Is your business Wi-Fi fast enough?

Whether you are trying to troubleshoot a problem, ensuring bandwidth-intensive clients are working properly, fine-tuning performance, or are simply curious about Wi-Fi speeds, there are a variety of methods available to help you assess the speed of your wireless LAN (WLAN).

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Simple Internet speed apps or websites can be useful, but sometimes you need to measure actual Wi-Fi throughput. To do this, you usually need a test platform with a server and a client.

Test Preparation

Before running any tests, you may want to consider a few questions:

• Have you verified that the Wi-Fi signal, noise, and interference are acceptable throughout the coverage area?
• Are you testing the entire wireless area or are you interested in the fault area?
• What throughput levels do Wi-Fi clients and applications require?
• Do you need to run the test using a specific client and a specific access point?
• Does it make sense to test between a wireless client and a wired server, or between two wireless clients?
• Should you test one device or multiple devices simultaneously?

Also take into account the Wi-Fi standard being used (802.11ac, 802.11ax, etc.), the number of transmitters and receivers on the access point (4x4, 8x8), and other specifications and settings of the AP and clients that affect performance. Evaluate the network infrastructure, such as the cables and switches between the AP and the test server, as well as server specifications, such as the wired Ethernet speed.

Free Wi-Fi test tool for your PC, smartphone or tablet

There are many testing applications for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. If you are looking for an enterprise-grade testing platform that can be used long-term, you can consider using a tool such as Ixia's IxChariot. However, if you are doing a one-time test, you can consider some of the following free tools:

• Expert Speed ​​Test WiFi Analyzer offers apps for Android and Amazon Fire. The basic version is free, and can be upgraded to enable additional features or remove ads. It offers a number of Wi-Fi analysis tools as well as an internet and network speed tester. The app supports both server and client modes, so you can test client-to-client or against a third-party iPerf3 server.
• IPerf2 is a free, open source project that provides server/client applications for Windows and macOS, as well as a client-side test application for Android, which can be used in server mode to perform client-to-client testing. These are command-line based applications, although they do provide documentation via MAN pages and help screens for the mobile applications.
• TamoSoft's Throughput Test Client offers test server/client software for Windows and macOS, as well as simple client test apps for Android or iOS. However, the mobile apps have no server functionality, so you must test against their server software on a Windows or macOS machine.

Collect Wi-Fi speed when investigating a network

If you need to verify Wi-Fi coverage and interference, you can usually measure throughput simultaneously using software such as AirMagnet Survey, Ekahau, or TamoGraph. This is desirable because the software can map throughput results to a floor plan of the coverage area, providing a graphical view of performance across the entire network, not just in a few selected locations.

Typically, a passive survey using these tools is sufficient to verify coverage and interference, but measuring throughput requires an active survey, where a wireless client actively connects to the network during the survey. Most survey tools can run a full throughput test against a server set up on the wired side during the survey. Additionally, they usually allow you to run passive measurements with one wireless adapter and active measurements with another adapter, so you can measure with two sets of data collection at the same time.

Monitor speed with sensors

If you want to keep an eye on Wi-Fi performance, consider deploying sensors to monitor Wi-Fi from a client perspective. In addition to detecting the up/down status of an AP, sensors can often monitor and alert based on a specified SLA. Some Wi-Fi timing tests can get as detailed as measuring the Wi-Fi association and authentication process.

While the exact throughput test capabilities vary from sensor to sensor, and they may not be the best choice for a one-off test, they do offer more functionality than speed tests. Some allow you to keep tabs on many network and cloud services, such as DHCP, DNS, AAA, and custom applications and servers. All of this can be done on-site, rather than on a server or in the cloud, from a more user-friendly perspective.

P.S. Here are the three sensors to choose from:

• The 7SIGNAL platform offers a sensor device called Sapphire Eye and software called Mobile Eye that can be installed on existing Windows, macOS or Android devices to monitor connections for remote workers on corporate networks or public or private networks.
• NetBeez Wi-Fi Monitoring provides sensor devices for wired and wireless monitoring, as well as software agents for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
• Cape Networks (now part of Aruba) offers the Aruba User Experience Insight (UXI) platform, which consists of two different wireless sensor devices.