Wireless Signal Strength Utility

I have done several searches on the forum and on the Internet but can't nail down a good tray utility that shows wireless signal strength. Ideally I would like a set of bars like I've seen on the Dell D800 computers.

Any ideas?

Mark

 

If all you want is a basic meter, that's part of the standard XP install. If you look at the properties of an active connection you should see the bars you're after. You can also get there by clicking on the active connection icon in the system tray.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Brian

 

Go to control panel, network connections. Open the wireless connection and check off the show icon option at the bottom.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

also you could use netstumbler this will tell you the signal noise, strength and other useful information.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

Yoy may not have the latest drivers either for Windows or your card if you still can't see the bar. I didn't see it until I had upgraded the firmware on my Netgear card. Honestly, the Windows strength bar isn't accurate and gives very little useful information. You would be much better with Netstumbler which provides statistical data.

 

I've done both of these but neither gives you are bar indicator in the tray.[ ]

Mark

 

netstumbler doesn't have a bar. you get the raw numbers.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

This thread hurts my brain. The original poster had a very specific, clear request (a /SYSTEM TRAY/ utility that displays wireless signal strength); I can't figure out how so many people can have misread (or simply not read) the question and posted such correct-but-unhelpfully-tangential replies.

I was looking for the same thing as the original poster earlier today, and found nothing suitable. Given that nobody here posted any pointers to a solution, I'm going to assume that such a thing simply doesn't exist. Disappointing, and surprising, since it seems such a useful tool in both monitoring and setting up a wireless interface. I'm fairly far away from my Access Point, and was surprised to discover just how directional my USB wireless adapter is. Simply flipping it on its side, or rotating it 15 degrees, can have a HUGE effect on the signal strength. And when the best signal strength you can hope for is about 40%, you'd be surprised how much of a difference 10% makes! (It's often the difference between being online and not, to be honest.) So, I really need a realtime monitor that will allow me to "aim" the adapter properly to get a signal.

The closest thing I have to a solution right now is the (fairly excellent, in my opinion) D-Link AirCfg.exe monitoring tool that comes with my adapter. It displays a signal strength graph in near-realtime, along with a numerical percentage that seems to have a resolution of 2%. (Much more useful than 5 bars, or the silly "Low", "Good", etc... labels.) The one downside is that I can only use AirCfg.exe if I disable Windows XP's handling of wireless connections, which means I have to keep extra tools/services running on my machine, and basically complicate the issue needlessly.

Does anyone know how difficult it would be to write a signal-strength monitoring utility for WinXP? Especially a generalized one that would work with any brand of wireless adapter, instead of being part of the vendor's tools? My ideal concept would be a system tray icon that displays a near-realtime view of the signal strength for a connected interface, regardless of vendor/chipset. Perhaps its default/standard display would show Microsoft's happy '5 bars' (and maybe a color coding?) but it would be possible to switch it into a mode which displayed either a MUCH higher-resolution graphical meter, or even just the numerical signal strength percentage, so that the wireless adapter can be repositioned simply by looking at the numbers in the system tray on the screen.

Hopefully the values in question are part of the standards, and would be available thru Microsoft's networking APIs instead of being vendor-specific. It'd be nice to have a generalized tool that could do this for any brand of adapter, without having to install vendor tools to do the job.

 

actually the stuff said is usefull:
A) use the windows XP bar graph
B) learn to read the number in netstumbler which will give you the most accurate view of your signal strength and how much noise is in the way.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856