighboring networks are causing problems with your network, and so much more.
Not only does inSSIDer show you which clients are connected to your network, it also graphs their current airtime utilization, retry rate, and signal strength. When clients associate (connect) to your network roam between your access points small icons appear to alert you.
MetaGeek Plus Pro
This is a new subscription tier that we launched in late summer 2019. The Pro tier adds team management to my.metageek.com for collaboration and shared Network Snapshots. It also unlocks more advanced features of inSSIDer with real-time packet analytics. Pro subscribers can open .pcap files from other users and other applications. They can also save .pcap files of all WiFi traffic for analysis in Eye P.A. or Wireshark.
We’ve also integrated some features from Eye P.A. into inSSIDer like a table of frame types sent and received by each client along with a treepie showing airtime by frame type.
