Wifi Program For Mac

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If you've followed the steps to connect your Mac to a Wi-Fi network, but the connection to your network or the Internet isn't reliable, the steps in this article might help.

Check for Wi-Fi recommendations

When your Mac tries to connect to a Wi-Fi network, it checks for issues that affect its ability to create a fast, stable, and secure connection. If an issue is detected, the Wi-Fi status menu in the menu bar shows a new item: Wi-Fi Recommendations. Choose it to see recommended solutions.

WiFi can be the most convenient way to connect to the Internet, but it’s not occasionally without its difficulties – possibly problems with your Internet Service Provider, the local access point (i.e. Your router or hub), or other technical issues (hardware or software) with the Mac.

Wi-Fi recommendations are available in macOS Sierra or later.

Analyze your wireless environment

Your Mac can use Wireless Diagnostics to perform additional analysis.

  1. Quit any apps that are open, and connect to your Wi-Fi network, if possible.
  2. Press and hold Option (Alt) ⌥ key, then choose Open Wireless Diagnostics from the Wi-Fi status menu .
  3. Enter your administrator name and password when prompted.

Wireless Diagnostics begins analyzing your wireless environment:

If the issue is intermittent, you can choose to monitor your Wi-Fi connection:


When you're ready to see recommendations, continue to the summary. Wireless Diagnostics asks for optional information about your base station or other router, so that it can include that in the report it saves to your Mac.

Click the info button next to each item in the summary to see details about that item. Wi-Fi best practices are tips that apply to most Wi-Fi networks.


Back up or make note of your network or router settings before changing them based on these recommendations—in case you need to use those settings again.

Monitor your Wi-Fi connection

Your Mac can monitor your Wi-Fi connection for intermittent issues, such as dropped connections. Follow the steps to analyze your wireless environment, but choose ”Monitor my Wi-Fi connection” when prompted.

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During monitoring, a window shows that monitoring is in progress. Monitoring continues as long as this window is open and you're on the same Wi-Fi network, even when your Mac is asleep.

If Wireless Diagnostics finds an issue, it stops monitoring and shows a brief description of the issue. You can then resume monitoring or continue to the summary for details and recommendations.

Create a diagnostics report

Wireless Diagnostics automatically saves a diagnostics report before it displays its summary. You can create the same report at any time: press and hold the Option key, then choose Create Diagnostics Report from the Wi-Fi status menu . It can take your Mac several minutes to create the report.

  • macOS Sierra and later saves the report to the /var/tmp folder of your startup drive, then opens that folder for you.
    To open the folder manually, choose Go > Go to Folder from the Finder menu bar, then enter /var/tmp.
  • OS X El Capitan or earlier saves the report to your desktop.

The report is a compressed file with a name that begins “WirelessDiagnostics.” It contains many files that describe your wireless environment in detail. A network specialist can examine them for further analysis.

Use other diagnostics utilities

Wireless Diagnostics includes additional utilities for network specialists. Open them from the Window menu in the Wireless Diagnostics menu bar:

  • Info gathers key details about your current network connections.
  • Logs enables background logging for Wi-Fi and other system components. The result is saved to a .log file in the diagnostics report location your Mac. Logging continues even when you quit the app or restart your Mac, so remember to disable logging when you're done.
  • Scan finds Wi-Fi routers in your environment and gathers key details about them.
  • Performance uses live graphs to show the performance of your Wi-Fi connection:
    • Rate shows the transmit rate over time in megabits per second.
    • Quality shows the signal-to-noise ratio over time. When the quality is too low, your device disconnects from the Wi-Fi router. Factors that affect quality include the distance between your device and the router, and objects such as walls that impede the signal from your router. Learn more.
    • Signal shows both signal (RSSI) and noise measurements over time. You want RSSI to be high and noise to be low, so the bigger the gap between RSSI and noise, the better.
  • Sniffer captures traffic on your Wi-Fi connection, which can be useful when diagnosing a reproducible issue. Select a channel and width, then click Start to begin capturing traffic on that channel. When you click Stop, a .wcap file is saved to the diagnostics report location on your Mac.

Learn more

Additional recommendations for best Wi-Fi performance:

  • Keep your router up to date. For AirPort Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme, or AirPort Express Base Station, check for the latest firmware using AirPort Utility. For non-Apple routers, check the manufacturer's website.
  • Set up your router using Apple's recommended settings, and make sure that all Wi–Fi routers on the same network use similar settings. If you're using a dual-band Wi-Fi router, make sure that both bands use the same network name.
  • Learn about potential sources of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interference.

Learn about other ways to connect to the Internet.

Anyone who owns a Mac is probably familiar with the ease with which AirPort operates. It seems to do a good job of automatically finding and connecting to the best available network in a given area, and switching between networks is simple.

Even so, AirPort doesn’t give you a lot of extra information about the networks located near your Mac. The signal strength is represented by a simple icon, and information like signal-noise ratio, security and connection type isn’t available at a glance. If you’re looking for this information – and more – you’ll want to consider a free Mac wifi scanner.

WiFi Scanner

This creatively named software does exactly what it advertises. When opened, it automatically scans nearby airwaves for WiFi signals. You’ll find that WiFi Scanner provides a lot more information than normally available through your Apple computer. The categories of information that you’ll be provided with include channel, MAC addressHow To Setup Wake On LAN Using The MAC AddressHow To Setup Wake On LAN Using The MAC AddressRead More, wireless standard, received signal strength, noise, signal-noise ratio, and the encryption method being used to provide securityHow To Secure Your Wireless Network ConnectionHow To Secure Your Wireless Network ConnectionRead More. WiFi Scanner will also let you know if a detected network is an ad-hoc (IBSS) network.

For the most part, WiFi Scanner is used simply to find networks and provide information about their signal strength, security and connectivity. However, you can use the program to easily create a ad-hoc network by clicking the Create IBSS button. You’ll then be prompted to enter a name and password. You can, as you might have guessed, join any network listed by using the Join button. WiFi Scanner can utilize saved password information from your Mac Keychain – provided you feel comfortable giving the software permission.

KisMAC

As this program’s devilish icon indicates, KisMAC isn’t just a WiFi scanner. This program is a heavy-duty WiFi security and crackingHow People Are Hacking Wireless Networks & How To Protect YourselfHow People Are Hacking Wireless Networks & How To Protect YourselfRead More application that can be used for a wide variety of tasks. However, it also works just fine as a WiFi scanner.

The information provided by KisMAC includes channel, SSID, MAC address, encryption method, current, average and maximum signal strength and the date the wireless network was last encountered. It also includes information fields called Packets and Data, but these are not directly related to using KisMAC as a WiFi scanner. You can also view the signal strength of nearby networks on a graph by clicking the second icon from the left at the bottom of KisMAC. Just be warned that this graph can be rather busy in an area saturated with WiFi.

One of the more interesting features of KisMAC is the ability to display networks on a map if you have a GPS. This can take some time, and it requires a lot of advanced setup and, of course, a GPS device that is capable of connecting to your Mac. Additional information about this feature can be found in the Kismet Wireless FAQ.

Conclusion

Program

Although KisMAC has been called the ultimate WiFi scanner, I believe that title is probably related to the many things it can do which are not really WiFi scanning at all, such as cracking WiFi encryption and finding hidden networks. KisMAC is amazing software that can do a lot of things, some of which are of questionable legality, but it isn’t for users who want something quick and simple.

WiFI Scanner, on the other hand, is easy to use. All you have to do is open the program. You don’t even have to press any buttons – the program automatically begins scanning at the default setting of five second intervals. The information that it provides is quite robust, as well, so you can use WiFi Scanner to find the best network in an area just as easily as KisMAC.

Set Up Wifi On Mac

The programs both detected the same networks and reported the same signal strengths, which is really as it should be, as both programs are shifting information from the same wireless card. I suggest you try both and see which works best for you.