The lack of a good Wi-Fi signal can be a source of frustration, whether you’re trying to get things done or start a game. Weak Wi-Fi signals not only slow down, but also increase latency, make the entire connection unstable, and reduce reliability. Therefore, this article will show you how to measure the signal strength (RSSI) of a Wi-Fi connection on your Mac or Windows PC. This will help you better troubleshoot broadband connectivity issues.
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Check Wi-Fi signal strength on Windows or Mac (2021)
There are multiple ways to check the exact signal strength of your Wi-Fi connection on your computer. On Windows, it includes a network connection panel, a command prompt, and PowerShell. There are also third-party Wi-Fi analyzer apps that can help you measure Wi-Fi signal strength in Windows. On a Mac, you can see the Wi-Fi signal strength with just one click, which makes your work much easier. Now let’s take a closer look at all these methods to see the Wi-Fi signal strength of your computer.
Check Wi-Fi signal strength on Windows
As mentioned earlier, there are multiple ways to check the Wi-Fi signal strength in Windows. Today, I’ll cover them all in this article.
Method 1: Check the signal strength using the Wi-Fi icon on the taskbar
The easiest way to check the Wi-Fi signal strength in Windows is to use the network icon on the taskbar. Method is as follows.
Click the network icon on the Windows taskbar to see a list of all Wi-Fi signals available at your location. As you can see, the more bars next to the name of the Wi-Fi connection, the better the signal. A full set of bars is ideal, but one less bar will work as well. It would be difficult to establish a reliable connection with just two bars, but one bar means that the connection will be unavailable.
Note: The screenshot above is from the Windows 11 Insider Preview, but this method works for Windows 10 as well. You can use the linked guides to learn how to upgrade to Windows 11.
This method gives you an estimate of the Wi-Fi strength of the available networks, but it does not give accurate scientific measurements. Therefore, the following several methods are useful.
Method 2: Check the Wi-Fi signal strength using the command prompt
You can get more accurate results by checking the Wi-Fi signal strength using the command prompt. Method is as follows.
- First, open a command prompt window. To do this, use the Windows keyboard shortcut Windows Key + R,[ファイル名を指定して実行]Opens a dialog box. Then type “” or copy and paste.cmd.exe(Without quotes) and press Enter.
Note: You can also search for “cmd” (without the quotes) in the Windows search box to open a command prompt...
- [コマンドプロンプト]In the window, type the following command and press Enter.
netsh wlan show interfaces.. This will display the signal quality of your current network connection.
Note: You must be connected to a Wi-Fi network for this method to work..
Method 3: Use PowerShell to check the Wi-Fi signal strength
Another way to check the Wi-Fi signal strength of your current connection is to use Windows PowerShell. Like the previous method, this also works only with current wireless connections. This is the way you follow it:
- First, open Windows PowerShell on your Windows computer. To do this,PowershellClick “” (without the quotes) in the Windows search box and click “Windows PowerShell“.
- Then type or copy and paste the following command and press Enter.
(netsh wlan show interfaces) -Match '^s+Signal' -Replace '^s+Signals+:s+',''.. This will display the signal quality of the current signal.
You can also use the snippet inside the brackets. This is the same command used at the command prompt. Doing so will give exactly the same results as the previous method. The extended command excludes additional information and displays only the percentage that indicates the Wi-Fi signal quality.
Method 4: Check the Wi-Fi signal using a third party app
Although you can measure the current Wi-Fi signal strength in Windows, the OS does not have a native way to determine the exact strength of all networks available at your current location. To do that, you need to rely on third-party apps.
There are many reliable apps for measuring Wi-Fi signal strength on Windows, including Fing (free), Wi-Fi Info View (free), Wi-Fi Analyzer (free), and inSSIDer (free). However, this tutorial uses a free open source app. Vistumbler.. The latest version of the app is officially available on Windows 10 and earlier, but it works perfectly fine on Windows 11.
To use Vistumbler to check the signal strength of all Wi-Fi networks in your area, you must first download the latest version of the app from Github. You can download the installer (.exe) or the portable version as a ZIP file. This is what I am using.
Note: If you select the latter, you will need a file archiver tool such as WinRAR, WinZip, 7Zip to extract the files.
As you can see, the app shows the exact RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) level for each available Wi-Fi network. It also displays the signal strength percentage, making it one of the most comprehensive Wi-Fi analyzer tools available on your computer.
RSSI is measured in dBm per milliwatt and is the most accurate measure of signal strength. RSSI of about -30dBm provides the highest quality Wi-Fi, but signals up to about -60dBm are well suited for everyday use. Anything above -70dBm can’t be used for most purposes, but it’s difficult to connect to something on the other side of -80dBm.
Check Wi-Fi signal strength on Mac
On Mac, checking the Wi-Fi signal strength is a one-click operation. Method is as follows.
Hold down the Option key and click the Wi-Fi icon in the top menu bar. The drop-down menu shows the Wi-Fi signal strength (RSSI value in dBm) along with the host for other network-related information.
You can easily check the strength of the Wi-Fi signal
Whether you’re using Windows or Mac, you can easily see the signal strength of your Wi-Fi network. That said, the Mac offers a one-click native solution, but you’ll have to rely on third-party utilities on Windows for the best information. In any case, now that you know how to check the signal strength of the Wi-Fi network available in your area, find out how to find the Wi-Fi password stored on your Windows PC. Also, learn more about Wi-Fi calling and the best features of Wi-Fi 6E.
