- Network Speed Test Software Open Source Mac Free
- Network Speed Test Mac
- Open Source Mac Software
- Speed Test For Mac
- Network Speed Test Software Open Source Mac Software
As the number of Wi-Fi networks rapidly explodes, detecting, managing, and maintaining your Wi-Fi can become problematic. When everyone around you is blasting their own Wi-Fi signals—particularly if in large apartment buildings or business complexes with lots of other large companies—you’re more likely to experience problems with Wi-Fi signals dropping out, poor connectivity, and slow performance.
Even within your own Wi-Fi network, several optimizations could help ensure your network is functioning appropriately, including router placement, appropriate channel, and security measures. And of course, analyzing and understanding your wireless network is key.
To perform the test, simply open Cinebench and click Run next to the OpenGL test in the top-lefthand corner of the app. It'll take you through the test, and your final result will be displayed. WiFi Explorer – Detect issues that may be affecting connection and the performance of your network, such as channel conflicts, overlapping and configuration issues, etc. KisMAC – an open-source WiFi analyzer application for Mac OS that can map wireless networks and lay out the info on their performance so you can easily troubleshoot. Jan 11, 2016 HELIOS LanTest is a very popular network performance and reliability testing solution for Mac and Windows clients. It is very easy to use within seconds and scales from single local disk testing, to testing performance of a network volume, as well as multi-user concurrent client testing against a single server volume.
One of my favorite tools for discovering and solving these problems is SolarWinds® Network Performance Monitor (NPM). It includes high-performance network monitoring and insights and troubleshooting features to ensure your network starts working again as soon as possible after a problem arises. In particular, the SolarWinds heat map feature allows you to see where Wi-Fi signal is strong, and “dead zones” with low connectivity.
What Does a Wi-Fi Analyzer Do?
Most Wi-Fi network analyzers work in a similar way, in which you can choose a wireless spectrum to examine, such as 2.4GHz or 5GHz. The analyzer then examines that spectrum to view networks, their channels, and signal strength.
In simple terms, a Wi-Fi analyzer gathers information about access points and channels on your network and displays it in an easy-to-understand, visually accessible way. A wireless network analyzer can help you maintain connection quality, which can be vital for numerous business needs and performance metrics. Wi-Fi signals are constantly changing, and small changes in the network can have massive effects on the overall connection uptime.
Using a Wi-Fi network analyzer can collect data and help you identify problems, or it can indicate potential solutions such as switching to another channel to reduce congestion. You can also use this type of tool to discover areas in your facility with a weak Wi-Fi signal.
Best Wi-Fi Network Analyzer Software in 2020
In my opinion, using Wi-Fi analyzer software can be an excellent tool for optimizing business and even at-home Wi-Fi performance. This kind of software is usually easy-to-use and can provide great benefits in terms of connection reliability, signal strength, and download speeds.
Network Performance Monitor
Of the different tools available on the market, the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, with its Wi-Fi analyzer, is the most comprehensive. Despite its extensive list of features, it remains simple for both beginner and advanced users.
The relevant feature here is the heatmapping capability allowing you to create multiple color-coded maps of your facilities using real device data to display signal strength. You can automatically update these maps for a real-time understanding of your wireless network. Having at-a-glance insights into your Wi-Fi can really help with troubleshooting (especially when end users come knocking with complaints about connectivity).
Beyond heatmapping, NPM offers a range of useful network management features. For instance, its proprietary NetPath™ tool lets you detect and display network pathways with a visual traceroute. This allows you to simply determine where slowdowns and issues exist, as you can see the performance and information between individual nodes. Furthermore, with the PerfStack™ feature, you can compare the performance of different metrics side-by-side, so you can correlate multiple types of data across a common timeline.
Overall, SolarWinds NPM has an impressive suite of tools, and each has clean and beautiful visualizations and displays. Furthermore, NPM scales well and includes the ability to hook in with the SolarWinds High Availability platform, to ensure even fewer network drops, with strong failover protection.
NetSpot
NetSpot has a beautiful, easy-to-use interface, and is suitable for both beginners and experienced network administrators. It uses two different modes: discovery mode and survey mode. The first mode looks at a snapshot of the Wi-Fi networks near you, while survey mode can provide more detailed heat maps of Wi-Fi strength.
NetSpot is easy to install and includes several other visual representations of the wireless spectrum and the data it can collect. There are four different versions: free, home, commercial, and enterprise. The difference between them is the number of zones you can look at, how many access points you can scan, and the number of data points you can collect with a scan.
InSSIDer
Another product to consider is InSSIDer. This established Wi-Fi analyzer tool for Windows is very reliable. The InSSIDer tool is generally intended for enterprise and business use, rather than for home users. Despite being geared toward admins, it’s still relatively easy to use.
It gathers the data you would expect: channel, signal strength, MAC addresses, and encryption type for each access point on the network. InSSIDer then provides you with a “link score” for each connection. The higher the score, the better. The software is easy to install, with comprehensive guides and links to free webinars if you need more assistance.
NetCut
Consider NetCut if you’re looking for a solution for professional or enterprise use. It was originally created to be a back-end solution, but it can be used by anyone for network investigating and debugging.
NetCut allows you to monitor LAN activity and can display all the IP and MAC addresses and data of devices that are connected or have ever connected to your network.
With NetCut, you can kick someone off your network or restore their access at will. The main issue with NetCut for beginner users is that it has a lot of machine-translated documentation that may be hard to understand for someone who is not a network administrator, and a slightly more complex interface.
NetCut includes an extra layer of protection called NetCut Defender, which protects your computer from ARP and MAC address spoofing.
WiFi Analyzer
Unlike NetSpot and NetCut, WiFi Analyzer is intended primarily for home or temporary use. It is an app for Windows 10, available on the Microsoft Store. It comes in basic and pro versions, and the basic version includes everything you need to analyze your Wi-Fi network. The app takes your network and turns the data into easy-to-understand visualizations, suggesting which channel you should use to reduce congestion.
For someone new to Wi-Fi analyzer tools, this would be a potential choice. For enterprise needs or larger networks, it’s probably much too limited.
Vistumbler
Network Speed Test Software Open Source Mac Free
Like most other Wi-Fi analyzers, Vistumbler scans nearby networks for access points and can map your Wi-Fi network and connectivity strength while showing you detailed information about each network. It provides network status, MAC address, SSID, signal strength, channel number, and network type.
Vistumbler is set apart by its GPS support, which can integrate with Google Earth to display Wi-Fi networks. This feature is for people who may be driving, walking, or cycling around to try to find Wi-Fi networks to use. When Vistumbler discovers a Wi-Fi network with this feature, the app can show you where the network is on a map and other network information.
The main downside is that Vistumbler is not easy to use, and the user interface can be difficult to navigate. Again, it’s not a full enterprise solution for Wi-Fi analysis.
WiFi Commander
With good-looking graphics and sophisticated UI, WiFi Commander is one of the more attractive Wi-Fi analyzer tools. You can scan and filter nearby Wi-Fi networks and create 3-D graphs of the results. If your laptop has touchscreen capabilities, you can use touch to move and interact with the 3-D visualization.
The WiFi Commander app shows Wi-Fi signal strength and displays it in real-time so you can use the most recent data to join the strongest or most stable Wi-Fi network.
Wireshark
If you need a free or open-source Wi-Fi analyzer tool, check out Wireshark. Its purpose is to analyze and troubleshoot different communications protocols, and it includes the ability to look at Wi-Fi. Wireshark is very complicated to use, and you’ll need some training to use it. As such, it’s normally only used by networking and Wi-Fi professionals. In addition, there are obvious disadvantages for relying on open-source tools for business use, so you may want something with a bit more built-up functionality.
If you’re looking for something a little more basic when it comes to Wireshark, SolarWinds has a free tool called Response Time Viewer for Wireshark designed to help you analyze packet capture files as well as visualize response time in Wireshark.
Wi-Fi Analysis Solutions
In general, there’s no shortage of tools and software to help you monitor and organize your Wi-Fi networks, whether you’re a casual user or an enterprise professional. With the inclusion of high-reward tools such as heatmaps, visualizations, and performance metric graphs, the best Wi-Fi analysis tools and network management tools can revolutionize how you get the most out of your connection.
I recommend SolarWinds NPM due to its more robust suite of offerings and simple learning curve for new users. It’s much more robust than some of the limited-scope tools I mentioned above. Even so, I find the SolarWinds platform both intuitive and efficient.
Related Reading
How to Tame—and Redefine—Your Network Now – If you’re interested in considering how networks are changing and evolving, as well as the ways in which you may need to adapt your network management, read this article on how to prepare for tomorrow’s network topography.
Related Posts
If you are designing or managing a network, a detailed diagram or map of that network is hugely helpful. Depending on your environment, network connections can get pretty crazy pretty quickly. This is especially true for large networks like in office environments. In those situations, a network map provides you with a ton of information in an interactive way and makes it easy to understand where everything is and how they connected from one to the other.
While Network mapping is better done manually. There is however software that connects discovered devices and makes it easy for you to map your network. To get you started, here are some of the best open source network mapping tools you can try.
Read: Looking for Microsoft Visio Alternative? Here Are Some Open Source Flowchart Apps
Best Open Source Network Mapping Software
1. Nmap
Nmap (short for Network Mapper) is one of the most popular network mapper and network security scanner that is used by individuals, professionals and companies alike. Nmap has built-in topology options that give you an interactive and animated network map with just a few clicks. All the networks are visualized in node graphs where the host is placed in the center and all the children networks are expended from that host center. Though the default view is set to localhost, you can change the viewpoint and see what the network actually looks like.
When needed, you can drag and drop different networks in the map and even able to manipulate them with the provided options. Once you have the map, you can highlight regions and group host’s children. When you click on a network or host children, Nmap provides you with additional options to get information and manipulate the target. Since Nmap is both a mapper and scanner, the network map is particularly useful in traceroute sessions.
Platform support: Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Price: Free.
2. Netdisco
Netdisco is web-based network management and mapper tool. Using Netdisco, you can locate all the devices connected to a network. Once located, the app will automatically map them in a simple graphical representation. The application works the same no matter the network size. From the network map, you can gather all kinds of information like network hardware model, MAC address, IP address, installed software and operating system, etc.
Unlike Nmap, Netdisco’s user interface is much more friendly and has a lot more options when it comes manipulating the detected networks. For added functionality, you can install plug-ins and extensions too.
Read: See What Others Are Browsing on Your WiFi
Keep in mind that you need to install Netdisco on a server running a Linux distribution. Once installed, you can log in to the Netdisco from anywhere you want.
Platform support: Being a web tool, it supports all platforms.
Price: Free.
3. Masshandra
Masshandra is both a network mapping and network diagraming tool. In general, Masshandra is mainly used to create personal or office network diagrams in a 3D environment so that you know what’s going on when you actually create the network. If you already have a network, Masshandra can auto-discover your network using ping or SNMP operations. Once detected, it will create a network map instantly.
The app supports drag and drop operations so that you can easily manipulate or configure the predefined objects. So, if you want an application that can create new network diagrams all the while giving you access to the existing network maps then give Masshandra a try.
Platform support: Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Price: Free.
4. OpenNMS
Just like Masshandra, OpenNMS is both a network mapper and diagramming tool for any size of the network. However, OpenNMS is a full-blown network management tool that is mainly aimed towards professionals and the corporate world. Once you’ve installed OpenNMS, it will automatically discover your network and maps all the available objects. From the map, you can perform various activities like network provisioning, even notifications, platform management, etc.
So, if you are looking for a full-blown network management tool that can both map and manage your network then Open NMS is for you. As good as the software is, there is a big learning curve. That being said, the OpenNMS community is huge and you should get the help you need without any problems.
Platform support: Web tool. You need to install OpenNMS on a server.
Price: Free.
5. nwdiag
nwdiag is a very simple application that is designed to do one thing and one thing only. Using nwdiag, you can generate a network diagram from dot like text. Unlike other programs where you see pretty diagrams of your networks, nwdiag shows simple text-based maps that are searchable. Once you have the map or diagram, you can embed it in Sphinx and search for various network objects. nwdiag does nothing more and nothing less. As such, it is very lightweight and uses barely any system resources.
As good as it is, nwdiag is severely limited and doesn’t provide any options whatsoever to manipulate or manage the networks. So, as long as your needs are simple and all you need is a network map or diagram, nwdiag is a great tool.
Network Speed Test Mac
Read: How to Remove Someone From Your WiFI
Open Source Mac Software
Platform support: Linux only.
Price: Free
6. Nagios Core
Just like OpenNMS, Nagios Core is a full network management tool that is designed to maintain large networks in professional and corporate environments. Being a full network management tool, Nagios can easily detect your network and create a map out of it. Though the default map is just that and doesn’t provide many options for manipulation, you can use the information available from the map to make modifications via the Nagios management section.
One of the best things about Nagios is that you can create your own customizable network maps with a wide range of variations. Once created, you can also share them with a simple URL. If necessary, you can install additional components to enhance the network maps.
Nagios has a huge learning curve and the options are not that intuitive or easy to find and use. If you don’t mind the learning curve, give Nagios a try.
Platform support: Linux only.
Price: Free.
That is all for now. Alternately, you can also draw it with your hands, or if you’re just looking for manual topology with no stimulation, Visio is kind of the industry standard.
Speed Test For Mac
If you think I missed any of your favorite open source network mapping tools then comment below and share them with me.
Network Speed Test Software Open Source Mac Software
Read: Free Open Source Alternatives for Expensive Software