This paper presents an empirical study of the handoff process in IEEE 802.11-based wireless networks, focusing on the latency components involved. The study highlights that the *probe* phase is the primary contributor to the overall handoff latency, accounting for more than 90% of the total delay. The research also reveals significant variations in handoff latency across different configurations of access points (APs) and wireless network interface cards (NICs) from different vendors. The analysis of the probe phase shows that the probe-wait time, which depends on the number of probe responses, significantly affects the overall latency. The paper concludes with recommendations for future handoff schemes, emphasizing the need for heuristics that minimize active scans and reduce latency to meet the requirements of applications like VoIP.This paper presents an empirical study of the handoff process in IEEE 802.11-based wireless networks, focusing on the latency components involved. The study highlights that the *probe* phase is the primary contributor to the overall handoff latency, accounting for more than 90% of the total delay. The research also reveals significant variations in handoff latency across different configurations of access points (APs) and wireless network interface cards (NICs) from different vendors. The analysis of the probe phase shows that the probe-wait time, which depends on the number of probe responses, significantly affects the overall latency. The paper concludes with recommendations for future handoff schemes, emphasizing the need for heuristics that minimize active scans and reduce latency to meet the requirements of applications like VoIP.