“Wi-Fi for most Mac users is set it and forget it, especially if you use one of Apple’s own Wi-Fi Airport network devices,” Jeffrey Mincey writes for Bohemian Boomer. “Connectivity problems aside, most Wi-Fi networks, home or office, have a number of common problem areas: weak spots, dropouts, poor signals, and even signal conflicts.”
“Apple’s Airport Utility won’t help you find, troubleshoot, and fix those pesky Wi-Fi network issues, but NetSpot will, and for basic home network use, it’s free,” Mincey writes. “NetSpot is a Wi-Fi network analysis tool. Use it to conduct a Wi-Fi site survey by installing it on a MacBook and then walk around to measure your Wi-Fi network signal strength.”
“NetSpot scans your network, helps you analyze hotspots and weak spots, monitors the Wi-Fi signals, maps out a network, and even measures wireless network speed,” Mincey writes. “Wait. There’s more. Much more.”
More info and links in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A good tool that’s very useful for properly positioning Airport and/or other Wi-Fi devices.
to bad it doesn’t see ethernet networks and only wireless.
iOS version? Be even more helpful!
It would be, but Apple puts parts of the API off limits that are needed for tools like this. I’m not sure why Apple does this, but it was one of the reasons why I was jailbreaking for a long time.
I like wifi explorer. Not free, but awesome for the price.
I’m going to also recommend WiFi Explorer. It’s only $15 and well worth it. It’s available on the App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wifi-explorer/id494803304