How do I view wireless Clients' signal strength on AirPort Extreme?

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Level 2

161 points

How do I view wireless Clients' signal strength on AirPort Extreme?

On a Mac:

I used to be able to see the signal levels and signal to noise levels with Airport Utility. It looks like that screen has been deleted from the utility. It was useful when picking frequency bands to use to ensure I wasn't getting interference from other nearby networks. I realize that the Extreme Base Station does automatically select the frequencies for me, but when I first hooked mine up ( a year ago or so) I was able to improve on the automated process. I've read that the automated process has improved. apparently Apple thinks that it's improved so much that there's no need to inspect the result with Airport Utility......i.e. it's lost some utility.

Is there some free or inexpensive utility available that will do this that is Mac compatible, reasonably accurate, and reliable?

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Mar 1, 2013 2:08 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Bob Timmons

Community+ 2024

Level 10

159,164 points

Mar 1, 2013 2:11 PM in response to pgoodwin

Get back those lost features in the "upgraded" AirPort Utility 6.x by installing and adding AirPort Utilty 5.6 on Mountain Lion.

This article will tell you how:

http://www.macworld.com/article/1167965/mountain_lion_and_the_ancient_airport_ba se_station.html

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Answer 2

pgoodwin Author

Level 2

161 points

Mar 1, 2013 2:28 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks Bob. I'll try that. Is it OK to leave both apps in the Applications folder? Or should I drag out the newer revision and save it somewhere?

Will it retain my channel prefs? I'll screenshot/save them anyway.

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Answer 3

Mar 1, 2013 2:34 PM in response to pgoodwin

Is it OK to leave both apps in the Applications folder

Yes, this is fine. Just select the version that you want to use at the time.

Will it retain my channel prefs?

Yes

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Answer 4

pgoodwin Author

Level 2

161 points

Mar 1, 2013 2:58 PM in response to Bob Timmons

There are several methods mentioned in that article. Which one do you recommend?

Thanks again

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Answer 5

Mar 1, 2013 3:25 PM in response to pgoodwin

There is really only one "method" in the article.

Download AirPort Utility 5.6 as instructed to the Mac's desktop

Use Pacifist to unpack the installation package manually extracting the AirPort Utility 5.6 application..... since Apple's installer will not allow you to install the application as you normally would.

Once you have manually extracted the AirPort Utility 5.6 application on the desktop, you can manually drag it to the Utilities folder alongside AirPort Utility 6.x.

This is not supported by Apple, but it works fine for me and countless other users.....but no guarantees.

More info and another "method" can be found in this article if you do not want to use Pacifist:

http://macintoshdesktop.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/airport-utility-56-and-mountain-l ion.html

I have not tried method 2, but the link has appeared numerous times on this forum with users posting back to say that it works fine.

Method 3.....if you have been using Time Machine to back up your Mac.....would be to go back in time to a point where AirPort Utility 5.6 was still on your Mac. Restore it to the desktop, manually rename it as AirPort Utility 5.6, then manually drag it to the Utilities folder. This works fine for me as well when I test it out.

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Answer 6

pgoodwin Author

Level 2

161 points

Mar 1, 2013 4:41 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks a lot. I do have Time Machine. Hopefully it goes back that far. I had to start Time Machine over again a while back because of some disk error that cleared after using Disk Utility. If not, I will likely invest in Pacifist. I've seen quite a few restorations of older apps where the person used Pacifist. I'd like to go back to iTunes 10 from iTunes 11 because it was downgraded too-no multiple window support any more....very disturbing for people with big libraries and lots of Playlists.

Again thanks a lot for the help. This isn't the first time you've helped me. If I remember right, I think you helped me with transitioning from iDisk.

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