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In my CWAP preparation activities I would like to capture and analyze some 802.11n dumps.
My 802.11n adapter is D-Link DWA-160. Could you please advise to use any free wi-fi sniffer tool which would work witn this adapter in Windows? Or should I consider to make my notebook dual-boot with Linux and try to use Wireshark with Linux drivers?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

I believe you may have some option believe it or not. First is linux/kismet/wireshark etc. This is really a good place to start because it will give you an appreciation of tools like Airmagnet when you start using them. Second, would be evaluation tools from Airmagnet, Wild Packets, or CommView. You can always ask, if they say no then oh well. So, in your study's you will find that on Windows XP you will need a special driver for putting a wifi card in to monitor mode. Well, with Windows 7 Microsoft got smart and built Monitor mode into the HAL driver requirements. They even built a packet capture tool called Network Monitor 3.0. I'm not going to say this is the most robust and useful tool. But, then again it is free and does capture 802.11 frames. The decodes are a little lacking so do yourself a favor and download a program that converts Network Monitor captures to Wireshark. I don't remember the name of it but if you search around www.willhackforsushi.com a bit you find it. Good luck and get sniffing.

I have requested a demo version of AirMagnet right now, here are the restrictions:

You must have a supported wi-fi card

This demo version of AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer PRO is designed to let you evaluate our award-winning product, however it is different from the production version in several ways:

?It will only capture and analyze Wi-Fi traffic for up to 7 minutes, after which it will stop detecting 802.11 packets until you quit and re-launch the application.
?The evaluation period is limited to 3 days.
?It cannot be re-installed on the same laptop.
?Selected data import/export functions have been disabled.

Hi there,
IMO, loading a dual linux boot is a good way to go. Windows utilities always seem to have a pricetag attached, and it is incredibly easy to set up a dual boot of Linux. There are loads of free LINUX utilities. Ubuntu has a very nice gui these days and comes with Office Libre. For wifi tools there is everything from wireshark to kismet to backtrack...all free...and some others that you can find from either google or from the application package search in Ubuntu. Have fun! =)
Cheers,
Tracy

Guys, great thanks for your suggestions!
Your advice is really helpful.
Of course, I have great experience working with Airmagnet but it does not support my 11n card.
I have managed to made my dualboot netbook during holiday. But monitor mode support is lacked both with built-in netbook Wi-Fi adapter and D-Link DWA-160 USB card.
Can anybody advice me 11n card with monitor mode support in linux drivers?

I still have no luck in finding Linux drivers for my adapter.

But I have found the way to train myself with some nice packet captures, including complex 11n frames.
It is CommView for Wi-Fi. They have free trial version and it works out of the box with D-Link DWA-160! Nice and easy to install.

One disadvantage that I found - it lacks descriptions for vendor proprietary IE (information elements). Even free Wireshark shows more of vendor-specific stuff that this sniffing tool.