Troubleshooting of any wireless problems usually starts with determination of specific Access Point where client is currently associated with and tracking wireless client’s roaming behavior in time.

Access Point detection helps to understand current RSSI levels at given selected channel and presence of alternative AP at the client’s location.

Nectus provides basic tools that make locating and tracking wireless objects an easy task.

The specific topics we will cover in this chapter are:

1. Using the Wireless Client Search Tool
2. Using the Wireless Client Tracking Tool

1. Using the Wireless Client Search Tool

The Wireless Client Search tool shows you which access point (AP) a Wireless Client is connected to right now. To use Wireless Client Search go to the Nectus Home Screen and select Tools -> Wireless Tools -> Wireless Client Search.

This opens the “Wireless Client Search” dialog box.

Search for the wireless object by entering all or part of the Client MAC Address, IP Address, or Username. Set the Search Scope by checking any of the supported Wireless Controller types.

The search returns any matching objects in a table.

Click the MAC Address of the object to see all the Basic information the system has about that object.

Click the Client RSSI Info tab to see the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) for every access point the object can detect.

2. Using the Wireless MAC Tracking Tool

The Wireless MAC Tracking tool is useful for troubleshooting intermittent problems. It uses the object’s MAC address to record which AP the object is connected to over a period of time. To use Wireless Client Search go to the Nectus Home Screen and select Tools -> Wireless Tools -> Wireless MAC Tracking.

This opens the “Wireless MAC Tracking” dialog box.

Click Add to begin tracking a MAC Address.

Enter the MAC Address you want to track, the Controller type, the Frequency of recording data, and the Duration of time you want to track the MAC address.

Once the Duration is complete, you can see the results by clicking the View MAC Tracking icon.

Support for monitoring Aruba wireless controllers was added to most recent release of Nectus NMS.  It brings visibility to most loaded wireless APs, SSIDs and controllers.

It displays basic antenna info, current AP channels, gives list of rogue APs and rogue clients and allows generation of Wireless HeatMaps over floorplans.

In this post we will cover some new functionality added to Nectus in latest Wireless release.

The “Wireless Client Search” allows the operator to find any wireless client by its MAC, IP address or Username.

The client search is located under main menu “Tools”:

In the menu, you have an option to search for a client based on the MAC, IP or Username. You can also restrict the scope where the search will take place:

Here is how a result of a MAC search looks like. You can search using part of a MAC address as well, but you need to provide at least 3 characters (two numbers and “:” )

You can view the client details by clicking either on MAC address or IP address and the new window will show Client’s basic info like like SSID, RSSI etc.:

The second tab will show the RSSI from various APs that detects client’s signal:

If AP name is clicked, then you will get detailed information about the AP:

Next, you can search for an IP address (again, you do not have to specify full IP address):

The last option is to search using an username:

The username is shown in the client detailed information:

Coming back to the search window, there is the possibility to track a client. You actually track the MAC address of the client to see if and where the client roamed across the wireless network. One or more clients can be tracked in the same time:

You need to specify how often Nectus should check this MAC address and for how long. If you know the client goes on and off often or it moves around the wireless network, then you might want to use an aggressive timer for frequency to get accurate data about availability:

The list of the tracked clients can be seen here:

And the list is this:

A client can be added for tracking from this menu as well:

And here is how the tracking information looks like for a client:

This shows that the client did not move to another AP, so there was no or little movement of the client.