Wifi mapping?

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

So that was weird....

Got a house-call tomorrow... they are having poor wifi connection problems.

I was doing some googling and ran into this:
https://www.ekahau.com/products/heatmapper/overview/

I know they just use their ISP AT&T 3-in-1 box and their house is on the bigger side.

most likely going to upgrade them, but would love to actually show them a map of their problem, it'd make the sale stupid easy.

Curious if yall do anything for wifi house-call problems?

 

[NJW]

Curious if yall do anything for wifi house-call problems?

Wi-Fi Analyser on an Android phone. Not as sophisticated as a full heat-mapper, but good for finding cold spots and optimum channel.

 

[timeshifter]

Great topic....

I use WiFi Explorer on my Mac laptop. Plenty of similar programs for Windows machines.

I've always wanted to do a better job of this. Several times I've looked at solutions from https://www.metageek.com/ but never pulled the trigger. Their product mix is a bit confusing, which was a barrier to me.

I was doing some googling and ran into this:
https://www.ekahau.com/products/heatmapper/overview/

Last time I looked they didn't have the home version. That's worth a second look.

 

[Archon Prime]

I use my Wifi-analyser on my android phone as well. works really well. If it's interference from another network on the same channel it's pretty easy to figure out. I also use the wireless diagnostics feature on my macbook if I need a secondary source in a different part of the house/building to look at.

 

[Diggs]

+1 for the Android Wifi Analyzer

Situations like these I tend not to fight their installed 3-1 unit but to just add a powerline module or two. They get more WiFi and Ethernet where they want it.

 

[Archon Prime]

+1 on the PLA

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

If you want to put the time into a heat mapper....they're great for businesses and large areas where you're charging a good amount to consult and design a nice setup.

For homes, really going around with something that just shows signal strength should be good enough. Ekahaus free Inssid'r or any wifi scanning app on your smart phone. Or Acrylics free wifi tool. Or NetSpotApp's free tool.

If you want to take the time, you can "sketch" a diagram yourself..and just jot down notes of signal strength as you walk around. That's really all those heat mappers do anyways...except with those you import a drawing of the building like the blueprints. Typically hard to do for a residential site survey, so just sketching it out yourself can do the trick if you want to provide something that fancy.

The thing is, for heat mappers to be fairly accurate...you need an accurate "map" imported. And that includes having the scale correct. Typical mappers you import a drawing of a floor plan..and then you set the scale in the program and measure a room.

Another thing to do is get a spectrum analyses. You gotta find out what other "noise" is there. Often a neighbors or multiple neighbors wifi steps on the toes of this clients wifi. Gotta see what's there so you can design around them.

Most of the ISP supplied all in one boxes have fairly poor wifi performance (not to mention routing performance). Everything in your head wants you to disable them, bridge them, use your own router, use your own wifi hardware. BUT...with VoIP and TV and wireless TV set top boxes..you often can't totally neuter them. Or if you do..and if you manage to keep the other devices working, and the client has to call the ISP support to fix something, now it's back to defaults, and your stuff won't work..ugh. Often a hard call to make as to what to implement.

I like doing passive site surveys with a Ubiq AP and their airView app.