I’m trying to get a better handle on what’s actually going on with my home Wi-Fi.
Regular speed tests are fine for a quick check, but I’m looking for something more useful for figuring out signal strength, consistency, weak spots around the house, stuff like that.
What do you guys actually use for this? Apps, desktop tools, whatever.
For Wi-Fi specifically, I’d start with a proper analyzer. NetSpot is solid for checking signal level, coverage, and nearby network overlap.
If you’re mostly on iPhone, Airport Utility is still handy for quick scanning. You just have to enable the Wi-Fi scanner in iPhone settings first.It’s not as full-featured as some dedicated tools, but for checking channel, RSSI, and nearby SSIDs, it’s decent.
If you’re trying to understand the whole house, heatmaps are honestly the most useful thing. Numbers are fine, but once you can actually see where signal drops and where interference gets worse, troubleshooting gets a lot easier. If you want to figure out whether your router or your ISP is to blame, run iPerf3 within your network. This way, you’ll directly test the speed between devices and immediately see if your Wi-Fi is lagging or if your internet is actually acting up.