This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to drive out to Granger Community Church to hang with Jason, Ed, Kyle, and their team of volunteers as we got to see a demonstration of 2 high-powered products from Fluke Networks:  The EtherScope and the OmniView.  Kevin from Fluke did a fantastic job demonstrating what these units are capable of.  The guy knows his stuff.

Jason has a very good write-up on some of the things that we picked up throughout the demo.  You can read the rest yourself, but here’s a small tidbit…

The BIG take away of the night for all of us was the incredible impact bluetooth devices have on access points!  A single bluetooth device in use causes an amazing amount of interference in the .11b/g range.  Kevin said he’s seen as few as 12 bluetooth devices take down an access point!  What?!  We all started turning on our bluetooth phones and doing partner searches and the real-time wifi graphs on the Fluke’s were going nuts!

Just like was everyone else, I was blown away by this.  How in the world has this not been widely publicized?  Did I miss it somewhere?

Are wireless manufacturers going to use this to make .11a and .11n easier to market?  I mean, seriously, was b/g equipment NOT tested against other wireless gear that would be used in like manner?  “What that?  Your b/g wireless products are falling victim to an influx of bluetooth devices?  Here, we’ve got some sweet a and n units that will work MUCH better.”

Sounds like a good forced-upgrade plan.  Maybe not, but it was enough to make my mind slip into conspiracy mode.

The next day I was able to hang with the Jason, Ed and Kyle and basically go through a normal work day with them.  I had my laptop with me, so I VPN’d in to NewPointe and took care of some support issues when we weren’t in discussion about anything.

I finally arrived home around midnight exhausted, but VERY glad to have had the opportunity to hook up with everyone at GCC.  Big thanks to Ed, Kyle, Jason, and their volunteer team for making an Ohio geek feel welcome. :-)  I always leave there wiser than when I show up.