We all encounter Wi-Fi issues such as slow connection, Wi-Fi speeds much slower than wired, speed or performance degradation when multiple users/devices join. Most of the complaints are related to Wi-Fi connection speeds at certain locations in home or offices. The main reason for this degradation is signal blockage/weakening at those locations because of walls, furniture or other material. Some time we encounter some areas that are dead signal zones, as Wi-Fi is inaccessible from these areas.

Without a proper diagnostic tool all we can do is to make the best use of our personal speculation to locate the dead signal zones in order to troubleshoot which still may not be precise enough. A reasonable approach will be to tackle this issue first by creating a Wi-Fi heat map of the areas that will show him/her the coverage and strength of the wireless connection.

Majority of current tools show a heat map which is an area covered by a depiction of the wireless signal (Heat Map). Majority of these tools are also capable of generating excellent reports that give us a detailed perspective about the coverage and performance of our Wi-Fi network.

For example, the map below shows the areas that have the highest strength as well as the signal dead zones (in Red). Based on this information we can plan our Wi-Fi coverage accordingly. This takes out the guesswork and frustration of dropped connections.

Below is an alphabetic list of some suggested Site Survey tools that you can use for these issues:

1. Acrylic Wi-Fi Heatmap: Supports both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz spectrum for indoor or outdoor surveys.

Some of the features it offers are:

2. AirMagnet Survey 

AirMagnet Survey is another tool used ideally for designing of wireless LANs for best security, performance and compliance. It helps determine the correct quantity, location and configuration of APs for an effective WLAN deployment

The following features come with AirMagnet Survey:

• The generated heat maps show noise, packet loss, retry rates and interference in every floor
• Provides many options for visual analysis
• Complete view of wireless statistics such as distribution of Signal, Noise, Signal/Noise, WLAN throughput, PHY data rates, Retry Rates, and Packet Losses.
• Excellent Interference analysis and results can be viewed by channel, SSID, or device
• Overlap and roaming analysis with adapter simulation

3. Ekahau HeatMapper  ( my personal Preference) provides extensive details about the Wi-Fi coverage including information about the intrusive/snooping networks and noise.

With Ekahau HeatMapper you can:

• see Wi-Fi coverage on a map and find all available networks in the vicinity
• Works on any Windows operating system and can detect security settings
• helps you to accurately designs a high-capacity Wi-Fi network
• detects and eliminates interference issues and other performance bottlenecks
• Automatic reporting with many templates
• Works with majority of Wi-Fi network vendors.

4. Kismet is a wireless network discovery and packet-sniffing tool much like Wireshark. It can help discover disruptive wireless networks. Unlike other tools that uses broadcasting for SSID, Kismet listens to beacons for detection of all Wi-Fi networks. This helps to find rogue networks with hidden SSIDs.

5. NetSpot is another site survey and Wi-Fi Analyzer tool. It supports both Mac OS X and Windows platforms and is compliant with all 802.11 networks.

Some of the important features in NetSpot are:

• Collects information about Wi-Fi networks in the vicinity and presents this information in an interactive table.
• helps troubleshoot and improve network’s coverage and performance.
• Can show your busiest and least-used channels.
• Color-coded bars helps to analyze the performance of Wi-Fi networks.

6. SolarWinds broadly popular Network Performance Monitor (NPM) provides Wi-Fi heat maps to help plan your layout.

The features of SolarWinds’ Network Performance Monitor are:

• Creates custom heat maps with information from adjacent access points and clients.
• Can help identify dead signal zones and make adjustments to improve wireless coverage
• As a bonus, you get to tap into all the powerful features of Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

7. VisiWave Site Survey is a Wi-Fi analyzer tool that can create heat maps to know and understand the coverage.

The features of a VisiWave Site Survey are:

• VisiWave Site Survey provides three options for capturing data
• Helps build custom reports ( with option to create templates) to visualize the RF coverage
• Ability to perform predictive site surveys
• Can show a speculative simulation of Wi-Fi signals

Conclusion

To conclude, based on your needs and budget, these tools give you detailed information into the performance and coverage of your Wi-Fi network, so as to troubleshoot and resolve any issues pertaining to dropped Wi-Fi connections and poor performance. Pick the one that meets your needs and see it do its magic.