NetSpot for Windows 2.2.1.555

NetSpot for Windows is a professional program for office and home WiFi analysis, visualization and management on Windows computers. The free software features Survey and Discover troubleshooting modes to help you boost WiFi signals by making a few simple clicks. You can use it to visualize and survey any 802.11 WiFi network, and it supports all WiFi adapters.

Using NetSpot for Windows

The installer scanned our system for a few seconds before downloading and installing the program, and it immediately launched the software after installation. The user interface featured two tabs on the upper left part for selecting Discover and Survey modes respectively.

The program opened in Discover mode by default, which gave us a snapshot of WiFi networks in the vicinity. We waited for a couple of seconds for it to display comprehensive details about the networks found, including SSID, BSSID, channel, band, security, vendor, mode, level, signal, signal percentage, average, maximum, minimum, noise, noise percentage and when they were last seen. We could filter networks by their names (SSID) or MAC-addresses (BSSID) to display only the ones we were interested in. Clicking the table's header allowed us to configure the details displayed.

The list was updated every five, 10, 30 or 60 seconds depending on the interval we selected. We could pause the scanning process by clicking the 'Pause' button on the lower left corner of the program window. Clicking the button again resumed the scanning process.

The 'Details' button next to the 'Pause' button allowed us to see a live graph visualizing historical data. We could export the data into a CSV file. The details we received enabled us to determine the network that interfered with ours and the best network to use to boost the WiFi signal.

The Survey tab allowed us to create an interactive heatmap that helped us to determine the locations of access points relative to our position. We simply uploaded a floor plan and pointed our position on the map and then let the software take care of the rest. It displayed a signal-to-noise ratio heatmap, which was color coded to help us see the areas with weak signals. We could view the heatmap based on a particular network.

We got different reports from the drop-down menu on the lower toolbar, including Signal Level, Noise Level, Signal-to-Interference Ratio, Wireless Transmit Rate, Download and Upload rates and Quantity of Access Points. The program allowed us to export the heatmaps to PDF.

Conclusion

NetSpot for Windows is a handy program for discovering and analyzing WiFi networks quickly and easily. You can use the results to make necessary adjustments to boost WiFi signals for better reception.