Access Point Diagnostic Tools

Applies To: WatchGuard Cloud-managed Access Points (AP130, AP230W, AP330, AP332CR, AP430CR, AP432)

You can run these diagnostic tools in WatchGuard Cloud to test and troubleshoot network connectivity from the access point:

  • Ping — Ping an IP address or host name.
  • Packet Capture — Perform a packet capture of the wired and wireless interfaces of the access point to troubleshoot connectivity issues.
  • Traceroute — Trace the route to an IP address or host name.
  • DNS Lookup — Look up DNS information to find which IP address a host name resolves to
  • Snapshot — You can download a diagnostic snapshot file of the access point log data and system information. For more information, go to Download Snapshot Diagnostic File.

You can also run these diagnostic tools (except for packet capture) from the Access Point Web UI and Access Point Command Line Interface (CLI).

Use Diagnostic Tools

To use diagnostic tools for your access point:

  1. Select Monitor > Devices.
  2. Select an access point.
  3. From the Devices menu, select Live Status > Diagnostic Tools.
    The Diagnostic Tools page opens.

Screen shot of the diagnostic tools page for an access point

  1. From the Task drop-down list, select the diagnostic tool you want to use. You can select:
  2. Ping
  3. Packet Capture
  4. Traceroute
  5. DNS Lookup
  6. For Ping, Traceroute, or DNS Lookup, in the Address (IP or Domain Name) text box, type an IP address or host name to test with the tool you selected. For example, enter 192.168.1.1, or example.com.

For more information about Packet Capture, go to Perform a Packet Capture.

  1. Click Run.
    The output of the command appears in a window.

Perform a Packet Capture

Use the Packet Capture tool to intercept and analyze data packets sent between your access points and wireless clients, or between access points and the wired LAN network. Packet capture uses the tcpdump utility to capture packets from the access point wireless and wired interfaces.

You can view the live packet capture, or you can download and inspect these packets with third-party tools such as Wireshark. The Packet Capture tool helps you diagnose and resolve wireless network issues such as dropped connections, latency, or packet loss.

Packet capture requires access point firmware v2.5 or higher.

To perform a packet capture:

  1. Select Monitor > Devices.
  2. Select an access point.
  3. From the Devices menu, select Live Status > Diagnostic Tools.
    The Diagnostic Tools page opens.
  4. From the Task drop-down list, select Packet Capture.

Screenshot of the Packet Capture tool

  1. (Optional) To narrow the results, use arguments:
    1. Select Use Arguments.
      The Arguments text box opens.
    2. In the Arguments text box, type one or more packet capture (tcpdump) arguments . Arguments are case sensitive.
      For example, to capture data for the wired/uplink interface, type -i eth0. For more example configurations, go to Packet Capture Arguments.
  1. From the Interface drop-down list, select the wired and wireless access point interfaces you want to capture. You can select more than one interface for the packet capture.

    Any text entries you manually add to the interface list are ignored and are not used in the packet capture. Only select from the included list of interfaces that are specific to each access point model.

  1. (Optional) To save the data directly to a packet capture (.PCAP) file, select Stream data to a file. If you select multiple interfaces, a separate file is created for each interface. You can import this file into a third-party application such as Wireshark to analyze the packet capture.
  2. Click Run.

The packet capture data updates every five seconds for a maximum of five minutes.

In the Search text box, you can search for terms in the captured data.

  1. To stop the packet capture, click Screen shot of the Stop Task button.
  2. (Optional) If you selected Stream data to a file, you can select Download PCAP file after the packet capture completes to download the file to your computer.

The maximum size for a packet capture file is 30MB. The packet capture file is overwritten if the maximum file size is reached.

Packet Capture Arguments

To view information about the packets transmitted across your network with packet capture, in the Arguments text box, you can type these tcpdump command arguments:

tcpdump [-aAbdDefIKlLnNOpPqRStuUvxX] [ -B size ] [ -c count ] [ -E algo:secret ] [ -i interface ] [ -M secret ] [ -s snaplen ] [ -T type ] [ -y datalinktype ] [ expression ]

The arguments in packet capture commands are case-sensitive. You must prepend the "-" character to an argument. The tcpdump command is optional when you type arguments.

For example:

  • To view all port 443 traffic on the wired/uplink interface, type -i eth0 port 443. In this example, to capture packets on an interface, type:
    • -i to filter packets on an interface.
    • port to filter data on a port number.
  • To view all DHCP traffic on the wired/uplink interface, type -i eth0 udp port 67 or 68. In this example, to capture packets on an interface, type:
    • -i to filter packets on an interface.
    • udp to filter data on a protocol.
    • port to filter data on a port number.
  • To limit the capture to four packets on the wired/wired uplink interface, type -i eth0 -c 4. In this example, to limit the capture of packets, type -c.
  •  To view all the DNS port 53 traffic on the wired/uplink interface from or to the 10.0.1.10 internal server, type -i eth0 host 10.0.1.10 and port 53. In this example, type:
    • host to filter data for a host.
    • port to filter data on a port number.
  • To view traffic on the first SSID of the 2.4 GHz wireless interface, type -i ath0 (additional SSIDs on the same radio would be ath01, ath02, and so on). To view traffic on the first SSID of the 5 GHz wireless interface, type -i ath1 (additional SSIDs on the same radio would be ath11, ath12, and so on). In this example, to capture packets on an interface, type:
    • -i to filter packets on an interface.

If you use arguments with the wireless interfaces, you cannot view wireless specific packets such as beacon and probe packets. To view these packets, you must select the interfaces from the Interface drop-down list and not use arguments.

For more information about packet capture arguments, go to tcpdump.org.

Download Snapshot Diagnostic File

Your access point collects log data and other system information that is helpful when you troubleshoot device issues with a WatchGuard Technical Support representative. You can download this information from the access point in a diagnostic snapshot file that you can send to your Technical Support representative.

The default name of the file is [device name]_support.tgz.

To download a diagnostic file from the access point:

  1. Select Monitor > Devices.
  2. Select an access point.
  3. From the Devices menu, select Live Status > Diagnostic Tools.
    The Diagnostic Tools page opens.
  4. Select the Snapshot tab.

Screen shot of the diagnostic tools snapshot page for an access point

  1. Click Download snapshot file.
    The diagnostic snapshot file downloads and saves to the location you specify.

Related Topics

Monitor Access Points

View Wireless Client Details