Wi-Fi Signal Monitor

The Wi-Fi Signal monitor graphs the quality of this Mac’s Wi-Fi link, second by second. It shows three values in one graph:

Value	Unit	What it shows
Tx Rate	Mb/s	The rate at which your Mac sends data to the access point. This is the speed of the Wi-Fi link, not your Internet speed.
SNR	dB	The signal-to-noise ratio: how far the signal stands above the noise. Higher is better: above 40 dB is excellent, 15 dB or less is poor.
Signal	dBm	The strength of the signal from the access point. Values closer to 0 are stronger: −75 dBm or lower is weak.

Use it to find a weak spot in your home, to see if the Wi-Fi drops, or to check a change to your access point. The This Mac card of the dashboard shows the same values now. The monitor keeps them over time.

Add the monitor

1. Click + in the header of the Monitors section, or the + button in Settings → Monitors.
2. On Choose Monitor Type, choose Wi-Fi Signal.
3. Click Next.

PeakHour adds the monitor at once, with the name Wi-Fi Signal. There are no more steps.

A Mac has one Wi-Fi Signal monitor. When you have one already, the card reads Already added. A Mac with no Wi-Fi shows no card.

Reading the graph

• Tx Rate is a blue area, on the scale at the left. The scale starts at 0 and goes to the highest rate that your Wi-Fi standard and channel width allow.
• SNR (green) and Signal (orange) are lines, on the scale at the right. The scale labels only its top and bottom values, in dB or dBm.
• The graph shows the last 3 minutes by default. Use Zoom In and Zoom Out in the graph toolbar to show from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. To look back further, swipe sideways on the trackpad, or drag the thin scroll bar at the bottom of the graph. See Scroll back in a graph.
• Hover over the graph to see the time and each value at that moment.

The summary row above the graph shows the value of each series now, in the colour of its quality. A narrow monitor drops the units first, then shows only the Tx rate.

PeakHour reads the values at each Refresh Interval, every second by default.

When the Wi-Fi drops

When your Mac is not on a Wi-Fi network, the monitor reads Not connected, and its status light is yellow. The graph marks the time with no Wi-Fi as a red band. Hover over the band to see Not connected.

While your Mac sleeps, PeakHour reads no values. After a wake, the time of the sleep shows as a hatched area, not as a red band. Hover over a gap to see No data.

History and CSV export

The Wi-Fi Signal monitor keeps its history, as a bandwidth or latency monitor does. To open it:

• double-click the graph;
• or click Show History in the graph toolbar;
• or click Browse History in the header of the Monitors section, and choose the monitor.

The History view shows each series as a line, its average, with a light band for its lowest and highest value in each period. Click a series in the legend to hide or show it. A period with no data is hatched. For the controls, see History View.

To export the history, click Export in the History view. The CSV file has a Date column, then the average, the minimum and the maximum of each series, for example Tx Rate Avg (Mb/s).

Settings

Select the monitor in Settings → Monitors to change:

• its Name and its symbol;
• Enabled and Visibility;
• Graph View or Summary View, and the Graph Timespan.

To remove the monitor, select it and click -. This also deletes its history.

PeakHour Remote

PeakHour Remote shows the Wi-Fi Signal monitor on its Monitors tab, with the value of each series and a graph of the last minute.

Tip

For what to do about a weak signal, interference or a slow link, see Improve a weak Wi-Fi signal. To get a notification about these problems, turn on Wi-Fi issues in Settings → Dashboard → Notifications.