Somehow they can get the equipment to actually display signals from stuff that is not wifi. The ubiquiti airview you see on their hardware is very different. I suspect it actually can and does detect these signals but the manufacture have locked these chipsets down that you can not get that information. A wifi radio chipset does not have the ability to detect these. You also have extremely strong signals like weather radar on some areas of the 5g band. Very common ones used to be things like cordless phones but you see baby monitor and even drones using them. There are massive numbers of device than run on the same radio frequencies that will block wifi but because they do not use wifi protocols. BUT even this does not give you a full picture. This will allow you to see the traffic from end devices. Only a small number of chipset support this. Now on some PC software, ie linux based, you can set the wifi chipset into promiscuous mode. It does not see routers that are configured to not send beacon messages for example. All these tools really do is give you lists of route beacon messages it sees. This is even more restrictive on a android platform where everything is locked down.Īny software solution you find is just repackaging the same data you see on the built in network availability tools. Things like wifi6 are using 160mhz radio bands which is 8 of the so called bands you see in a 5g wifi setting.Ĭlick to expand.Pretty much garbage compared to any form of true spectrum analyzer. You will likely find every channel is being used fairly heavily. I suspect in the end you are going to be somewhat disappointed. The largest problem with wifi is the random interference that comes and goes with someone else's random usage. You would need something that had a long term log/graph of some kind. The big problem is it does not really identify random transmissions that happen at random times very well. A spectrum analyzer like ubiquiti show the amount of engery which is a indicator that it is actually being used. They do not actually show how many devices are connected and how much usage they have. The problem with the scanners on cell phones is they only show the announce messages from the router. The other thing it kinda shows is how much usage there is. I was surprised to find that the radios that run on the new fancy power meters are running on 2.4g. Things like baby monitors and security cameras and even microwave ovens if you are close enough. The ubiquti does unlike the silly scanners that run on a cell phone show you stuff that is not wifi. I have a extremely old unit so I don't know if the newer ones have more features. I agree the ubiquiti airview stuff is going to be your cheapest option. I can and will continue slogging through my research but seems to me there are folks here who may have "been there-done that" experience Just have not used any lab grade equipment in the last 20 years so Google searches yield way too many devices or software's. My $$$ squeal point is anything above $150īackground: 68 years old 35 as KD5NCO HAM, 30 years Army aircraft electrical professional, car nut, and not at all intimidated by electronics and tech jargon. I actually am not adverse to buying a true spectrum type analyzer if it could provide home network WiFi channel information and not just signal strength by frequency. This would help me prioritize channels and bands for my devices ( multiple 4K Smart TVs, 5 computers, 3 tablets, 2 cell phones, and a bunch of 2.4 only or dual band smart home devices) Ideally I could walk the building and acreage with a cell phone and note frequency and Db in a survey to see what IS and what channels to avoid as well as being a good neighbor to those surrounding me ( many of my new devices can adjust the radio signal strength) Desired information is the current hash of all 50 of my devices and the distant neighbors RF my network can see as locked or hidden. I have used a few of the free Apps like WiFi Analyzer and KAIBITS they do OK but I wand something free or cheap that is closer to a true 5Ghz and 2 Ghz spectrum analyzer/detector. I am getting a new ISP soon and have bought a lot of newer 3 band routers, extenders, and out door AP. I have a complicated working network on 2.5 rural acres managing internet access to main house and 2 100foot+ away all metal buildings/shops.
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