how to find the best wi-fi channel with wireless diagnostics in mac os x.pdf

8/13/2019 How to Find the Best Wi-Fi Channel with Wireless Diagnostics in Mac OS X.pdf

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11/12/13 20:51How to Find the Best Wi-Fi Channel with Wireless Diagnostics in Mac OS X

Pgina 1 de 5http://osxdaily.com/2013/12/11/find-best-wi-fi-channel-wireless-tool-mac/

How to Find the Best Wi-Fi Channel with Wireless

Diagnostics in Mac OS X

Just about every semi-technical person has setup a wireless router at home or in the

office, and in that process has wondered which broadcast channel would be the best

to use. Sure, some wi-fi routers make it simple and will recommend a channel on their

own, but often its left up to the user to decide. Lets face it, most people haveabsolutely no idea what would be the best wi-fi channel, let alone which to use for a

5GHz wireless N network versus a 2.4GHz 802.11b/g network, or even what the

difference between the networks is. For average people, its a bunch of meaningless

technical jargon, they just want wireless internet, and they want it to be fast, right?

Thankfully, OS X Mavericks makes this simple when a wi-fi router doesnt, with a

simple solution offered through thebundled wi-fi scanner appthat works with

every single wi-fi router brand out there.

Detecting the Best Wi-Fi Broadcast Channels to Use with a

Wireless Router

To get started, youll need to jump into the Wireless Diagnostics Utilities app first:

1. Hold down the OPTION key and click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar

2. Choose Open Wireless Diagnostics, typically the very last option
http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/31/wi-fi-scanner-mac-os-x-mountain-lion/


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3. Enter the admin password and completely ignore the splash screen that launches

4. Pull down the Windows menu and choose Utilities5. Select the Wi-Fi Scan tab, and select Scan Now

6. When finished, look at the bottom right for the best channels recommendations:

Best 2.4 GHz Channels (usually 802.11b/g)

Best 5 GHz Channels (usually 802.11a/n)

7. Now log in to your wi-fi router (this is going to vary depending on the

manufacturer) and make the channel changes as necessary typically this

means using a web browser to point at the local router IP (192.168.0.1, etc)


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In the screen shot example, the best channels chosen are 2 and 3 for 2.4 GHz, and 149

and 157 for 5 GHz.

As mentioned before, changing the broadcast channel will vary depending on the

router manufacturer and the IP address used. Using a Netgear router with an IP of192.168.1.1 as an example, simply point any web browser to that IP, log in using the

router admin login (often admin/admin), and look for the Channel option, typically

located within a Wireless Settings or Broadcast Settings preference region.

Change the appropriate channels for each protocol, save settings, and youre good to

go.


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The wi-fi network should now be faster with less interference for all devices on the

network, not just the Mac used to scan and detect the best channels. Going further,

the amazing OS X Wireless Diagnostics tool can also be used to optimize wi-fi

networks furtherby measuring signal strength as you physically rearrange the

placement of a the wireless router in relation to computer hardware. This works

exceptionally well and is worth taking the little time to perfect, particularly fi you feel

a wireless network is sluggish or problematic.

An Optimal Channel Detecting Trick for iOS Users

Dont have access to a Mac or the Wireless Diagnostics utility? Maybe you dont have

OS X Mavericks yet? For users who have an iPhone or cellular iPad with the iOS

Personal Wi-Fi Hotspot feature, you can use a roundabout trick to detect the

best channel to use for a router too. All you need to do is place the iPad or iPhone in

the general region of the hardware that will access the primary wireless router, then

temporarily turn on the Personal Hotspot. iOS will automatically scan, detect, and

choose the best possible channel to use much like the OS X scanner tool, thus one can

simply connect to that broadcasted hotspot, see the channel it chose, then turn off the

hotspot feature and reconfigure the router to use that broadcast channel. Nifty trick,
http://osxdaily.com/2013/06/28/use-personal-hotspot-iphone-ipad/http://osxdaily.com/2011/12/28/check-wireless-signal-strength-optimize-wifi-networks-mac-os-x/


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