WN Podcast 078 Studio Setup Secrets, Ekahau's New Licensing & a Wi-Fi Survey on the Water

Matt and Mac are back in Matt's newly renovated garden studio, and this one covers a lot. First, the studio. Matt walks through his full setup and what's actually worth the money. You can start with just a phone and a cheap wireless mic. Later, acoustics, lighting, lenses, a teleprompter, a decent chair and a two-zone desk setup make the biggest difference. They also cover what didn't make the cut. Next, Ekahau's new SaaS licensing. They explain Plan, Measure Pro, Measure and the full AI Pro Software Suite: what each includes, how pricing works, prorated upgrades, and why existing Connect customers don't need to switch. Then it's out on the water. Mac surveys his sailing club in Poland using the new Apple Maps GPS workflow in the Survey app. He needed no calibration points, got roughly 50cm accuracy, and his Sidekick 2 lasted two hours on a 10-minute charge. The result: the clubhouse has great Wi-Fi and the paying members' boats have none. Along the way: life updates, Mac's new sailing school, a recap of Wi-Co in Manchester, Harry's journey from bartender to Wi-Fi architect in five years, and a teaser for Wi-Fi Day on 22 October.

WiFi Ninjas Podcast: We're Back (Third Time Lucky) After five years of silence, the Ninjas return. Technically, this is our third attempt at recording episode one. The first was too inappropriate for the internet, the second got cancelled for a barbecue, and this one finally made it out alive. Recorded in person at Mac's brand new Cotswolds hotel, soon to be famous on Homes Under the Hammer. What we get into: Where we've both been for five years: Matt still at Ekahau (now part of Ookla, now part of Accenture, keep up), Mac out building a property empire with 15 Airbnbs, 7 owned assets, and an estate agency, because apparently he wasn't busy enough Wi-Fi for Airbnbs: why prosumer mesh beats enterprise kit for short-term rentals, and why TP-Link Deco surprised everyone in our 110-test WiFi Design Day showdown Designing Wi-Fi for a 400-year-old building with 1.2-metre stone walls measuring 100+ dB of attenuation. Yes, you read that right. The Sidekick just gave up counting The salt and pepper cheat: six UniFi APs leaning on cross-floor coverage through thin ceilings instead of fighting walls that laugh at RF Fast roaming on a personal SSID: 802.11r in a holiday let, because guests deserve better than captive portals asking for your email so they can spam you later The full ECSE refresh: Design, Troubleshooting, and Advanced, all rebuilt around Ekahau AI Pro Online, with more hands-on labs, real-world troubleshooting scenarios, and no more melting netbooks The Accenture acquisition: what we know, what we don't, and why Matt being kept out of the loop is actually great for legal reasons The time we tried to explain Cockney rhyming slang to the owner of the company, and he genuinely thought we were winding him up Milestone alert: 100,000+ downloads and still the number two Wi-Fi podcast in the world, despite five years of doing absolutely nothing. The fundamentals don't change, apparently. What's next: More episodes, new perspectives (engineer life vs business owner life), guests grabbed at events, and a website that finally works. Got a topic you want covered? Drop it in the comments or reach out. See you on the next one. Probably not in another five years.

Got fast WiFi? Great! There are 20+ types of MAC frames. Only one type (Data) will be send fast. The rest is slow. How slow? What is the real contribution of Control and Mgmt frames on the airtime utilization? Gjermund has all the answers for us and has created a handy calculator. Let's dive right in!

WiFi always works, right? Absolutely. But it's not always fast. Why is it slow or fast? Because of either high contention or slow modulation. Or both. Wait, modulation? What is it? Wonder no more and listen to us talking about just that!

Thinking about a career in WiFi and maybe becoming a CWNE? Was it a good choice to become a WiFi Pro in the end? Does WiFi pay the bills? How to study and stay motivated?

Understanding how your WiFi devices access wireless medium is absolutely imperative to get the subtleties of WiFi devices' coexistence, truly understand the contention, impact of CCI, bad design and more! Today we talk about 'The Game', also called DCF or CSMA/CA :)

How to design for spotless roaming experience? What amendments to use and when? What roaming performance to expect from different devices? How to check devices' capabilities that can affect roaming? We try to answer it all ;) Enjoy!

In case you are dying to know more about Cisco Meraki platform, data science, approach to privacy and how they leverage ML and AI to solve customer problems we've got you covered! Listen to Raj, VP Strategy & Planning, explaining how it all works!

MDM can vastly simplify onboarding of your devices while improving security. Learn about what's possible with Cisco Meraki Systems Manager MDM in an interview with Paul Fidler.

Is WiFi going to stay relevant when private cellular networks become more popular? What are the use cases of private 5G and what do you need to get it for your organisation? Listen to Brian White talking about Celona - a leader in private cellular space!