WIFI Tools for Windows

I had some trouble with my WIFI network a few days ago – and I got to brush up on some tools I can use in Windows to diagnoze WIFI connections.

Ekahau WIFI Mapper

The coolest one I found was the Ekahau Wifi Mapper.  Its free for personal use, limited to 15 minute mapping sessions – enough for a floor of my house!  Here’s the map I came up with of my upstairs:

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Compare that ZMG12-24 (the 2.4 Ghz signal) with the 5.0Ghz signal –  I had to resort to my iPhone to get the screenshot, Greenshot didn’t co-operate –

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Surprising!  It things ZMG-12 is located in the back yard?  Maybe the signal goes out the french door and reflects off the tree.   Or, my little mock-surface doesn’t have a very good 5.0Ghz antenna. 

The other thing this app told me – that I had wondered for a while – is which neighbor has which WIFI. Especially folks like “FBI Surveillance Van” who has an Open connection.  Heh.   Amazingly, in this subdivision of older folks, there were a few hidden wireless networks as well.  Didn’t know that.

Acrylic WIFI

The other tool I found was Acrylic WIFI – It can listen over time and figure out what’s using what channels, and you get a signal-strength-over-time graph:

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I get a nifty channel spread view as well:

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Once again, OMG the 5.0Ghz network is sucking boogers.   It might be the router.

Handy information to have.

I really want to do a WIFI heat map of my mom’s house.  She has some fun problems there.

Author: sunnywiz

Me.

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