Hardware and software setup

Program for measuring wifi power. WiFi Analyzer is a useful WiFi app for Android

A router today is in almost every home. But such an abundance WiFi routers could not but affect the quality of the signal.

Very often, networks overlap one another and there are interruptions in the Internet signal.. And this despite the fact that he is strong and nothing visible should interfere with him.

The reason just may be the imposition of several access points on one channel. For apartment buildings this problem especially relevant. Only the user needs to distinguish between signal and router problems. So very often confused complete freeze smartphone on Android platform at the stage of downloading torrent files. Here the reason is different.

Wi-Fi breaks can proceed as follows:

  1. A tablet, a smartphone behave as they want - when they are normally connected to the network signal, when they are not connected at all;
  2. A sharp drop in download speed for no good reason (and low speed observed on internal resources);
  3. Communication is lost in a certain place of the apartment, where there are no barriers.

The reason for all these troubles is precisely the use of the same communication channel by many points of wireless routers. In the future, the congestion of this channel leads to low speed and disconnections.

To quickly solve the problem means to change the channel. Most users do not even know how to analyze such a situation and how to change the “Auto” setting on their router.

How to change the communication channel to different types routers can be read at this link.

Analyze Status wireless network help free programs, which can be downloaded without problems on the Internet for:

  • smartphones with different platforms;
  • laptops and PCs.

There are thirteen channels in total for signal transmission in Russia. So, of these 13 channels, the first, sixth and eleventh do not intersect. But not all countries use 13, in the USA, for example, only 12 are allowed. different versions The operating system has its own peculiarities in the use of certain channels.

So Windows 10 does not see channel 13, and in the router settings it is impossible to change the region to Europe in order to fix access to this channel.

OS version 7 also does not see channels greater than 12. Therefore, when choosing another unloaded channel, this must be taken into account.

Just programs - analyzers are needed in order to identify free channels, configure the router for them and work quietly.

If a user has a problem connecting to a channel or lags a signal due to channel congestion, then you can ask the technical support of the official Windows website for answers to your questions.

The most convenient and simple programs analyzers of occupancy of communication channels are the following:

  1. inSSIDer 4 - download ;
  2. Free WiFi Scanner - download ;

These programs will help you learn more useful information about networks. You can recognize the type of security, signal speed. Convenient graphs help analyze the signal. The figure below shows how different users overlap on the channels and which access point has the highest frequency signal.

Network analysis example with InnSider

When downloading the program from the official site, the user should pay attention to the terms of use. Very often today they offer only demo versions of programs with a period of use of no more than a month. After that, the program must be purchased.

As you can see from the picture, after the analysis it is clearly seen that the most crowded channel is 6. That is, you should disconnect from it and select free 2, 3, or 4, or any other except the first and eleventh, which are also already occupied.

Network Analyzer for Android

Best for smartphone on the Android platform, use the Wi-Fi Analyzer program. No problems with searching and downloading. The user logs into the Google service Play and through the search finds this application and downloads it. When the smartphone is turned on, you can also download the application via a PC.

After installation, you can go into the program and analyze the communication channels. You will immediately see at what frequency the router is operating, and on what channel. All this will be indicated on the available charts. It is enough to select in the settings - channels and properties.

That is, in an illustrative example, nothing needs to be changed, because the signal does not intersect with almost anyone. In the same program, you can select the “channels” tab in the properties and see which channel has the highest and best signal. The rating is indicated by asterisks.

The example shows that the best signal without interference is on channels 12, 13 and 14. The program is quickly installed and quickly erased. Therefore, users should not be afraid that the application will take up a lot of memory on the device.

There is another handy tab in the same application that will show the frequency of the signal. With such a pointer, you can move around the apartment and choose exactly the place where the signal will be the strongest.

How to change automatic channel selection on a D-Link router?

There are a lot of routers on the market today. But according to statistics, the D-Link model is the most frequently purchased. How can I remove the auto-selection of the channel on it?

To do this, we type in address bar the Internet address 192.168.0.1. In the window that opens, type admin in both login and password. Unless the user himself changed them. The standard login and password are always written on the back cover of the box from under the router.

A window appears, "advanced settings" are selected in it, and then the main ones, as in the figure above. After selecting the basic properties of the wireless network, you should find the “channel” line in the window that appears and select the free channel in it that any program for analyzing communication channels has shown.

After that, the connection may be interrupted for a short time and restarted again. If this does not happen, you need to check the router settings again and if a dialog box appears in the upper right corner asking you to save the changes, you need to click and save it. After that, the data transfer and download speed should increase.

With the help of such simple manipulations, any user today can correct small errors in the operation of the wireless network in his apartment without calling the masters and without paying for their services.

So, how to choose this very high-speed and high-frequency wireless communication channel?

  1. Run the analyzer program;
  2. Define a free channel;
  3. Find a place in the apartment with the most high frequency reception
  4. Check non-overlapping channels (1,6,11 - if they are free) on this frequency, for example, reception speed and jumps;
  5. Set the selected free channel with a high reception frequency - reconfigure the router, accept the changes.

Thus, fixing problems with a lost signal and lost speed turned out to be very simple, you just need to clearly follow the above steps.


Often, the owners of Wi-Fi transmitters face the question of how to check the signal strength. Since not everyone wants to buy a device specifically for these purposes, one author came up with a solution on how to make such a device on their own. The device is very simple to manufacture and use, but its accuracy is much lower than specialized devices.

The idea of ​​​​the device is very simple, you need to make an antenna that would receive the Wi-Fi signal and then translate it into EMF, and then, based on the current strength readings, you can draw a conclusion about the signal strength. A wire square is used as an oscillatory circuit, to which a tuning capacitor is connected. As for the load, a millivoltmeter acts as it.

Materials and tools:
- microwave diode in a ceramic case (suitable for D405 or D603);
- ceramic capacitor (1 nF);
- tuning capacitor (5-15 pF);
- soldering iron;
- multimeter;
- Soviet fork;
- grindstone;
- copper wire;
- a piece of textolite.

Manufacturing process:

Step one. Fork preparation
To conveniently connect the device to the multimeter, the author decided to use a regular Soviet plug. To do this, remove its casing and then grind off all the protruding parts with a sharpener. Next, you need to take two pieces of copper wire and screw them to the plug contacts. A nanofarad capacitor must be soldered between the pins of the plug.


Step two. Creating and installing an antenna
Now you need to take a piece of textolite of a suitable size and drill two holes, they are drilled approximately opposite the plug contacts. Further, the previously installed copper wires are inserted into these holes. To fix the wire, you need to solder it to the textolite, then the design will be reliable.





Now you can start creating the antenna. One of the soldered copper wires must be separated from common contact the entire plate. This is where the receiving frame will be. To create the antenna frame, you need to follow the drawing, all you need to do is bend 3 squares of wire. The height of the first square should be 30 mm, the second 33 mm (it will act as an active vibrator). The third square will play the role of a reflector, it has a height of 34.5 mm. Of course, it is difficult to achieve such accuracy, but the more accurately the squares are curved, the better the device will work. To create squares, notches are made on the wire, and then it is bent with pliers.

After the contacts are ready, they can be soldered to the board. The most extreme squares just need to be soldered to the plate itself, it is important to keep the distance. As for the central square, it must be soldered to the contact that was previously separated from the general conductive layer of the textolite.

Step three. Device check
To check the device, you need a phone with bluetooth. The manufactured device is inserted into the multimeter and the voltage measurement mode is turned on. When you bring the phone to the antenna, numbers should appear on the multimeter. By moving the antenna, you need to achieve the highest voltage. Further, the phone is gradually taken away, if the numbers fall, then the device is working correctly, and the frequency of 2.4 GHz was caught.

Of course for accurate measurements this device will not work, but it will not be difficult to approximately determine the strength of the signal and find its source with it. In the future, it is planned to equip the device with an additional amplifier, for example, it can be a microcontroller, which will allow even more thorough analysis of the signal.

Residents of apartment buildings live literally surrounded by Wi-Fi networks, the number of which in some examples can reach several dozen. Another thing is that the signal level of both available and inaccessible wireless networks can differ significantly. Passing through walls, ceilings and other obstacles, the electromagnetic waves emitted by the router lose some of their power, and even within the same apartment, especially in old houses, the so-called stalinkas, the signal level may vary from room to room.

To determine the level wifi signal in operating system Windows has traditionally used indicators, such as the connection icon in the system tray, but the information they provide is very approximate. Five bars on the indicator is the best signal, presumably 100 percent, four bars are good, three are satisfactory, and so on in descending order. And since there are only five bars, we can assume that each of them is 20 percent of the power.

Is it possible to determine the signal strength more accurately and not by eye, but in numbers? Please, there is a netsh wlan show command for that. Run it running as administrator command line or the PowerShell console. As a result, you will get a list of all the networks around you, including their parameters - SSID, type, used channel and test method, and, of course, the signal strength in percent. The signal strength of a wireless network can also be determined special programs, Wi-Fi Acrylic for example, or inSSIDer if you want to know the network power in dBm.

Diagnostics WiFi networks and free channel detection

In this article, we will talk about how to detect a free channel WiFi network for more accurate (reliable) configuration of an access point or other wireless equipment. WiFi Diagnostics networks performed specialized utilities. Among them are both paid and free versions the most popular are listed below:

Let's stop at the utility inSSIDer, because it powerful tool for diagnosing wireless networks. This program helps you measure the signal strength and evaluate the performance of your Wi-Fi equipment in various locations. You can visually see and check how walls, stairs, doors, and in general the layout and materials of your premises affect the coverage area of ​​your wireless network. At the same time, the Home version is completely free.
Currently, in any modern city, every home or office is literally teeming with an abundance of Wi-Fi networks. At the same time, when several wireless networks overlap the channel on which they work (i.e. several AP the building distributes a Wi-Fi network over one channel), a situation occurs that slows down the work of all Wi-Fi networks on this channel. Scanner inSSIDer will help you find the best channel for your Wi-Fi.

Features of this software:

  • inSSIDer uses your current software wireless card and wifi connection
  • works with Microsoft Windows Vista, 7 and 8.1 (32 and 64 bits)
  • tracks received signal strength in dBm over time
  • sorting by MAC address, SSID, channel number, RSSI, and time is available

Installing the utility does not cause any difficulties. It is worth noting - if you use several wireless adapters, then in the menu Network connection select the desired wireless adapter- with its help, scanning will be performed. Next, the program will automatically scan wireless networks and display information about the air. Below is a screenshot of the inSSIDer working window:

The working window of the inSSIDer program

Let's take a closer look at the information provided:

SSID– name of the wireless network.
Channel– channel number on which the wireless network operates. We recommend that you use the wireless channel that has the fewest other networks.
RSSI– received signal power level. The higher the RSSI number, or the less negative it is, the stronger the signal. Try not to share the channel number (Channel) with access points that are close to your network in terms of signal strength.
Security– security type. In some versions of the utility, the security type WPA2-TKIP denoted as RSNA, a WPA2-AES as CCMP.
Maxratemaximum speed device operation on physical level(maximum theoretical speed) provided by the access point.
Vendor– access point manufacturer.

In Russia, 13 wireless channels are allowed for use, three of which are non-overlapping (these are channels 1, 6 and 11).
If the wireless adapter installed on your computer/laptop/tablet/smartphone is designed for use in the United States, it will only be able to use channels 1 to 11. Therefore, if you set the channel number to 12 or 13 (and also if one of them was chosen by the algorithm automatic selection channel), the wireless client will not see the access point. In this case, you must manually set the channel number from the range from 1 to 11.

So, we got acquainted with one of the utilities used to diagnose Wi-Fi - inSSIDER. In the next article, we will talk in more detail about the causes of unstable wireless networks - stay tuned for blog site updates.

Often there is a need to quickly check the level of the WiFi signal in order to select the most free channel with good quality reception. For this task, the simplest android application wifi analyzer.

With it, you can easily not only identify free channels, but also check the quality of Wi-Fi reception in various places in an apartment or cafe, or view signal changes over time. After launching, a graph will be visible in the main window of the program, which will display visible wireless networks, the reception level and the channels on which they work. If they intersect on the chart, this will be clearly displayed.

You can also see the "rating" of the channels, according to the type of any star ratings, which clearly shows how much this moment it is reasonable to choose one or the other. Another feature of the application is the analysis of Wi-Fi signal strength. First you need to select which wireless network is being checked, and then look at the reception level, while nothing prevents you from moving around the area or checking the change in reception quality depending on the location of the router.

It would also not be superfluous to add that our interest in WiFi networks can be not only in passive analysis. Help mobile phone you can also try to guess the password to wireless hotspot access. To do this, you need an application called WIBR.

WIBR is a unique application with which you can hack your neighbor's Wi-Fi and use his Internet for free. This is not a joke, WIBR works on the principle automatic selection passwords (brute) to Wi Fi, and if the password is simple, then the probability of guessing the password is close to 100 percent.

Vibr supports hacking several Wi-Fi networks at once, and shows information on one screen, when you click on one of the networks, you can see detailed statistics on the progress of work: the number of passwords per minute, how many password options have already been checked and how many are left.

The application supports uploading your own dictionaries, for this you need to download them (or write all the possible passwords in notepad yourself and save them in txt format), specify the path in the program itself. Especially for our users, we have added more than 10 dictionaries with the most common passwords.

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