A while a go Wil asked the question:
“Is there a tool available in Windows 7 to check and measure wireless signal strength. It would show where your weak areas and dead spots are, using whatever card is built into the PC. Thanks”
We actually have had our own tool to do this internally for a while. This week we polished it up and got it ready for you to put on your flash drive 🙂
It is a single EXE that does not need an install.
When you launch it, it will default to the first card it finds and show you a list of all the networks it sees:
If you are in a crowded area, you can easily narrow down the network names shown by just typing in the filter box at the bottom:
You can also export the list to a CSV file by clicking the export button:
It is a free download for personal and commercial use. You can find it in our download section:
One more thing…Subscribe to my newsletter and get 11 free network administrator tools, plus a 30 page user guide so you can get the most out of them. Click Here to get your free tools
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Great little utility, as always.
Got a question. On my 2003 box it is giving me an error that it is missing a DLL named “wlanapi.dll”. How can I get it to work?
Hi Mike,
This is because MS never included the wireless management API with 2003….and I don’t think they ever plan to.
One way around it is to copy the wlanapi.dll (I believe it is in c:\windows\system32) from an XP SP2 or greater machine and put it in the same folder as the app…in addition if you are seeing this on Windows XP, this update will get that DLL for you:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918997
Steve
Very good utility, easy to install and easy to use. But I have one question, why do I see my network twice ?
It could be that your Access point is broadcasting two different network types…B and N. Sometimes these are picked up by the windows subsystem as two distinct networks…or it could be a bug in the Windows API 🙂
Update:
This is a bug in the API. Looks like other developers get around this by making sure only unique SSIDs show up on the list. We don’t want to do that since you might want to see both when there really is two. We are looking for a way to pull the MAC address of the network…that way we will know if it is the same one.
Update 2:
We found a way to pull the MAC address of the access point, and this issue has been resolved. Just download from here to get the fixed version:
http://www.intelliadmin.com/WiFiStrength.exe
This new version will also show you the MAC address of the AP.
Also…compatibility with this tool is Windows XP SP3 or higher. All above Vista are supported, and 2003 needs to have that DLL copied over if you need it on that platform (See my other comment)
Thanks for taking the time to let us know about this – really appreciate it.
Steve
This is a very cool application. You guys always come up with some cool things.
Have you ever thought about adding all of these as side additions to the Intelli-Administrator ?
I know you add some of them, but why not add all of the ones you make ?
Awesome tool! Thank you for creating this!
We are working on it. In fact almost every one of these tools has this in mind. The problem right now is the execution engine, and some of the plugin systems within Network Administrator are quite limited – so we need to resolve that first.
First up is the execution engine…a new one will be in place in just a few weeks. Part of that engine is in the cron utility. Once we get that running there will be more possibilities 🙂
Keep an eye on our blog for updates…or just sign up for the newsletter and you will get notified when it happens.
Steve
Thank you very much. Never seen such a fast customer service. I like the “New and Improved” version.
Thanks for sharing your creations.
Whether I find them useful for my specific purposes or not, I can’t help to appreciate your hard work and time invested on this amazing tools.
So once again, thank you very much.
Totally non-related: Will you ever update the year on the copyright notice at the foot of this page? =)
You are right…the copyright is out of date! Fixed. Thanks for letting us know 😉
Steve
Steve, Thanks so much for the WiFi Strenght utility, it is great and just what the doctor ordered. I didn’t think anyone was looking at or taking any actions on the emails sent. I will share this and your site with my co-workers.
Again Thanks,
Wil
I live in a crowded high rise building. Thare are many wireless routers operating. Beside the wireless strength, it would be nice to know which frequency and which channel each of them is using. This is so that I can find a non-overlapping channel to avoid conflict and get better throughput performance.
When I run program, it shows only one router and network icon program on XP laptop computer shows 7 wireless routers in range. Refresh does not help. Only one card. Why?
Great utility that gives great information! However, is there a way to log the signal strength over time? We have some interference in one area of our office suite and I would like to track how signal strength is impacted over a period of time. Thanks for your hard work!
Hi Vincent,
That is a great question. We will look into this for the next version.
Dear Sir/Madam —
Tried to download your wireless signal strength meter for Windows unsuccessfully. Entered name and email address. Clicked Download. Page opened that said I’d receive download shortly. No download.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks,
David
Send us an email at support@intelliadmin.com and I will get you a direct link.
Thanks,
Steve
Please send me the link
I have windows XP
This is a very useful little utility, but I do have one question. I see two wireless links (which is correct) one is 100%, the other 76%.
My question: a percentage of what?
Regards
That is the signal strength. It would be the same when you see the wireless icon….5 bars = 100%…so now thinking about it…it might be better to show a strength meter instead of an actual percentage.
Yes – a proper strength meter would be more useful.
Hi Steve:
I just download the Signal Strength Meter again today. It shows all fields as blank on my Vista machine but correctly shows the network on my Windows 7 machine. I know that this did work at one point and wonder if you have any suggestions.
Thanks,
David
OOPs!
Regarding the above – about two months ago I hardwired the Vista machine to my router – thus no wireless signal.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
Regards,
David
I downloaded “wifistrength.exe”
My INTERNAL works great.
My EXTERNAL “Intel Advanced N 6250 AGN Adapter” does not.
What do I do?
Thanks,
Bill
earnist@juno.com
Hi Bill,
Not much we can do about it. It probably is because the external adapter is not supported by the MS Wi-Fi API that allows us to get this info.
Thanks,
Steve
Is it possible to run this app from an iphone?
Thanks so much.
Hi William,
No it is windows only. It would be nice to have an app like that for the iPhone. Not sure if the Apple store would allow it since I think you need raw access to the wireless interface on the iPhone.
I was able to download the file from the link sent by your automatic email by striping off the access code. How do I convert the signal strength % to a real unit such as dB and get other signal quality info such as S/N similar to what I get from netstumbler. Knowing the data rate of the connection would be helpful if that is the best that can be done. I am here because netstumbler does not work with the WiFi adapter I have and some type of signal quality indication is needed. I also notice that your display does not include all of the observations seen by clicking on the signal strength indicator in the windows task bar and that while you show a %, it is VERY coarsely graduated. NO GOOD for aligning or evaluating an antenna..
Curious if the Wireless Strength program could display dB as well as percentage?
Thank you downloaded and installed fine.
Runs as expected, but
I have 3 network cards.
All 802.11n USB wireless Lan cards.
(they appear in the dropdown box as #15 and #16 etc.) But when i try and obtain info from the second and third cards by using the drop down box, no update takes place and I just continue to get the info for the initial card as when the program initially runs
Hi Tim,
Good catch. Here is an updated version:
http://ftp.intelliadmin.com/release/wifistrength.exe
This version should have a 2015 build number on it…so verify that it does. I tested it on a machine with two wireless cards and it does look like the issue is fixed.
Thanks,
Steve
doesnt seek to find my network card (belkin wireless g plus mimo notebook card)