Meta. Geek in. SSIDer Wi- Fi Helper Review & Rating. Meta. Geek, the maker of our Editors' Choice networking software utility in. SSIDer, traditionally makes software for techies. Its latest app, in. SSIDer Wi- Fi Helper (from $9. Wi- Fi networks for optimal performance. Free alternatives to NetStumbler including alternative tools that work with Windows Vista, Mac, Linux/FreeBSD, and handheld devices. Is there an open source alternative to inSSIDer? Windows 7 64-bit compatibility is required so NetStumbler. Wi- Fi Helper includes some of the best elements of the excellent in. SSIDer software and it offers some useful information, but it's a bit thin on specific advice about how to optimize a Wi- Fi network, and it has some other issues. What it Is and Where to Get it. Wi- Fi Helper analyzes your network's performance, then recommends the best router settings to help you perform tasks such as browsing the Internet or streaming HD video. You can perform these tests for every room in your home. For instance, if you have a home office, you may only need to browse the Web from that room. However, in the living area, where you may have an entertainment system, you'll likely want to stream HD video. The app provides insight and recommendations about your wireless network specific to each room in your house. Wi- Fi Helper is available for download from Meta. Geek. That's expensive, particularly when compared with Meta. Geek's original in. SSIDer software, which costs $1. Quite frankly, in. The John Hancock Vitality Program A new approach to life insurance that helps protect your financial future while rewarding you for living a healthy life. Linksys access point is better than cisco's wireless router!? I used the netstumbler to measure the signal strength. Cisco Designated VIP Program; Cisco. Any good program like network stumbler for linux? SSIDer Wi- Fi Helper does not offer much more functionality than the original in. SSIDer. Requirements and Setup. Currently, Wi- Fi Helper only runs on Windows (Vista, XP, 7, and 8). I'd love to see versions for mobile OSes and OS X, which would spur wider adoption. System requirements for running this app include at least an 8. GB RAM, and Microsoft's . NET 3. 5 framework. Of course, the computer running Wi- Fi Helper needs a Wi- Fi adapter. It could be an on- board adapter, a wireless PCI card for desktops, or a USB adapter. Meta. Geek recommends that the adapter be of the 8. The setup process is quick and simple, involving nothing more than clicking through a series of install steps, which puts a shortcut on your desktop. Using Wi- Fi Helper. The application's interface opens to a list of all wireless networks in proximity to the Wi- Fi adapter. A drop- down list on the home screen allows you to select your network's name (its SSID), the first step in kicking off the performance analysis. The program shows additional details about your network, including the channel, the MAC address of the access point, and the access point's manufacturer. Wi- Fi Helper correctly identified my test router as a Netgear device, for example. The most useful information—signal strength measured in d. Bm (Decibel- milliwatts)—also shows up on this page. This is a measure of the signal strength from your router or access point. It's generally a negative; the closer to zero that number is, the stronger the signal. I selected my SSID, and then—the fun part—I selected different rooms in my home from a drop- down menu named Location. A drop- down menu offers the choices of Web only; Web and Audio; Web, Audio, and Video; or all Web, Audio, and HD Video. For testing, I set my location as Office (my living room serves double- duty as an office space). Next, I set my usage to Web only. I then clicked the Scan button at the bottom of the screen. Scanning completed in 1. Unfortunately, the text was a bit hard to read on my screen. The 3 rendered in a weird font. Next to this number, I saw a long, solid green bar, also representing signal strength. More information is provided by clicking on the Recommend button at the bottom of the screen; this triggers the third step in the analysis, where the app gives suggestions for making your connection better and checks to see if you already have these settings for your network. The program recommended that I set my router to use channel 1, (the least- crowded channel in my wireless environment, according to in. SSIDer), and that I use WPA2 security. I already had these configurations in place, which Wi- Fi Helper indicated. I noticed some issues with the view in this screen, as well. Also handy: Wi- Fi Helper associates each recommendation with a score, a feature in Meta. Geek's other Wi- Fi analyzers. The higher the score, the better your wireless signal should be if you follow the software's suggestion. I know from working with Meta. Geek's previous products that there are no details on what the score means or how it's derived, which is unfortunate, since it could help users better understand how to optimize their networks. After the recommendation process, you click the Verify button at the bottom of the screen. When you click the button you get a progress bar, and the message . However, the software is not really measuring wireless throughput; it's actually just measuring Internet bandwidth. I wish the software made it clearer that this is a test for bandwidth, not wireless throughput. Throughput is the measurement of your internal wireless network traffic and not your Internet speed. Your Internet speed has a set maximum bandwidth rate determined by your service level with your ISP. However, your access to the Internet, and thereby download and upload speeds, could be affected as you move further away from your router. This is usually because your tablet, laptop, or other wireless device is too far away to connect to your wireless network to get Internet access. It has little to do with your Internet bandwidth. Having the software measure throughput would also be useful for those who want to stream media within the network—for example, from a set- top box such as a Roku or a Google Chromecast. To prove my point, I verified my bandwidth using Wi- Fi Helper and compared those results with Ookla's Speedtest. AT& T's online Internet speed testing tool. All tests were performed consecutively on the same laptop and the same connection, Testing was performed using cable broadband with a service level of 2. Mbps download speed, and 2. Mbps up. As you can see, Wi- Fi Helper registered higher download bandwidth than the other utilities, but all clocked about the same upload speed. Again, this is Internet speed, not wireless throughput. There isn't that much you can do to boost your existing Internet connection. The final step in Wi- Fi analysis is clicking the Summary button. This shows details about your wireless network (such as its encryption level), recaps the recommendation from the previous steps, and also gives you a general review of your network connection. Since I already had all of the existing recommendations in place, in. SSIDer Wi- Fi Helper returned an analysis of . Even after entering a custom location, the software doesn't save that location when you finish the analysis or if you close the app. In fact, none of the data can be saved—neither the signal strength nor the speed- test results. Since the software's purpose is to compare wireless performance between different areas in a home, it would be useful if you could save the data for before and after tweaking network settings for comparisons and also to track network performance over time. I also would prefer if the software expanded its list of usage scenarios. While the average home user is probably most concerned with HD video streaming performance, it would be helpful to include optimization recommendations for, say, Vo. IP for home offices or gaming traffic. Not Metageek's Best. Wireless analysis is tricky. Even with its flaws, in. SSIDer's Wi- Fi Helper is more useful than Net. Hero, another app that attempts to help you troubleshoot network issues. Novices using Wi- Fi Helper may be confused by the signal- strength numbers and bar graph the software uses to visualize wireless strength (not to mention the hard- to- read parts). Netgear's app also allows you add, edit, and save rooms as you analyze Wi- Fi around your home. It also allows you to filter views limited to the 2. GHz or 5. GHz bands. And the Netgear app doesn't just tell you the best wireless channel to operate your router on, but the worst, too. Wi- Fi Helper's best features—signal- strength detection, scoring, and channel recommendation—are features already found in its excellent in. SSIDer, which is less expensive, offers more information, and, while it may be trickier for Wi- Fi noobs to use, is not that difficult to learn. Wi- Fi Helper gets a decent score, but that's only because of the elements it borrows from in. SSIDer, our Editors' Choice for networking utilities.
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