There’s an old joke which goes like this,“If you want to test a man’s patience, give him a slow WiFi connection”. This statement now stands truer than ever, as more and more entertainment services are moving towards streaming. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to stream your favourite series on Netflix using a slow WiFi connection. The sad thing is that it doesn’t matter which WiFi connection plan you are using, your actual speed will never be same as the plan you are using. There are a lot of factors which impact the network speed. It is here where a WiFi analyzer app will come in real handy.
As the name suggests, a WiFi analyzer app will help you to analyse your network and tweak it to an extent, so that you receive the best possible speeds from your network. So, if you are interested, here are the best WiFi analyzer apps you should be using. We are including the best WiFi analyzer apps for Windows, macOS, Android, as well as iOS.Best WiFi Analyzer Apps for Android and iOSNote: There are a lot of apps with similar names on the Google Play Store, so do remember to download the apps only from the links provided. WiFi AnalyzerTo understand how to use this app and any other similar ones, you need to understand how WiFi works. Your router uses radio frequencies to communicate with your device. These radio frequencies are used in channels which are basically a range of frequencies. Your WiFi router uses a single channel, so does everybody else’s.
So, if you are using a WiFi router which is sending the signals on a channel used by other surrounding WiFi networks, your speed will be slow, as there is a limited bandwidth in each channel and the channel bandwidth is being shared among the users.WiFi Analyzer will help you get a visual representation of your network’s channel as well as the best available channel you can use to get the optimum speed. When you launch the app, you will see a graphical representation of all the networks available in the area. The higher the graph, the stronger is the connection. However, this is just a visual representation, to know which channel you should tap on the eye icon and select channel rating. There you will see the list of all the channels with star ratings attached to it.Now, before you jump to select the channel with the highest star rating, first you need to select your router to see its rating and if there are any better channel available or not. To do that tap on “Select My AP” and select your router.
You should now be able to see your router’s rating and the best channels you can use to get the optimum speed.Using the app, you can know what are the best channels for you to use and select your preferences in the router setting accordingly. A very handy app indeed.Install: (Free) 2. WiFiAnalyzerIf you already know the basics about WiFi channels and are looking for an app which gives you more functions, this one is for you. Also, since this is an open-source app, it is supposed to be more secure than other apps on the list. One thing which will stand out when you open the app is that it’s far well refined than our top picks. Also, unlike our top pick, it also has no ads.
WiFi Analyzer. WiFi Analyzer can help you to identify Wi-Fi problems, find the best channel or the best place for your router/access-point by turning your PC/laptop, tablet or mobile device into an analyzer for your wireless network. The basic version is completely ad-free and additional features can be bought via an in-app purchase.
The only reason it has been placed on the second place is its complexity. It is much harder to figure out how to utilise this app, than our top pick. For an average user, the first app on the list is more than enough, however, if you are looking for an app which provides you with far more control and information, this one is the best on market.Install: (Free) 3. NetXAnother good Android app which is really well designed and pack all the required features is NetX. It is the best-looking app among the three. The UI feels modern and responsive. It even identified which device I am using, so that is a plus.
You can see all the networks around you in a graph mode or rating mode, whichever meets your needs. The process is the same here. Find out which channel is the least crowded and select that one to get the best speed possible. If you are looking for an app which is powerful and looks good, NetX is certainly for you.Install: (Free – $1.99) 4. Network AnalyzerSince iOS does not allow apps to access its WiFi connection chip, there’s only a limited amount of functions that a WiFi analyser app can perform.
The best app on iPhone to analyse your WiFi connection is the Network Analyzer. As said in the beginning, due to the limitations put by iOS, the app cannot detect your surrounding WiFi connections and only shows you the details of your own connection.
You can also check the upload and download speeds of your network from right within the app. The lite version of the app is free and supported by ads. You have to go Pro to remove the ads.Install: (Free, $3.99) Best WiFi Analyzer Apps for Windows and macOS 1.
WiFi CommanderWiFi Commander serves the same function for Windows which the WiFi Analyzer does for Android. It scans your surrounding for WiFi networks and details their signal strength in comparison to your connection. You can see all the data on a very modern looking graph. The app is more powerful than any other apps on this list.
You cannot only see the strengths of the network but also can monitor their network speeds. You can see, which channel is used by which connections. This gives you an instant idea as to which channels are most crowded.
It packs a ton of information which we do not have the time to cover here. You should install the app to uncover all its features. If you are looking for a full-fledged desktop app, this is the best you can get for your Windows machine.Install: ($3.99) 2.
NetSpotNetSpot is more than just a WiFi analyzer app. Using this app, you can conduct the survey of your home or office premises to understand which spots are receiving the weakest WiFi connection. This is a professional level tool developed to meet the needs of a large office area or your home.
It has a free version which only allows you to scan for the surrounding networks and shows the strength of each network. For conducting the survey of your home or office premises, you need to but the pro plans. The Pro plans allow you to upload the blueprint of your building and then maps the WiFi connection to the areas predefined be you.It uses colour coding to show which areas are receiving what level of signal strength. For example, the blue and purple areas depict a lower level of WiFi connection strengths.
As mentioned earlier, this software is not meant to be used for personal usage, unless you own a big house which needs WiFi mapping. This one is best suitable for businesses needing to enhance the WiFi connectivity throughout their office.Install:, (Free, $49, $149, $499) 3. WiFi AnalyzerWiFi Analyzer for Windows is basically the same as the one for Android.
Although both the apps share the name, they are not made by the same developer. If you use a Windows device and need an app which is as simple to use as our top pick, this is the one for you. You can see the surrounding network in easy to understand graph. In the Ratings section, you can see the ratings of all the available channels. You can switch to the best possible channel for your network accordingly. It is a simple app for Windows which helps you in choosing the best channel, so that you receive the optimum connection speed.Install: (Free) Bonus: InSSIDerInSSIDer is a very powerful WiFi analyzer tool. When it comes to sheer functionality, it might be the best among all the apps we have covered.
Not only it uses the data from channels it uses an external tool called WiSpy which can detect all of the raw radio frequency activities, which allows you to see exactly how busy each channel is. Based on the data, with a single click, it suggests you which channel is the best to utilise. The only reason InSSIDer has been placed in the bonus section because as of June 26, 2017, they have stopped selling the personal version of the software and are only selling the Office version. Its Office version competes directly with the NetSpot app.
So, if you are looking for a software for your office, try both before you make the purchase decision.Install: (Currently not available for purchase)SEE ALSO: Get The Most Out Of Your WiFi Network With These WiFi Analyzer AppsWith every WiFi connection surrounding you fighting for the same bandwidth space, your network speed may suffer. Use the above apps to analyse your WiFi connections and select the channels which are least crowded to get the best possible speeds on your smartphone or computer. Utilising these apps is as important as buying a high-speed plan and a good router.
So what are you waiting for, download these best WiFi analyzer apps and configure your WiFi connection now. Let us know in the comment section about the boost you received in your network speed.
There are few resources as important as your network bandwidth. Analyzing your network provides you with a mountain of insights that you can use to keep your connection stable. Deploying a wifi analyzer can help you to maintain optimum performance across your entire network.
The best wifi analyzer tools enable you to look out for pesky bandwidth hogs and make your network more efficient.By identifying top talkers across your network and reducing their bandwidth consumption you can make sure that your connection is distributed more evenly among your devices. This results in a high-quality service for users throughout your network. Using a wifi analyzer will allow you to monitor bandwidth usage by user or IP address so you know exactly when to step in if a device’s traffic consumption becomes problematic.In this article we’re going to look at the best wifi analyzer tools for 2018.Here is our list of the best Wifi Analyzer tools:. WiFi Analyzer. inSSIDer.
WifiInfo View. NetStumbler.
Wireshark. NetSpot. WiFi Explorerhas an excellent wifi analyzer utility. From the moment you start the program, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor starts the process of automatically discovering wired devices, wireless devices, access points, and controllers throughout your network. These elements are added to your monitoring environment so you can keep track of them for future Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring activities.Wireless heat maps are one of the features that makes SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor a top performer.
With wireless heat maps you can view the areas where your connection is weakest from a geographical perspective. This is invaluable for finding those pesky wireless dead zones and getting rid of the root cause.The metrics you can monitor with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor include SSID, connection time, IP Address, MAC Address, Received Signal Strength Indication, and how many bytes were transferred. This provides you with the basic information to assess the strength of a connection. Once you’ve finished gathering this data you can convert it into a report for further reading.You can purchase SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor in a number of different packages based on the number of elements you require. The price range starts with SL100 with 100 elements for the price of $2,955 (£2,268). The next version is NPM SL250 with 250 elements for $6,720 (£5,158). The largest versions of SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor are NPM SL500 with 500 devices for $10,445 (£8,017) and NPM SL200 with 2000 elements for $32,545 (£24,978).
You can also download a 30-day free trial for SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor from.which includes the is a network monitoring tool that also offers a fully functional wifi analyzer. The PRTG Network Monitor wifi analyzer can be used to check in on the status of devices, network load, and signal strength. For instance, if a router goes down then you can tell immediately because PRTG Network Monitor will alert you via email or SMS.One of the most useful resources offered by PRTG Network Monitor is the SNMP Custom Table Sensor. The SNMP Custom Table Sensor keeps track on how traffic is flowing through your network. If too much traffic is travelling through an access point you’ll be able to see it immediately. This keeps you up-to-date on current developments so that your service stays up and running.Security is an integral part of wifi analysis, which is why PRTG Network Monitor has provided you with the ability to monitor last access.
Last access lets you know when a device last accessed the network. This is good for spotting devices leeching off your network outside of working hours.
This provides you with a valuable way to find those rogue devices that are stealing your connection.One of the biggest advantages of PRTG Network Monitor is that there is a freeware version limited to 100 sensors. This is ideal for smaller networks and SMBs looking to try their hand at wifi analysis. You can download the 30-day free trial of PRTG Network Monitor from.3. WiFi AnalyzerWiFi analyzer is a wifi analyzer that was built specifically for Windows 10. From the clear WiFi analyzer dashboard you can view the speed and health of your connection in seconds. No matter how fast moving your network is you can keep track of it here.
On the pro version you can even use a beeper to hear how strong the signal is. This allows you to combine visual and audio clues and stay on top of recent developments.In an office environment, WiFi Analyzer is particularly useful because you can view the signal strength around your office. This allows you to pinpoint the best locations for routers and access points in your network. The end result is a less congested connection and less packet loss.The information you can view through WiFi Analyzer includes SSID, Channel, Frequency, Bandwidth, Protocol, BSSID, Location, Private IPv4, Private Subnet, Encryption, Authentication, and Interface.
You have all the basic information to look further into a connections origin and any problems that could be emerging.If you’re looking to monitor your network on a Windows device then WiFi Analyzer is a product you should definitely consider. The basic version of WiFi Analyzer is available for free and can be accessed on your PC, Mobile Device, Hub, or HoloLens. The only drawback is that you need to have Windows 10 or higher in order to run this tool. You can download WiFi Analyzer for free from this link. InSSIDerAnyone who is familiar with wifi analyzers will have heard of inSSIDer at some point or another.
This is a tool that was designed to function within enterprise environments and delivers a wifi analyzer experience that stands with the very best on the market. With inSSIDer you can view information such as channel location, signal strength, data rates, and the type of security used.However, what really makes inSSIDer a solid wifi analyzer is its use of filters. You can filter what information you see from scans so that you don’t have to sift through all network consumption at once. Likewise, you can give specific SSIDS unique nicknames to make them stand out more. This makes sure that you don’t miss anything that could cause you problems further down the line.Being able to assess how your connection fluctuates over time is very important to being able to troubleshoot effectively. The team behind inSSIDer have recognized this and allowed users to monitor signal strength over time. For example, you can monitor the signal strength of an access point through a graph to see when the signal drops and when it’s performing well.
This enables the user to point to any patterns where the connection drops at a specific time.Overall inSSIDer is a quality tool for those looking to monitor an active network within an enterprise environment. InSSIDer Lite is available for free but only for non-commercial use.
With the Lite version you can discover nearby networks and track signal strength. Enterprise users will need to purchase inSSIDer Plus to be able to monitor a business network.
This comes at a price of $99 (£75) for the year or $9 (£6) per month. You can download inSSIDer from this link. WifiInfo ViewAdministrators looking for a a free Wifi Analyzer would be well advised to look no further than WifiInfo View. With WifiInfo View you can monitor your network and pull key data such as SSID, Mac Address, PHY type, RRSSI, Maximum Speed, Company Name, Router Model, and Router Name. This is shown in a main table view so that you can read the results easily.This tool has two main panes splitting the screen in half horizontally. The top half allows you to select a wireless network to monitor and the lower half displays the results in hexadecimal format. There is also a summary mode where you can view wireless networks grouped by channel number.
This is great for giving you a top-down view of your network.WifiInfo View is a solid Wifi Analyzer suited to anyone looking for a simple but effective approach to wifi analysis. The design may be outdated but the monitoring abilities of this tool are as relevant as any other tool on this list. WifiInfo View is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 10.
WifiInfo View can be downloaded for free from this link. NetStumblerNetStumbler is another product that has developed a reputation as one of the best free wifi analyzers online. NetStumbler is aimed specifically at networking professionals and has the ability to scan networks and retrieve information such as SSID, channel, signal strength, security type, SND and provider. This information is shown in a list format so you can look through your network quickly and systematically.However, if the list format is too bare for you then you can also make use of signal and noise graphs to view the strength of you connection. While these are particularly glamorous they are still readable.
Once you’ve finished monitoring you then export a CSV report to give to other members of your team.One of the more interesting features included within NetStumbler is its ability to connect to GPS systems. You can connect NetStumbler to a GPS to establish the physical location of your AP. This isn’t as sophisticated as the mapping offered by a tool like SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor but it does add a welcome touch of geographical monitoring to this tool.Overall this program offers a monitoring experience that performs well against even the top of the range wifi analyzers on this list. NetStumbler is available for Windows but you can also find modified versions for Linux and Mac devices. NetStumbler can be downloaded for free from this link. WiresharkWireshark is one of, if not the most, famous network analyzer in the world. Wireshark (or Ethereal as it was once known) is an open source network analyzer that allows you to monitor your traffic through a classic user interface.
You can capture traffic data and view information such as Protocol, Time, Source, Destination, Protocol, Length, and Info.One of the features that makes Wireshark so easy to use is that of filters. With Wireshark you can use capture filters to determine what information you capture and display filters to filter through the information that has already been captured.
This allows you to mix up your perspective between specific targeted analysis and wider generalist monitoring.The convenience doesn’t end here either. You can use coloring rules across your packet list to make collected information easy to distinguish. This is great because it allows you to get a sophisticated snapshot of your network without having to look through too many views. If you need an even closer look at your network you can export your captured results in XML, PostScript, CSV, or text.When it comes to open source wifi analyzers, Wireshark is at the very top of the list. Wireshark can be installed on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, and NetBSD (on Linux distributions Wireshark is available as source code). You can download WireShark for free from this link.
NetSpotThere are few wifi analyzers as compelling for Mac and Windows users as NetSpot. This wifi analyzer provides network analyzing in a neat package. One of the main selling points of this program is that you can create wireless heat maps to view the signal strength throughout your office. You can look to see whether you have any dead zones and act accordingly.NetSpot is accessible to newer users because it is so easy to use. For instance the process of creating a heat map is very simple.
All you need to do is start a new survey, enter your details, y our network measurement radius and load your network map from a file (though this isn’t necessary it makes setting up a heatmap easier). If you don’t have a file you can draw it from scratch.
Then you simply carry a laptop throughout the network to map your connection.Visualization is another feature that NetSpot absolutely nails. You can create graphs of your signal and noise data and select the time windows you want to measure.
Once you’re done analyzing your signal you can export the visualization in PDF format or CSV. The ease with which this is done makes this one of the most cost-effective wifi analyzers on the market.This product is worth a try based on its excellent heatmap alone. There are a number of different pricing options available for NetSpot, and these start with the Home license for $49 (£37).
This offers two zones with 50 data points per zone but is limited to personal use. The Pro Version is licensed for commercial use and offers 50 zones with 500 data points per zone for $149 (£114). Larger organizations can buy the Enterprise version for $499 (£383) with unlimited zones and data points. There is also a limited free version of NetSpot you can download from this link. WiFi ExplorerFinally we have WiFi Explorer. WiFi Explorer is one of the most well-designed wifi analyzers for Mac.
WiFi Explorer captures all the information you need to monitor your network performance. Information you can monitor includes SSID, network name, vendor, country code, channel, security configuration, and streams. With the Professional version you can view results by SSID or access point to give you a more thorough look at what is going on.One of the most interesting features included with WiFi Explorer in the Pro version is spectrum analysis which allows you to create a graph of RF information and helps to point to interference from energy sources that aren’t 802.11-based. This allows you to diagnose whether your poor connectivity is due to interference rather than any performance issues with a device.There are a number of different versions of WiFi Explorer available to purchase. This starts with the Lite version which provides you with active scan modes and limited filtering abilities. The Standard Version is available for $19.99 (£153) and offers the same as the light version with more comprehensive filtering abilities and the ability to save scan results. The Professional version can be purchased for $99.99 (£76) and comes with active, passive and directed scan modes, advanced filtering, and SSID/Beacon overhead estimations.
You can download WiFi Explorer from this link. Best Wifi Analyzer Tools Verdict: SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor and NetSpotThe products on this list are the cream of the crop as far as the best wifi analyzer tools go. However, if you want to get the best experience we recommend that you go for a tool with a wifi heatmap.
A wifi heatmap from a product like SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor or NetSpot will allow you to take a geographical approach to troubleshooting. There are many scenarios where numbers on a screen won’t be able to give you the full picture.Being able to look at a heatmap and point to locations where the signal is weak tells you lots about your network that raw statistics won’t.
If you’re looking for a free network analyzer then Wireshark is a classic tool that will function in almost any networking environment. The filtering system will be able to cut out the white noise whether you’re dealing with five devices or 100.