Firms wishing to move on from simple wireless LAN (WLAN) deployment to securing and monitoring their infrastructure and generating real-time compliance reports may be tempted by the latest upgrade of AirMagnet’s enterprise system.

AirMagnet product management director Wade Williamson said that AirMagnet Enterprise 8, launched today and upgraded from version 7.5, will concentrate on three areas: better reporting options; security; and "giving WLAN managers features to help them treat WLANs similar to the way they treat wired networks" .

Williamson pointed to the new Impact Analysis feature, which will alert WLAN managers to the important issues with their WLANs by prioritising those events. "When the wireless manager sits down in the morning he needs to see what the priority event is that directly affects his WLAN," he added.

Meanwhile, rival AirTight Networks has added a new feature to its wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS), SpectraGuard Enterprise. WEPGuard is designed to help secure firms still running the wired equivalent privacy (WEP) protocol over their WLAN, until they can upgrade to the more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and WPA-2 protocols. WEPGuard will be available in Q4 and could help retailers meet the payment card industry's data security standard (PCI DSS) 1.1, which lays down stringent standards for customer transactions involving WLANs.

AirMagnet Enterprise 8 will be available in October and costs $8,995 (£4,500) for the starter package with the standard sensors costing $750 (£375) and the RF spectrum analysing sensors costing $2,200 (£1,100). For customers with current support contracts, the software is a free upgrade.