Anyone suggest the best (preferably FREE) program to measure wifi signal strength for aligning antennas. For windows machines 7-10. Something that is intuitive, easy to install and use. This is for single user home computer complicated manipulations are not needed. Just move antenna and measure change in strength in real time.
For Windoze, there are Wi-Fi Analyzer style programs and apps available. For example:
More programs:
Other ways to display Wi-Fi signal level and quality:
Probably all Wi-Fi products include software for configuring and managing the wi-fi client radio. The software should have some kind of wi-fi signal level and SNR indicator included.
Or, just type this at the CMD prompt: netsh wlan show interfaces
Whether it is intuitive, easy to install, and use is mostly determined by the expectations of the user and not so much by the program. Try a few programs and demos and see which one seems best for you.
Jeff Liebermann snipped-for-privacy@cruzio.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Thanks the suggestions. I lost my alfa radio wifi readout gui when I upgraded windows as the driver package was designed for windows 7 and there is no driver for 8.1 So the only readout I have now are the bars from MS at the bottom.
Which model Alfa radio? I have a few USB client radios buried somewhere. I haven't tried them on Windoze 10 yet. Have you checked if you have the latest firmware?
Using "bars" and cute icons for aiming an antenna is futile. Constantly changing numbers (-dBm) are not much better. A meter or large bar graph is probably best. There's a potential problem if you leave the "wi-fi analyzer" style program running continuously. The data transfer stops while the meter is doing its thing. That's why these programs sample the signal level typically every 15 seconds. That's nice for throughput, but makes antenna aiming rather slow and painful. Crank up the sample time while aiming the antenna, but be prepared to slow it down, or turn it off, when you want to use the wi-fi link.
Good luck.
Jeff Liebermann snipped-for-privacy@cruzio.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I guess you did not read my last reply before answering? I said I'm using win 8.1, not 10.
So far tested 3. None of them allow me to do what you're suggesting "crank up the sample time".
Inssider tried two versions, no setting for sample interval time.
Acrylic cannot tell I have to wifi adapters and only sees the one that is disabled-so much for quality software.
Actually a freeware program called homesdale came closest but was buggy and sample rate could not be set faster than 1 second intervals.
Same as with most software. Most of it is crap.
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