- 7 free wifi surveying tool for windows and mac software#
- 7 free wifi surveying tool for windows and mac Pc#
- 7 free wifi surveying tool for windows and mac mac#
Wavemon and Kismet (Figures 7-8) are similar open-source tools for Linux® that can be used to list available networks, their signal strength and other characteristics.
7 free wifi surveying tool for windows and mac Pc#
Here the low and fluctuating signal strength and the low signal/noise ratio suggest that the network service is likely to be unreliable at this distance from the access point.įigure 6: Netstumbler Signal Strength Graph.Ī version of Netstumbler, called Ministumbler, is available for Pocket PC PDAs. For example the SNR+ value of 15 shown in Figure 5 might suggest that the network would be usable whereas the instantaneous value of 9 suggests that there are likely to be problems.Ī better indication in conditions of poor reception can be obtained by Netstumbler’s graph of signal strength and noise level for an access point (Figure 6). For surveying, these historical maxima and minima are the opposite of what is wanted: the weakest signal, strongest noise and least signal/noise ratio would be much more useful. Note that Netstumbler displays the current signal, noise and signal/noise ratio as well as the historical strongest signal (Signal+), weakest noise (Noise-) and greatest signal/noise ratio (SNR+).
7 free wifi surveying tool for windows and mac mac#
The Vendor field is derived from the first six octets of the MAC address, so it may be inaccurate for recently allocated addresses or where the access point allows its MAC address to be changed.įigure 5: Netstumbler Listing Available Access Points.
7 free wifi surveying tool for windows and mac software#
Other software applications may display additional useful information for example the free Netstumbler program for Windows® shows the MAC address, wireless channel, protocol and (where available) SSID (service set identifier) of each access point within range (Figure 5).
Many of these come with a software application to display the current signal strength and noise level for example, the signal strength meter provided with the Cisco® Aeronet® card is illustrated in Figure 4.įigure 4: Cisco® Aeronet® Signal Strength Meter. The most accurate tool for measuring radio signals is a dedicated radio frequency meter however, results adequate for most purposes can be obtained using a wireless enabled laptop or PDA. If problems appear after a wireless network has been installed then it will be particularly important to determine whether these are due to a reduction in signal strength or an increase in noise level. Noise ratio are available and recorded separately. Signal, Noise, S/N MeasurementĪlthough it is possible to survey a wireless network using signal strength or signal/noise ratio alone, it will be much easier to trace problems if measurements of signal, noise and signal/
Some survey tools are listed in References 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. The basic tools for performing a wireless network survey are therefore a device that can measure signal and noise levels and calculate the signal/noise ratio, and a map of the area to record these values. Summary of wireless projects in the Janet community December 2010.
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