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WiFi Explorer

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WiFi Explorer
Original author(s)Adrian Granados
Initial releaseJanuary 17, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-01-17)
Stable release
2.1 / December 15, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-12-15)
Preview release
2.0.3 / October 22, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-10-22)
Written inObjective-C
Operating systemOS X
Available inEnglish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
TypeWi-Fi network scanner
LicenseProprietary commercial software
Websitewww.wifiexplorer.net

WiFi Explorer is a wireless network scanner tool for OS X that can help users identify channel conflicts, overlapping and network configuration issues that may be affecting the connectivity or performance of IEEE 802.11 wireless networks.

History

WiFi Explorer began as a desktop alternative to WiFi Analyzer, an iPhone app for wireless network scanning that was pulled out from Apple's App Store in March, 2010 due to the use of private frameworks.[1][2] Since its first release, WiFi Explorer incorporated features that were not included in the last available version of WiFi Analyzer, such as support for 5 GHz networks and 40 MHz channel widths. Starting in version 1.5, WiFi Explorer includes support for 802.11ac networks, as well as 80 and 160 MHz channel widths.

Features

  • Displays various network parameters:
    • Network name (SSID) and MAC address (BSSID)
    • Manufacturer
    • AP name for certain Cisco and Aruba devices
    • Beacon interval
    • Mode (802.11a/b/g/n/ac)
    • Band (2.4 GHz ISM and 5 GHz UNII-1, 2, 2 Extended, and 3)
    • Channel width (20, 40, 80, and 160 MHz)
    • Secondary channel offset
    • Security mode (WEP, WPA, WPA2)
    • Support for Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
    • Supported basic, min and max data rates
    • Advertised 802.11 Information Elements
  • Graphical visualization of channel allocation, signal strength or Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)
  • Different sorting and filtering options
  • Displays signal strength and noise values as percentage or dBm
  • Ability to save and load results for later analysis
  • Metrics and network details can be exported to a CSV file format
  • Selectable and sortable columns
  • Adjustable graph timescales
  • Editable column for annotations, comments, etc.
  • Customizable network colors
  • Full screen mode
  • Comprehensive application's help

Limitations

Due to limitations of Apple's CoreWLAN framework,[3] WiFi Explorer is unable to detect hidden networks (except when associated) and does not support external (USB) wireless adapters.

System requirements

  • OS X 10.7 or higher (64-bit)

See also

  • iStumbler - An open source utility for finding wireless networks and devices in Mac OS X.
  • KisMAC - A wireless network discovery tool for Mac OS X.
  • Netspot - A Mac OS X tool for wireless networks assessment, scanning and surveys.

References