Free tool for WiFi quality assessment

I found this neat and dead-simple DIY project for boosting a WiFi AP's antenna range, and I was wondering how I could actually do a before/after benchmark.

Are there any free tools that could test the quality of a WiFi network? I'm thinking of walking around my appartment with my netbook in hand and eventually end up with a 'coverage map'.

Most searches I tried ended up in some wardriving tool or another - they don't seem to fit for my purpose, but correct me if I'm wrong.

What I'd like the tool to have (a subset is fine, but the more, the better): - show the instantaneous signal strength, and not just with a 1-5 bars resolution as Windows does. I want hard numbers.

• do a throughput test (U/L, D/L). For this, I guess I could use a 2nd computer on the same subnet, wired directly to the AP, and try a large file transfer.

• do a latency check on the local LAN

So, any suggestions?

Solution 1:

I have always liked inSSIDer or Chanalyzer from MetaGeek.

Solution 2:

iPerf, perhaps ?

Iperf was developed by NLANR/DAST as a modern alternative for measuring maximum TCP and UDP bandwidth performance. Iperf allows the tuning of various parameters and UDP characteristics. Iperf reports bandwidth, delay jitter, datagram loss.

Xirrus WiFi tool is another option