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NetSpot WiFi site survey tool for macOS is available
NetSpot for Mac is a native wireless information application for your Mac. It only takes a couple of clicks to load your plan and begin a network site survey. All you need to do is point to where you are on the map and NetSpot will begin measuring wireless signals immediately, then move around and collect Wi-Fi data. Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about NetSpot Home. Download NetSpot Home for macOS 10.13 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Gather and analyze data on surrounding wireless networks, see the realistic WiFi coverage, create surveys, visualize data and fix problems with wireless connection.
- Review our area map recommendations before you start.
- Start at one corner and follow a zig-zagging path through the space you wish to scan.
- Your goal should be to end up with most of your map covered in green circles, with the circles overlapping a bit on the edges. If a measurement overlaps too much (or not at all), click Undo in the upper-right corner and take another sample in a better position.
- Corridors have to be surveyed in 2 lines: either by walking in a zigzag pattern from wall to wall, or by walking along one wall and then along the other one.
- Each room in your survey area needs to have at least 3-4 samples inside of it. Make sure the corners are covered and that there are samples in the middle of the room.
- If a room is normally locked, request access to it — any blank areas in your survey could hide possible sources of noise.
- For outdoor area surveys, you can place sampling points further apart and the green circles do not need to overlap. Make sure you selected the correct zone area type for the outdoor surveys to improve the guess range of NetSpot.
- When surveying a large area, you can take fewer measurements if the area is relatively empty. If there are many obstacles (walls, tables, machinery), you will need to make more frequent stops to ensure identification of dead spots.
- Do not re-measure the same spot twice. (Readings from two close points with different data can result in an inaccurate heatmap)
- Keep your laptop still while a measurement is being performed.
- Complete the scan without any long pauses between measurements. In order to be accurate, all measurements need to be taken under the same conditions.
- Try not to make any changes to your environment while surveying your area: don’t open or close doors, move furniture around, etc. Keep everything the way it normally is during regular working conditions.
- If you do decided to change something in your environment, make sure you redo the whole survey.
- Be sure to take readings from the entire perimeter of the area, as well from the center.
- There is no need to get samples on both sides of an open doorway — one sample right in the doorway is enough. If the door is usually closed, keep the door closed and take samples on both sides.
- There’s no need to take samples close to each other if there are no obstacles between them — the Signal Level is unlikely to change a lot.
- You may get better signal strength readings in the early morning or evening, when there aren’t so many people around, and there are fewer electronic devices providing interference. However, if you want to map realistic “everyday” conditions, then you will want to take your readings during a busy time of day.
- Avoid taking readings during lightning storms or heavy downpours. Excessive humidity or high temperatures may also affect your readings.
- We definitely recommend turning off all potentially conflicting electronic appliances when running a survey, like microwave ovens, radio telephones, and even cell phones. Of course, this doesn’t apply if you are searching for sources of noise.
- The same applies to any other apps accessing your Airport adapter when the survey is active: turn them off. And be sure to turn off Internet Sharing as well.
- Make sure all the networks have names in Latin characters. If they don’t, this may lead to unexpected survey errors and network connectivity issues (mostly related to a bug in WebKit, which cannot be fixed on our side).
Have a great survey.
NetSpot WiFi site survey tool for Windows is here
NetSurveyor is an 802.11 (WiFi) network discovery tool that gathers information about nearby wireless access points in real time and displays it in useful ways. Similar in purpose to NetStumbler, it includes many more features. The data is displayed using a variety of different diagnostic views and charts. Data can be recorded for extended periods and played-back at a later date/time. Also, reports can be generated in Adobe PDF format. Applications for NetSurveyor include the following:
- During the installation of a wireless network, as an aid in verifying the network is properly configured and antennas are positioned at locations to achieve efficient transmission / reception -- that is, for use in verifying WiFi coverage and maximizing beacon signal strength
- Trouble-shooting an existing network or wireless environment that is performing poorly
- Reporting the presence of WiFi networks and local access points and the signal strengths of their beacons
- Conducting wireless site surveys where the installer is interested in learning about the coverage of a new or existing access point, roaming capability, presence of RF interference or “dead spots”, and optimum location of access points, their antennas and client stations
- In a secure business environment, for use in detecting the presence of rogue access points
- As a learning tool to help understand the relationship between access points (BSSIDs), wireless networks (SSIDs), and client stations (STAs)
Netspot 2 10 952 – Wireless Survey Tool Setup
NetSurveyor is a diagnostic tool that falls under the category of WiFi Scanners or 802.11 Network Discovery Tools. The best known in this category is NetStumbler. A discovery tool reports the Service Set Identifier (SSID) for each wireless network it detects, along with the channel used by the access point (AP) servicing that network. The way this works is that roughly every 100 mSec an AP sends an “I’m here” beacon – and the discovery tool (running on your laptop and using its 802.11 wireless adapter, also known as a station or STA) picks-up that beacon and adds the SSID to its list of known wireless networks. In addition, the discovery tool reports the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) for each AP, which is roughly an indication of how close the AP is to your current location (i.e. how close it is to the client STA). Just to be clear, the RSSI reflects the strength of the beacon as received by the STA – it is not an indication of performance.
Netspot Wifi Site Survey
NetSurveyor distinguishes itself from other tools in its category in the following ways:
- It’s free.
- In addition to the grid that repeatedly updates information about each access point, there are 6 graphical, diagnostic views: (1) Timecourse of Beacon Qualities For Each Access Point, (2) Differential Display of Beacon Qualities for Each Access Point, (3) Usage of Each of the 802.11 b/g Channels, (4) Timecourse of the Usage of Each of the 802.11 b/g Channels, (5) Heatmap / Waterfall Chart of the 802.11 b/g Channels and (6) Channel Spectrogram of the 802.11 b/g Channels. The more (and different) ways you have at looking at data then the greater the chance something will catch your eye that you might otherwise miss if only a single type of chart were used.
- Generates reports in Adobe PDF format that include the list of access points and their properties along with images of each of the 6 diagnostic charts.
- Powerful and innovative logging and recording capability. Other products, if they even offer a recording/playback feature, usually follow the “tape recorder” paradigm. NetSurveyor's playback mode is unique in that it shows you all the recorded data – that is, you do not press a ‘play’ button and then forced to watch minutes or hours of data scroll by in the hope that some unusual event will catch your eye. NetSurveyor’s unique approach makes reviewing recorded data a snap.
- If your laptop or PC has multiple wireless adapters installed – not a problem. When NetSurveyor launches it detects each of these and asks you to choose which one to use for that session.
- Supports most all wireless adapters – that is, those that are installed with an NDIS 5.x driver (or later). This would include wireless adapters running on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
- Can be run in ‘Demo’ mode – so, even if you don’t have a wireless adapter attached to your desktop or laptop machine you can still experiment with the application to see whether it suits your needs.
NetSurveyor Pcalc the best calculator 4 7. is distributed as freeware and does not require a license. You are free to download it and use it on as many machines as you like.