What's the best diagnostic utility for wireless signal?

[doug at safeport.com]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2007, Tim Daneliuk wrote:

> Andrew Liles wrote:
>> I use wireless on a FreeBSD 6.1 box in an area of low signal to my
>> Access Point.
>> I want to be able to inspect the signal strength/quality so that I may
>> adjust the antenna to get best results.  What is the best diagnostic to
>> use?
>>
>> For instance:
>>    wicontrol wi0
>> produces:
>> ...
>> Comms quality/signal/noise:             [ 28 47 1 ]
>> dBm Coms Quality:                       [ 14 -85 -99 ]
>> ...
>>
>> but what is "good" or which numbers should I be seeking maximise or
>> minimise?
>
> Here's a less analytical way that may work if you have marginal signal strength:
>
> 1) Connect wirelessly
> 2) Start pinging a site near you (to mimimize delay effects over the larger internet)
> 3) Move the antenna around to see where ping delays minimize across
>
> Similarly, you can do the same thing with traceroute which is even better because it
> shows delay at each step of the route.
>
> This is a quick-and-dirty scheme that may not always provide best results, but it's easy
> and a good way to get started....

I agree. I did some thing more basic to quantify my numbers. sit in 
from of the wireless router. Whatever the values are, that's as good as it gets. 
Then more further and further away until you can no long communicate. You can, 
of course, take measurements at each point.

I don't know how to get documentation on what the numbers mean (your question). 
Not all the wireless driver given the number in your formation. the ipw 
drive gives different (less??)  infomation on signal strength.