Recently here at MetaGeek, a broken Wi-Fi card wreaked havoc on the 2.4GHz spectrum. Each network (a total of 10) had little to no connectivity due to this interference. Were it not for our Wi-Spy 2.4x we would not have been able to identify the culprit. The following is a screen capture of what the card was doing. It was broadcasting similar to a frequency hopping device, putting an 802.11b signall on every Wi-Fi Channel

Turns out, the device was a Toshiba Laptop with a broken Wi-Fi card. It somehow malfunctioned one day, ruining network connections on every channel.

This is a big deal. Netstumbler, wireshark, or any other software application will not be able to catch what this device is doing. Interference like this is virtually invisible to anyone without a Spectrum Analyzer.

Network interference hurts company productivity. Here is how a fellow customer resolved a similar issue.
Now you understand how the Wi-Spy 2.4x could pay for itself several times over!

Andy Rauer of the Ontario Science Centre, has 50 Shuttle X PC’s, of which he has had 4 of them fail similarly causing trouble for everyone. They have a PN18 Wi-Fi Card. Here is what he said:

The problem was the PN18 Wi-Fi card, installed in a Shuttle-X PC. We have about 50 of these units, where about a dozen or more, might be on at any one time. Of the 50 computers, I’ve now seen the wide spectrum RF from about 4 units.Usually only after a few days of continues operation

If you happen to have a slow wireless connection, how about you visualize your wireless landscape with the Wi-Spy 2.4x. Let us know what you find!