Ekahau HeatMapper is a free Windows application, that maps the Wi-Fi signal strength around your home and shows any black spots or dead spots.
The app is useful to survey your Wi-Fi router coverage in your house, it will display signal strength in your environment in the form of a heat map.
Wi-Fi has brought the wonder of the cable-free internet into our homes, but sometimes its reach can be disappointing.
If you’re in the same room as your router is placed near phone point or on the same floor, Wi-Fi can be fast and efficient. But moving around the house can have a terrible impact on your network speed and you may find black spots where the signal won’t reach and typically, that black spot is often in exactly the room you want to use your computer in.
To avoid the black spots, some users prefer to go for Wi-Fi extenders. But, if you are having problems with your Wi-Fi, you should gather as much information as you can before trying to fix it or changing the location of the router or buying a Wi-Fi extender.
Ekahau HeatMapper is a useful free tool that lets you create a site survey of your house or small office showing the Wi-Fi signal strength in every corner of your house.
The application is easy to use and understand, all you need a floor plan of your house and if you don’t have a plan, you can draw a plan of your house or use the software’s grid mode to make a map as you go.
It is recommended to run Ekahau HeatMapper on a laptop, as you have to move around your house to survey Wireless network coverage or to find the best site to place a Wi-Fi router.
Once you launched Ekahau HeatMapper app on your windows laptop, if you have a floor plan click ‘I have a map image’ and select the file.
If you don’t have a map and can’t draw one, you can still use the grid option. Click ‘I don’t have a map image’ and create the map with the grid as you go along.
Now stand in an easily definable place in your house and left-click your place on the map. Walk from here to another place on the map and left-click again.
The broken line will turn solid with an arrow marking the direction in which you moved. If you’re using the grid, pace out the room as you go and match the number of squares to your paces.
Moving around rooms from corner to corner will help you create a plan for your house.
Keep walking around the property, marking points on the map as you go and when you’ve finished, right-click the mouse.
You’ll get a heat map of your Wi-Fi signal throughout that floor of your house. The dark green shows where signal strength is best, reddish color shows where the signal is poor.
Use the Take Screenshot button to save your survey as an image and decide where your signal is weakest. For instance, reddish color in the heat map indicates Wi-Fi black spots. These locations might be a good place to put a Wi-Fi extender or wireless access point.
Ekahau HeatMapper Features:
- See Wi-Fi coverage on a map.
- Locate all access points.
- Detect security settings and finds open networks.
- Free of charge, one-minute install.
- Supports 802.11n, as well as a/b/g.
Conclusion:
Ekahau HeatMapper is an exciting tool to find ideal location for your Wireless router or map signal coverage of your access point, but it requires certain manual work to get better results.
Download HeatMapper from Developer Page.
