WiFi 6 and Monitoring Conditions Released with Version 14.0

I am excited to announce the general availability of NetBeez version 14.0. This update includes two new features, including, monitoring conditions for remote worker agents and support for WiFi 6E sensors. Along with these two new features, we have included several improvements, bug fixes, and security updates. For more information about this update, request a product tour.

Monitoring Conditions

Monitoring Conditions allow you to enable or disable remote worker agents’ network monitoring based on a set of conditions, such as SSID, DNS resolution, or other parameters relevant to a network environment. These conditions contextualize the monitoring process, ensuring that tests are executed in the appropriate context.

Agents dynamically start monitoring specific targets based on the conditions defined in the monitoring sets. Once an agent satisfies the conditions of a set, it becomes active within that context, initiating probing and testing activities associated with the targets within the set.

Here’s how it works:

1. Create monitoring conditions: Users define monitoring conditions based on specific criteria, such as SSID, DNS resolution, IP address range, or any combination of conditions relevant to their network environment.
2. Target Association: Target can be assigned to a single monitoring condition, ensuring clear mapping and streamlined management of monitoring tasks.
3. Agent Activation: Agents evaluate the defined conditions and dynamically activate within the corresponding monitoring condition sets. Once activated, agents initiate monitoring activities for the targets associated with the active set.

Support for WiFi 6 and WPA3

WiFi 6 is the next generation of WiFi, and it offers a number of advantages over WiFi 5, including:

• Faster speeds: WiFi 6 can deliver speeds up to three times faster than WiFi 5. This means that you can enjoy faster downloads, uploads, and streaming.
• Lower latency: WiFi 6 has lower latency than WiFi 5, which means that there is less lag between when you send a request and when you receive a response. This is important for applications that require real-time responsiveness, such as online gaming and video conferencing.
• Improved capacity: WiFi 6 can support more devices than WiFi 5, which means that it is less likely to become congested in crowded environments.

To support WiFi 6 and WPA3, we are releasing new WiFi sensors that will be able to connect to WiFi 6/6E networks. We are also updating our WiFi profile configurations to support the new WPA3 standards.

If you have any existing NetBeez agents that do not support WiFi 6, they will continue to function normally. However, they will not be able to connect to WiFi 6 networks. Whenever possible, these agents will fall back to WiFi 5 standards. If you wish to start monitoring your WiFi6 network, contact your customer success or sales team.

Additional Features and Improvements

Monitoring conditions and WiFi 6 are not the only features includes with version 14.0 Here are some other important improvements included in this release:

• API: Download Agent lists in CSV using the agents API endpoint.
• API: When retrieving Path Analysis results you can now request supplemental ASN and geolocation information.
• API: Added Five9 SaaS template options.
• UI: Users can now click on the “open in new tab” icon next to the Agent name when hovering over an Agent in the Agent List.
• UI: Agent Network Interface models are now columns that can be viewed in the Agent List.
• UI: Dashboard now loads more responsively while retrieving Agent information for large instances.
• Agent: CloudFlare WARP VPN is now supported by Remote Worker Agents.

If you want to see the full list of improvements, bug fixes, and security updates please check the version 14.0 release notes.

Conclusion

We are confident that our new release will help you continue delivering good performance and proactive outage detection to your end-user. If you are an existing NetBeez user, we encourage you to update your server and agents as soon as possible to take advantage of these new improvements. Stay tuned for the upcoming release 14.1 that will include scheduled test alertas and ping support for IPv6.