You’ve probably seen folks on Twitter use this to show how poorly designed some WiFi networks are. Many of us in the industry use his tool to get a quick look at the wireless network wherever we’re at. I’ve mentioned this application several times on the podcast and on my blog. If you like this app, you might check out WiFi Explorer from the same developer.Let’s talk to Adrian Granados, developer of Wifi Explorer. Therefore, if a device is showing a low data rate, that’s probably the cause for buffering or slowness. Wi-Fi is also a shared medium, so if you are using this Apple TV on the porch and your spouse is on the porch watching YouTube clips, there is less Wi-Fi to go around. A 15 MB data rate might be 4-7 MB in actual throughput. A 300 MB data rate might be 120-150 MB on throughput. The throughput speed will always be less than the data rate. Streaming Netflix actually happens at the application layer. ![]() This happens at the physical layer (see OSI Model). Data rate is the maximum speed that data can move across the network to another device or router. 15 MB might be, but data rate isn’t the actual throughput. You may be thinking that 15 MB seems fast enough for Netflix. Let’s use a 15 MB data rate as an example. If it’s a long way from your router, it might have a low data rate. If you are wondering why your Apple TV is constantly buffering, this is a good place to start. The data rate is a very useful column for the home IT person. Noise on the 2.4 Ghz band might come from bluetooth or a cordless phone, as they also use the same 2.4 Ghz band. Competing Wi-Fi networks cause interference. One thing to note is that other Wi-Fi networks do not cause noise. If there is a lot of other RF in the air, this makes it harder to hear. The client talks to the access point (AP) and then listens back. Wi-Fi devices are talking back and forth. SNR between 10 dB and 15 dB – Very Poor.Signal quality is estimated based on the SNR (signal to noise ratio). At work, this would say Aerohive since I use their products for our corporate network. As you can see in the photo, I am currently at home using my AirPort Extreme, but my Mac is only capable of 802.11n. This is the manufacturer of the actual access point. 11n operates on 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz, and is quite a bit faster than 11g. ![]() 11ac is a lot faster than 11n, but only operates on 5 Ghz.While there are a lot of technical differences between them, here are the basics: This is simply which Wi-Fi standard the device supports. Most devices sold in 2015 come with 802.11ac, but they are backwards compatible with 802.11g and 11n. If you are really trying to stretch your signal, 2.4 GHz may be your only option. One caveat to 5GHz is that it doesn’t penetrate walls as well as 2.4 GHz. While it’s not possible to turn off 2.4 GHz on the Airport Extreme, you can create a separate 5 GHz network and only connect to it. It’s very wise to try to isolate devices to 5GHz when they support it. If you live in an apartment, you likely have interference issues on 2.4 GHz. ![]() 2.4 GHz only has 3 non-overlapping channels (1,6,11), while 5 GHz has anywhere from 19-23 depending on the country. The Wi-Fi band information is helpful if you’ve got interference. If your Mac has ethernet and Wi-Fi, each medium has its own address. It’s a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces. From a terminal window on your Mac, you can ping the IP address of the device in question and see if you get a response. The IP address is helpful if you need to ping a device that is struggling to get online. If you aren’t a Wi-Fi geek, some of these items might not make sense, so let’s explain what they mean: Once you click on it, you’ll see a lot of interesting data: IP address, MAC address of the access point, band, channel, Wi-Fi standard (g/n/ac), vendor of the AP, signal quality, SNR, noise, signal, and data rate. When you first launch Wi-Fi Signal, you’ll see a new menu bar item with a cell phone-like bar system. Third-party apps cannot access the Wi-Fi radios on iOS, so that is why we are limited to Apple’s built-in tools. We’ve written about using the Airport Utility app on iOS, but the Mac offers some even better tools. It sits in the menu bar and gives constant updates about the health of your Wi-Fi signal. WiFi Signal is a really handy app to have running on your Mac.
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