Free tool for WiFi quality assessment

Question

I found this neat and dead-simple DIY project for boosting a WiFi AP's antenna range, and I was wondering how I could actually do a before/after benchmark.

Are there any free tools that could test the quality of a WiFi network? I'm thinking of walking around my appartment with my netbook in hand and eventually end up with a 'coverage map'.

Most searches I tried ended up in some wardriving tool or another - they don't seem to fit for my purpose, but correct me if I'm wrong.

What I'd like the tool to have (a subset is fine, but the more, the better): - show the instantaneous signal strength, and not just with a 1-5 bars resolution as Windows does. I want hard numbers.

• do a throughput test (U/L, D/L). For this, I guess I could use a 2nd computer on the same subnet, wired directly to the AP, and try a large file transfer.

• do a latency check on the local LAN

So, any suggestions?

Answer 1

I have always liked inSSIDer or Chanalyzer from MetaGeek.

Answer 2

iPerf, perhaps ?

Iperf was developed by NLANR/DAST as a modern alternative for measuring maximum TCP and UDP bandwidth performance. Iperf allows the tuning of various parameters and UDP characteristics. Iperf reports bandwidth, delay jitter, datagram loss.

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Xirrus WiFi tool is another option