As a good wireless connection is so important to the use of a modern computer. It’s important to have a way to test the quality of the Wireless connection you are using. So in this video we take a look at a hidden tool built into macOS that can help us to measure the quality of a Wireless signal.
Note: The advanced WiFi information provided by macOS, is very useful when troubleshooting or checking the quality of a wireless signal. While the bars in the WiFi icon do show how strong a wireless signal is. The WiFi icon does not show other important information such as the type of WiFi signal or how much data can be transferred through it.
Quick reference notes:
- From the macOS desktop, place the mouse pointer over the WiFi icon.
- Now holding down the Option key, click on the WiFi icon.
- The advanced WiFi menu will be displayed.
Note: In the video we explain what the following pieces of information mean in relation to your WiFi signal; PHY Mode, BSSID, the WiFi channel, the encryption method, the RSSI signal and the transmit rate.
- To close the advanced menu, simply click away from the advanced menu.
Note: MCS Index is an industry standard for measuring the WiFi connection between a client device and a wireless access point. MCS stands for Modulation Coding Scheme, and works in conjunction with a table to help determine the data transfer speeds of a wireless network. The table seems to be based on modulation type, coding rate, spatial streams, channel width and guard interval. However as the MCS Index is really for WiFi LAN professionals, we do not know enough about how it works, so did not mention it in the video.
- macOS User Guide – WiFi Menu icons on Mac
- macOS User Guide – Show Wi-Fi Status in the menu bar on Mac
- mydoodads article – Testing your internet connection from the Terminal of macOS
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