West Ada School District Eliminates Network Guesswork with Wyebot’s Client-Side Intelligence

West Ada School District, Idaho’s largest K–12 district with 61 buildings and over 2,000 access points, deployed Wyebot’s Wireless Intelligence Platform to enhance its existing Cisco Meraki infrastructure and ThousandEyes monitoring tools. By installing Wyebot sensors throughout its campuses, the district gained critical client-side visibility, transforming network troubleshooting from educated guesses into data-driven decisions.

Key Challenges

• Lack of client-side visibility made troubleshooting issues difficult.
• Limited ability to demonstrate when external factors were the cause of network problems.

Key Outcomes

• Transitioned troubleshooting from assumption-based to a data-driven, forensic approach.
• Resolved a persistent firewall rule issue that had previously eluded the team.
• Improved internal network validation by utilizing iPerf testing between sensors.

Network Environment

• 61 buildings, comprising schools and administrative offices
• More than 2,000 access points
• Approximately 500 network switches
• Cisco Meraki wireless and switching deployed district-wide

Challenge → Solution → Result

Limited Forensic Data

Challenge
“We felt like we were navigating issues blindly,” explained Eric Frost, Network Engineer at West Ada. “It was always us trying to explain to the user why they were experiencing a problem.”

Solution
West Ada deployed Wyebot sensors at strategic locations to capture client-side data, including packet captures and historical performance metrics.

Result
“Wyebot provided us the patterns and the statistics we needed to accurately understand what was happening in each area,” Frost explained. “Now, the team has concrete evidence instead of relying on educated guesses while troubleshooting issues.”

Critical Testing Periods

Challenge
During high-stakes testing periods, connectivity issues would arise. Without client-side visibility, the team lacked the diagnostic insights needed to quickly determine whether problems originated from student devices, the district’s Wi-Fi infrastructure, or the testing vendor’s platforms.

Solution
Wyebot sensors were installed in testing areas to monitor and capture the actual end-user Wi-Fi experience.

Result
“I can view the sensor in the testing area and quickly see how the network is performing,” said Frost. “Wyebot helped us identify a Wi-Fi driver issue that was causing performance problems during testing. This insight allowed us to address the root cause immediately without wasting time pursuing other possibilities.”

Mysterious Recurring Issues

Challenge
At one school, students’ personal devices were mysteriously losing internet access every day at exactly 9:00 AM.

Solution
A Wyebot sensor was strategically placed in the affected area and configured on the same VLANs as the students’ devices, enabling targeted packet capture and analysis.

Result
“As we narrowed down the issue, it pointed us to a firewall rule that was specifically affecting one user type using a specific wireless SSID,” Frost explained. “We had spent a tremendous amount of resources and time trying to figure this one out.” Packet captures showing repeated retries ultimately revealed a policy that disrupted connectivity for any student using their own device, using that specific access point at a specific time.

Implementation

The implementation was “very straightforward and easy to do,” according to Frost. “We worked with our sales representative, Evyn, to get set up with the engineering and customer success team. We appreciated their constant support through the whole process… Super phenomenal. As far as rolling out the solution is concerned, I did not have any headaches at all.”

West Ada now uses three complementary solutions to achieve comprehensive network visibility: Wyebot Wireless Intelligence Platform, Cisco Meraki, and ThousandEyes. As Frost puts it, “There are great benefits from what we have found using all three of those products.”

From Reactive Troubleshooting to Data-Driven Decisions

When problems reach the network engineering team at West Ada, they’re typically complex issues that have already passed through multiple levels of support. In the past, resolving these problems often required hours of internal troubleshooting or coordinating with wireless vendors and sales engineers, pulling valuable time and focus from other priorities.

“Without clear data, a half day could vanish without answers,” noted Frost. “Wyebot changed that. With end-user perspective visibility and historical data, the team can quickly identify and resolve most issues themselves, without needing to engage outside support.”

For challenges like the puzzling 9:00 AM network disruption, Wyebot delivered the visibility needed to solve what had been a persistent, time-consuming issue. Instead of endless guesswork and escalations, the team could resolve the problem confidently and move forward.

Client-Perspective Network Intelligence

While Meraki and ThousandEyes deliver robust infrastructure and application monitoring, Wyebot provides the essential client-side intelligence that fills a crucial gap. Key differentiators include:

iPerf Testing Between Sensors

Frost highlighted this as a particularly valuable feature: “I turned one of my Wyebot sensors into an iPerf server and so I can get really good statistical information from the inside of the network. One Wyebot sensor talking to another has been really helpful.” This capability enables West Ada to validate internal network performance.

Template-Based Application Testing

The ability to create application testing templates for critical websites and deploy them across all sensors simplifies configuration and management: “I like that I can put a test in the template and then have it replicate out to all of the other Wyebot devices.”

Packet Capture for Historical Analysis

When troubleshooting the firewall rule issue, packet captures showing “constant retries” were instrumental in identifying the root cause.

Conclusion

West Ada continues to see strong value in combining Meraki, ThousandEyes, and Wyebot for network monitoring. For the district, Wyebot’s Wireless Intelligence Platform delivers the critical missing element: client-side visibility with forensic insights. By turning troubleshooting into a data-driven process instead of guesswork, the district can now:

1. Pinpoint and resolve complex issues faster
2. Provide clear evidence when problems originate outside the network
3. Validate end-to-end network performance

As Frost concludes: “I would never recommend a product unless I truly felt like it was beneficial, and this product has helped me solve problems… when I find a product that actually does what people say it will, it’s impressive.”