Best WiFi Heatmap Tools
EQUIPPED WITH THE BEST TOOLS LIKE NETSPOT WIFI HEATMAP SOFTWARE, YOU CAN QUICKLY & EASILY DISCOVER AREAS OF SIGNAL WEAKNESS AND IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR WIFI NETWORK. IN THIS ARTICLE, WE EXPLAIN HOW SUCH SOFTWARE WORKS AND RECOMMEND THE BEST OPTIONS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE.
If you’ve never heard the term “WiFi heatmap” before, then keep on reading because you’re about to learn what WiFi heatmaps are, how they are used, and how you create them yourself without any special skills or expert knowledge using readily available software tools.
What Is a WiFi Heatmap?
A WiFi heatmap is a map of wireless signal coverage and strength. Typically, a WiFi heatmap shows a real map of a room, floor, or even a city overlaid by a graphical representation of a wireless signal.
Professional network administrators and regular home users alike use WiFi heatmaps to find dead zones and make adjustments to achieve the desired coverage. Without a heatmap, wireless network optimization involves a lot of guesswork, which is why most people who are not aware of the existence of WiFi heatmap software never manage to achieve the WiFi coverage they would like to have.
WiFi heatmap software fully automates the process of mapping WiFi coverage on a map, allowing anyone to create a WiFi heatmap in a matter of minutes just by walking from one place to the next until the entire area is mapped.
How Do WiFi Heatmaps Work?
We’ve explained that a WiFi heatmap is a map of a wireless signal, but how does WiFi heat mapping software create it? While there are many different WiFi heatmappers to choose from, the process is usually fairly similar.
A user equipped with a laptop or smartphone with a WiFi heat map software application enters the premises and either loads up an existing map of the area or creates one from scratch. He or she then begins the heat mapping processing, carrying the laptop or smartphone from one location to the next, recording where WiFi is working well and where the signal is too weak for web pages to load quickly.
After analyzing the gathered data, the WiFi heat map software application creates a map overlaid with traffic light-style color spectrum, showing areas of the greatest signal strength as well as the greatest signal weakness. The color green usually indicates a good signal strength, while the color red indicates poor signal strength.
Besides WiFi strength heatmaps, most WiFi heatmappers can also create other visualizations and capture all kinds of information, ranging from signal-to-noise ratio to noise level to frequency band coverage.
You might now be thinking, “WiFi heatmapping sounds like a lot of work. Is it really worth the effort?” Well, WiFi heatmapping is actually a straightforward process that you can easily accomplish with just a few clicks using one of the best WiFi heatmap software tools described below. Whether it’s worth the effort depends on how important fast and reliable WiFi is to you.
If you have a home or office WiFi network, you probably depend on it every day so optimizing it for best performance and eliminating signal weak spots is definitely worth the little effort it takes to run a modern free WiFi heat mapping software application.
What Is the Purpose of Creating a WiFi Heatmap?
The purpose of creating a WiFi heatmap is to obtain accurate information about the quality of coverage of a WiFi network. As you may know, WiFi coverage is affected by many different factors, including:
- Your WiFi router: There are many different WiFi routers, and the quality of coverage they provide varies greatly. You can’t reasonably expect a budget WiFi router to cover a large home or office building with a strong WiFi signal no matter how well you position or configure it. A WiFi heatmapping tool can help you understand the limitations of your WiFi router and decide if you should get a new one. Modern WiFi routers have plenty of useful features intended to improve your online experience, so upgrading once in a few years is typically always a good decision.
- Other WiFi networks: Being stuck in traffic on your way to work is no fun, especially if you’re in a hurry and need to get there as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, something similar can happen to you when surfing the web, downloading files from the internet, or video chatting with friends because digital traffic jams can occur when too many WiFi networks in the same area broadcast on the same frequency and channel. Using a WiFi heatmapping software application, you can visualize frequency band coverage and configure your router accordingly.
- Physical obstacles: Your WiFi signal doesn’t like physical obstacles, especially those that are dense and thick, such as walls or large furniture. Materials like metal can also have a significant impact on your wireless signal, which is why you should never install a WiFi router near metal appliances. In extreme cases, physical obstacles can create dead zones, which can be clearly seen on a WiFi heatmap. Unfortunately, not all physical obstacles can be easily removed. You can, however, always improve your WiFi signal by installing a WiFi extender or additional router.
- RF interference:Radio frequency interference, also called electromagnetic interference, refers to the disturbances in the WiFi frequency spectrum (usually 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) caused by RF-emitting devices. Such devices include cordless phones, mobile phones, microwave ovens, medical scanner, baby monitors, wireless security cameras, and, of course, WiFi routers themselves. RF interference can manifest itself on a WiFi heat map as an area of signal weakness, and it typically correlates with the presence of some electronic device.
- Router configuration: Your WiFi router has many different settings that you can change to improve the quality of its signal. The main setting you should pay attention to is your WiFi channel. In the 2.4 GHz band, there are 11 channels (at least in North America), with channels 1, 6, and 11 being the only non-overlapping channels. You should also pay attention to your router security settings, because the last thing you want is to let other people use your internet connection without your approval. Most WiFi heat map software solutions can gather information about the configuration of your router, as well as other routers in the area.
Top 5 Best WiFi Heatmap Software Tools
Great WiFi heatmap software tools are actually not that easy to find. To help you out, we have selected 5 best heatmap tools currently available so you can get most from your WiFi network as soon as possible.
NetSpot — is the only heatmap software tool designed to satisfy the needs of professional and home users alike.
Ekahau HeatMapper — is no-frills WiFi heatmap software with support for 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi networks and a simple user interface.
Acrylic Wi-Fi Heatmaps — you can turn your personal computer or laptop into an advanced wireless network analysis tool to get a detailed overview of the wireless landscape around you.
AirMagnet Survey PRO — supports all WiFi network standards and surprises with its large number of supported features.
WiFi Map — как найти доступный Wi-Fi в любом городе мира
Если бы я узнал об этой программе чуть раньше, это сильно облегчило бы поиск бесплатного Wi-Fi в тех городах, что приходилось посещать в различных поездках. WiFI Map — это карта Wi-Fi-точек по всему миру. Причем в базе вы найдете как общедоступные Wi-Fi-точки (без пароля), так и закрытые сети (с указанием пароля). Именно это делает программу очень ценной.
При этом программа умеет работать в offline-режиме. Просто задайте в поиске тот город, что вы планируете посетить, откройте результат поиска и в дальнейшем можете работать с Wi-Fi-точками этого города без подключения к интернету.
В базе данных программы больше 100 миллионов Wi-Fi-точек по всему миру. Такое большое количество было бы невозможным без помощи пользователей. Они добавляют в программу найденные Wi-Fi точки (открытие и с найденным паролем). Зашел в кафе, узнал пароль, внес точку в программу. Можно самостоятельно нанести на карту собственную Wi-Fi-сеть. Именно социальная составляющая WiFi Map делает ее такой полезной.
Но есть и минусы. Ряд оффлайновых карт городов могут быть платными (мне пока не попадались). Возможно, эта проблема решается регистрацией в программе. Второй минус — пароли могут быть неправильные. Это нормально, так как некоторые регулярно меняют пароли на Wi-Fi-точках (особенно это касается кафе, отелей и тому подобных заведений). Третий минус — в программе используются Google Карты. Возможности смены карты не предусмотрено. Ну и наконец, эта программа не взламывает пароли. Такую возможность почему-то ищут некоторые пользователи.
Напоминаю, что WiFi Map — это не программа для взлома паролей, и не приложение по поиску доступных беспроводных сетей в округе, а программа, собирающая данные о WiFi-точках, которые добавляют сами пользователи.