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WiFi Signal Strength
What are different ways of seeing your home WiFi signal strength ? I want to walk around and find hot and cold spots. Some tool ? Some app on a laptop ? Some app on a cell phone ? Is there a way that will update quickly so as to be able to walk it around easily ? Thank you in advance for your help. |
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#2
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WiFi Signal Strength
FiWi wrote:
What are different ways of seeing your home WiFi signal strength ? I want to walk around and find hot and cold spots. Some tool ? Some app on a laptop ? Some app on a cell phone ? Is there a way that will update quickly so as to be able to walk it around easily ? Thank you in advance for your help. I just use my cell phone or laptop for that. Both have wifi signal strength bars. |
#3
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WiFi Signal Strength
Thanks for the reply. Looking for signal strength NOT bars. I need better resolution. FiWi wrote: What are different ways of seeing your home WiFi signal strength ? I want to walk around and find hot and cold spots. Some tool ? Some app on a laptop ? Some app on a cell phone ? Is there a way that will update quickly so as to be able to walk it around easily ? Thank you in advance for your help. |
#4
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WiFi Signal Strength
On Mon, 13 May 2019 09:39:19 -0700, FiWi wrote:
Some app on a cell phone ? Try this one for Android: WiFiAnalyzer (open-source) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vrem.wifianalyzer&hl=en (no ads) -- s|b |
#5
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WiFi Signal Strength
On Mon, 13 May 2019 21:38:36 +0200, "s|b" wrote:
On Mon, 13 May 2019 09:39:19 -0700, FiWi wrote: Some app on a cell phone ? Try this one for Android: WiFiAnalyzer (open-source) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vrem.wifianalyzer&hl=en (no ads) +1 That's what I use. One of its screens is a representation of an analog needle that seems to update in near real time, with optional audible feedback. You can pick which SSID you want to monitor. The only thing that might not be intuitive about the app is that to switch from 2.4GHz to 5GHz, and vice versa, you go to the screen where all of the various parabolas are displayed, then tap on the upper left corner of the display, where it says 5G or 2.4G. It's a toggle. -- Char Jackson |
#6
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WiFi Signal Strength
FiWi wrote:
What are different ways of seeing your home WiFi signal strength ? I want to walk around and find hot and cold spots. Some tool ? Some app on a laptop ? Some app on a cell phone ? Is there a way that will update quickly so as to be able to walk it around easily ? Thank you in advance for your help. There are likely copy-cats of this program. https://www.techspot.com/downloads/6862-inssider4.html http://www.inssider.com/index.html inSSIDer 4 (the free one) Pick the Best Channel y Track signal strength y Min/Max Datarate y And "bars" is just quantized signal strength, good enough for "it sucks in this room", "it's OK in that room". The number would only mean something, if you knew the receiver sensitivity of each receiving device. It's likely the receivers have AGC, to reduce amplification if a Wifi signal is so strong that it is overloading the receiver. Receivers work on two things. They need an absolute level of signal. At some point, too little signal will not trip any threshold or be process-able. But "Noise" is the other factor, signal to noise ratio. You could have "all bars lit up" for signal strength, and still not extract any packets, if the signal is overwhelmed by external noise (leaky microwave oven, 2.4GHz wireless telephone signal, *USB3 leaky cable*). HTH, Paul |
#7
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WiFi Signal Strength
In message , Char Jackson
writes: On Mon, 13 May 2019 21:38:36 +0200, "s|b" wrote: On Mon, 13 May 2019 09:39:19 -0700, FiWi wrote: Some app on a cell phone ? Try this one for Android: WiFiAnalyzer (open-source) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vrem.wifianalyzer&hl=en (no ads) +1 +1 here too. That's what I use. One of its screens is a representation of an analog needle that seems to update in near real time, with optional audible feedback. You can pick which SSID you want to monitor. I didn't know about the audio feedback! It may be useful to use the screen that displays all SSIDs it can see (like this B A /\ C /\/ \/\ [except they're rounded - I CBA to draw it like that]. It labels the peaks with the SSID names), as absolute strength may be less important than relative: if there's somewhere where one of your neighbour's SSID is stronger than yours, that may be more important than absolute strength. I think that's the default display, anyway. The only thing that might not be intuitive about the app is that to switch from 2.4GHz to 5GHz, and vice versa, you go to the screen where all of the various parabolas are displayed, then tap on the upper left corner of the display, where it says 5G or 2.4G. It's a toggle. Ah, I didn't know that either! Thanks. Though I've just tried it on my old DooGee, and it doesn't say 5G or 2.4G in the top left - I suspect it doesn't have 5 GHz. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf he was eventually struck off by the BMA in 1968 for not knowing his gluteus maximus from his humerus. |
#8
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WiFi Signal Strength
On 13/05/2019 18:39, FiWi wrote:
What are different ways of seeing your home WiFi signal strength ? I want to walk around and find hot and cold spots. Some tool ? Some app on a laptop ? Some app on a cell phone ? Is there a way that will update quickly so as to be able to walk it around easily ? Thank you in advance for your help. inSSIDer is the best option, for Windows en Android. Fokke |
#9
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WiFi Signal Strength
"FiWi" wrote in message
... What are different ways of seeing your home WiFi signal strength ? I want to walk around and find hot and cold spots. There are various apps on Android phones (and no doubt on iPhone too). InSSIDer or Network Cell Info Lite are the two I use: the latter also shows strength of mobile internet signals. InSSIDer has the advantage over Network Cell Info that it shows other networks so you can see whether there's anything else that overlaps with the network that you are connected to and could therefore cause poor performance. Signal strength (in dBm) is important, but more important is signal to noise ratio: a weak signal with nothing interfering is probably faster than a stronger one which has other networks that overlap and that are almost as strong. You can also run InSSIDer on a Windows laptop - it's what I used ages ago until I upgraded my ancient Nokia to an Android smartphone. |
#10
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WiFi Signal Strength
In message , Fokke Nauta
writes: On 13/05/2019 18:39, FiWi wrote: What are different ways of seeing your home WiFi signal strength ? I want to walk around and find hot and cold spots. Some tool ? Some app on a laptop ? Some app on a cell phone ? Is there a way that will update quickly so as to be able to walk it around easily ? Thank you in advance for your help. inSSIDer is the best option, for Windows en Android. Fokke For Windows, yes. If you want to walk about, a 'phone is better, and for that Wifi Analyser (Android - don't know what for iOS) is probably the best. (Both inSSIDer and Wifi Analyser are free.) -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Never raise your hand to your children. It leaves your mid-section unprotected |
#11
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WiFi Signal Strength
"Paul" wrote in message ... FiWi wrote: What are different ways of seeing your home WiFi signal strength ? I want to walk around and find hot and cold spots. Some tool ? Some app on a laptop ? Some app on a cell phone ? Is there a way that will update quickly so as to be able to walk it around easily ? Thank you in advance for your help. There are likely copy-cats of this program. https://www.techspot.com/downloads/6862-inssider4.html http://www.inssider.com/index.html inSSIDer 4 (the free one) Pick the Best Channel y Track signal strength y Min/Max Datarate y And "bars" is just quantized signal strength, good enough for "it sucks in this room", "it's OK in that room". The number would only mean something, if you knew the receiver sensitivity of each receiving device. It's likely the receivers have AGC, to reduce amplification if a Wifi signal is so strong that it is overloading the receiver. Receivers work on two things. They need an absolute level of signal. At some point, too little signal will not trip any threshold or be process-able. But "Noise" is the other factor, signal to noise ratio. You could have "all bars lit up" for signal strength, and still not extract any packets, if the signal is overwhelmed by external noise (leaky microwave oven, 2.4GHz wireless telephone signal, *USB3 leaky cable*). HTH, Paul I believe v3.1.2.1 is the last free version: https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html V4.2.4.1 tells me it's $19.95US for the home version. Another tool that'll give most anyone more info than they'll ever need is WifiInfoView from Nir Sofer (it also comes as part of the NirLauncher Suite): https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5476-wifiinfoview.html It only works on Windows devices though. -- SC Tom |
#12
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WiFi Signal Strength
On Tue, 14 May 2019 09:38:28 +0100, "NY" wrote:
There are various apps on Android phones (and no doubt on iPhone too). InSSIDer or Network Cell Info Lite are the two I use: the latter also shows strength of mobile internet signals. InSSIDer has the advantage over Network Cell Info that it shows other networks so you can see whether there's anything else that overlaps with the network that you are connected to and could therefore cause poor performance. Signal strength (in dBm) is important, but more important is signal to noise ratio: a weak signal with nothing interfering is probably faster than a stronger one which has other networks that overlap and that are almost as strong. Another consideration is how active the other signal-producing sources are. If I'm asking myself which 2.4GHz channel I should choose, and I see that channel 1 has 10 SSIDs on it and channel 6 has only 1 SSID on it, should I automatically pick channel 6? No, because if the single SSID on channel 6 is extremely active while the 10 SSIDs on channel 1 are mostly dormant, then channel 1 is the better choice. In short, it's pretty hard to tell, which is why in some/many/most cases it's becoming easier to just let the router (access point) use its own algorithm to pick a channel. You can also run InSSIDer on a Windows laptop - it's what I used ages ago until I upgraded my ancient Nokia to an Android smartphone. Same here, but somewhere along the way I upgraded to the version where they wanted money, so I dumped it. I suppose I could have gone back to the previous version. -- Char Jackson |
#13
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WiFi Signal Strength
In alt.windows7.general, on Mon, 13 May 2019 11:14:23 -0700, FiWi
wrote: Thanks for the reply. Looking for signal strength NOT bars. What are the five bars closest to the Pentagon called? The chief joints of Staff. I need better resolution. |
#14
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WiFi Signal Strength
"Char Jackson" wrote in message
... Another consideration is how active the other signal-producing sources are. If I'm asking myself which 2.4GHz channel I should choose, and I see that channel 1 has 10 SSIDs on it and channel 6 has only 1 SSID on it, should I automatically pick channel 6? No, because if the single SSID on channel 6 is extremely active while the 10 SSIDs on channel 1 are mostly dormant, then channel 1 is the better choice. In short, it's pretty hard to tell, which is why in some/many/most cases it's becoming easier to just let the router (access point) use its own algorithm to pick a channel. Is there a way to tell how much traffic a "foreign" wifi network is carrying, when you are not actually connected to it to run a Wireshark scan? Am I about to learn something new...? |
#15
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WiFi Signal Strength
On Tue, 14 May 2019 10:03:01 +0200, Fokke Nauta wrote:
inSSIDer is the best option, for Windows en Android. Nowhere to be found on Play Store. It should be this link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.metageek.inSSIDer But it's dead. And I'm guessing it came/comes with ads. -- s|b |
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