How are we supposed to read 5GHz WiFi signal strength bands?

It's awfully pretty.

I think it means "LIfe is empty and the only true solace is in technology."

No. But it's awfully purty. Maybe a museum would want to display it

A strange thing. The image above displayed just fine at first and for at least a couple minutes, and I went and did something else, but later when I looked at the tab, it was all black. When I reloaded, I got the message. "The image

cannot be dsplayed because it contains errors". I checked the spelling.

You didn't change the image in the 15 minutes preceding the current time, did you?

When I clicked on the link above just now, got the same black screen with one line error message at the top, as above.

Tried again just now, 14 minutes later, and it worked just fine. Maybe because I had closed the two tabs with error messages?

It got misdirected from a disco gobo.

CEG,

Puzzling that your graph or chart on the right does not have a labelled "x" axis. What is it showing? If it is meant to be like the chart on the left then that suggests that you do not have anything but noise at 5 gHz. Looks like a lot of noise.

Dave M.

You could start by choosing the same graph format for both images and then actually choosing the 5Ghz one for the one on the right (hint no 5G displayed)

While viewing the 2.4GHz chart, tap the screen once. You'll see a freq band indicator over on the left, near the -db scale. If you do nothing, the freq indicator times out and disappears again, but if you tap it while it's visible, the screen switches to the 5GHz band.

What you're calling the 5GHz chart is really just another view of the 2.4GHz chart. You *swiped* to get there. You need to tap.

CEG,

Puzzling that your graph or chart on the right does not have a labelled "x" axis. What is it showing? If it is meant to be like the chart on the left then that suggests that you do not have anything but noise at 5 gHz. Looks like a lot of noise.

Dave M.

Carefully. LOL

No, it's not. We've been through this before. If your smartphone supports 5GHz wi-fi, Wi-Fi Analyzer will produce a square box, near the upper left hand corner of the screen, just below the "W" in "WiFi Analyzer" with either 2.4G or 5G inside the box. The problem is that the box disappears. Tap that area and the box will magically appear. Tap it again to toggle modes. Also, if you're looking at 5G and no SSID's are showing, the program will magically switch back to 2.4G.

The mess you were looking at on the right is the signal strength versus time graphs. Too bad the author of WiFi Analyzer didn't bother adding page titles.

You're not done yet. I've noticed that several "smart" devices, such as cheapo cell phone and tabloids, that are allegedly dual band, turn off the unused band when connected to an access point. The result is that WiFi Analyzer pretends that there's no 5G in the device. Disconnecting from your access point should solve that problem.

Also, there's something wrong with your Comcast connection. Your download speed is fine, but you should be getting about 12 Mbits/sec upstream. At least that's what I've been seeing at various customers. Winner of the highest residential speed award so far was about 160/30 in Felton with a Comcast Cisco DPC3939: There's suitable conspiracy here, but I promised not to tell.

Leak of the week (which means you didn't read this here): Comcast Business class will also get a boost in speed on Thurs, Aug 27. Reboot your modems in order to see the improvement. I pried this out of a Comcast installer last week. If it doesn't happen on time, I'll claim that this was a forgery and that I never said it.

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Nope. Apple has decided that you should not be allowed to install wi-fi sniffer, monitor, and troubleshooting applications on Apple handsets. Apple knows what is best for you. This is typical: Limitations like this is why I gave up on IOS long ago.

Of course, that's why people jailbreak their iPhones. Try the Cydia store on your jailbroken iThing: Firing up my ancient iPhone 3G (jailbroken), I find

- yFyLite Network Finder and nothing else. There might be something newer. I just ran Cydia to see if there's anything new, and it's furiously updating packages and indexes. Yawn... Argh, this thing is slow. How could I ever have used it? The Cydia listing shows a huge list of WiFi related utilities. A few are similar to WiFi Analyzer. The others are connection managers and password managers. Most are useless tweaks changing the stock signal stength icon to something more interesting. One I recall from long ago is WiFiFoFum with its goofy radar like display.

Of course, if you have a laptop, Apple allows Wi-Fi monitoring for OS/X: Any semblance to hypocrisy is hopefully coincidental.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Works for me.

Anyway, I can't make any sense out of the 5GHz graph, so, I was hoping someone who knew what it means would chime in.

None that I know of. The app is the freeware "WiFi Analyzer".

At home, with only a handful of 5GHz WiFi signals, the chart is easy to read, and you are correct, the graphs are color coded to the access points (ESSIDs) in the boxes at the top, and the upper squiggles are of greater signal strength.

BTW, why do so many people use HOME as the prefix to their SSID's?

At home, I can see better what is going on.

The 5GHz graph from Wifi Analyzer freeware has signal strength on the Y axis (-30dBm at the top line, then -40dBm, -50dBm, -60dBm, -70dBm,

-80dBm, and -90dBm on the first line above the x axis, where the y intercept must be at -100dBm Signal Strength.

The X axis isn't labeled, but it must just be time since I can watch the graphs grow from one side to the other in about two minutes time.

I don't think you get any option to choose anything, least of all the graph format.

Oooooooooooooh. I *did* swipe to see what I was calling the 5GHz chart! (How did you know?)

I see now, that it's the *same* chart, only over time instead of over frequency! (slaps head ... duh) It was just frequency versus time for the x axis between the two charts. (embarrassed).

I see I have 5 options for viewing that 2.4GHz chart:

1. Channel graph
2. Time graph
3. Channel rating
4. AP list
5. Signal meter

If I *tap* at the top left (near the top of the y axis), then I see a box with "2G" and "5G" alternatively, as I tap that box.

Geeeeeeez. I feel stoooopid.

I only just now realized that what you are saying it totally correct! I was wrong. I misinterpreted what I was seeing. And that's why it confused me.

Now I see that, since I have far fewer access points at home.

When I tap the top left, I do get a 5G and a 2G box, alternating with each other. So, WiFi Analyzer does seem to see both.

That's interesting. It's the kid's Comcast setup. I'm at home now, so, I can't test it. But they get about 90 down on 5GHz and about 5 or 6 up.

On 2.4GHz, they get only about 30 down and about 5 or 6 up.

The "service", as I recall, is nominally 45 down and 5 up. So, should they really be getting double the upload speeds?

Should we complain to Comcast since it's at least 5Gbps?

I wonder what "Business Class" is. Are these kids in Business Class? It's an apartment building with a lot of kids in it (all from the school) but it's an off-campus building.

Jeff is correct. On iOS, you are screwed unless you jailbreak it to make it functional. But OS/X should work, as would any other operating system not iOS.