AirMagnet Unveils Fourth Generation WLAN Analysis Product for Handhelds, Laptops.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Mobile 4.0 Suite Adds VoWLAN Troubleshooting Tools, 19 New Security and Performance Alarms, 802.11i-ready Support to World's Most Popular WLAN Tools

AirMagnet, Inc., the leader in wireless LAN (WLAN) security and performance solutions, today introduced the fourth generation of its popular laptop and handheld-based products. The AirMagnet Mobile 4.0 suite--Laptop "Trio" and AirMagnet Handheld--boasts more than 20 new features, including expanded authentication support, advanced policy management, Voice over Wireless LAN quality assurance tools and 19 new event alarms including detection of the new Denial of Service vulnerability discovered by Queensland University of Technology.(1) AirMagnet's mobile solutions have now been purchased by more than 2,000 organizations through resellers in 44 countries and have won many editorial accolades.

At the recent Gartner IT Security Summit 2004 in Washington, D.C., Gartner vice president and fellow John Pescatore noted the critical role that mobile wireless security management solutions play. "Businesses should use sniffers to demonstrate potential exposure problems to management, especially to the management that funds security problems," said Pescatore. "Sniffer walks are an important supplement to fixed networks of sensors. If rogue wireless LAN activity is detected by network monitoring systems, individual members of the IT staff can be dispatched, to act as trackers, to home in on unauthorized signal sources."

Voice over WLAN use is growing among enterprises and selected verticals such as healthcare, and requires far stricter quality of service than data traffic, because minimal packet loss or interrupted signals can completely disrupt a phone call. AirMagnet Mobile 4.0 provides users with diagnostics tools to help early adopters understand and troubleshoot VoWLAN on their networks. In order to maintain the quality of VoWLAN calls, Mobile 4.0 offers a Jitter Tool to monitor the level of variation in frequency to ensure that it does not degrade connections. Additionally, Mobile 4.0 boasts a Roaming Tool to monitor the time delay as users move between Access Points (APs). If the roam time is too long, calls will most likely drop.

Laptop Trio 4.0 also offers expanded authentication support to include every major WLAN authentication mechanism in use today and supports key features of the recently ratified 802.11i security standard. As a result, AirMagnet users are assured that they are protected no matter what protocol they use, and can benefit from a slew of active troubleshooting tools whether they authenticate using WEP, LEAP and FAST, WPA or a VPN.

"AirMagnet set the bar high with its Mobile products--no other competitive product comes close to what it offers--and we are pleased to see that the new product has even more functionality and meets our growing needs," said Christian Berry, technical support specialist, Dinwiddie County Public School District of Virginia. "While Mobile 4.0 has gotten more sophisticated, it is still an inexpensive way to safeguard our network and really takes the headache and guesswork out of monitoring and securing our network."

Mobile 4.0 features improved monitoring and analysis, including a new channel analysis page that allows users to compare noise and signal statistics for all channels simultaneously for more insight into the network's performance and health. Other features include a new calibration tool that provides more accurate and real world results by compensating for the known variations in Wi-Fi cards. Laptop Trio 4.0 also integrates AirMagnet Distributed 4.0's rich policy manager to track and organize events, such as wireless attacks and performance glitches. For instance, the policy manager categorizes all intrusion attempts together and then subdivides them based on the type of attack to allow a network administrator to quickly see frequency of events and drill down if needed.

"As the leader in WLAN security and troubleshooting, AirMagnet anticipates the latest developments in Wi-Fi security and performance, before they become common problems," said Dean Au, chief executive officer of AirMagnet. "With a total of 101 alarms, Mobile 4.0 provides the most comprehensive approach for common problems like identifying 'rogue' APs but also addresses dozens of equally critical and potentially harmful problems including 16 different types of Denial of Service attacks, man-in-the-middle and spoofing exploits, interference, unsecured stations and misconfigured security settings. We are also first to detect the 'Queensland' exploit. As our competitors enter and exit the market with first-generation analyzers, we continue to make our products more comprehensive."

Pricing and Availability

AirMagnet Laptop Trio starts at $3,495, and AirMagnet Handheld 4.0 at $2,995. All products are available immediately. For additional information please call AirMagnet at 408-400-0200 or e-mail [e-mail].

About AirMagnet

Founded in 2001, AirMagnet, Inc., provides the most trusted WLAN management and security software systems for the enterprise in handheld, laptop and distributed configurations. Used by IT professionals at more than 2,000 companies worldwide in manufacturing, financial, retail, service, health care, utility, transportation, education and government sectors, AirMagnet solves Wi-Fi connection problems, tracks down unauthorized access, simplifies site surveys, and locks in unprecedented levels of network performance, security and reliability. Unlike traditional packet scanners and protocol analyzers that have been adapted from their original purpose to analyze wired networks, AirMagnet solutions were designed specifically for wireless LANs. Additional information about AirMagnet and its products is available on the Web at www.AirMagnet.com.

(C)2004 AirMagnet, Inc. All rights reserved. AirMagnet and AirWISE are registered trademarks, and the AirMagnet logo is a trademark, of AirMagnet, Inc. All other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

(1) For more information see www.isrc.qut.edu.au/wireless.