The average American household has 11 connected devices. But despite being one of the most internet-savvy countries on Earth, lots of net users aren’t getting the speeds they should be.
And when it comes to WiFi-killers, the call is coming from inside the house.
That’s right, the reason you’re not getting the speeds you should be is often down to one of your devices hogging the bandwidth. The trick is figuring out which one it is. Could it be an old laptop still dutifully doing downloads, or an errant phone trying to pull down your entire music library?
With WiFi monitoring, you can find out.
What Is WiFi Monitoring?
Put simply, WiFi monitoring just means keeping track of what devices are on your network and how they’re using it. For example, one of the simplest ways to check on your WiFi network is to log into your router and have a look at the client list.
Once you’ve found the client list, it’s a simple matter of finding the device eating up bandwidth and kicking it off. If you only have to look after a small home network, the client list could be the only WiFi traffic monitor you need.
Alternatively, you can look into monitor mode WiFi adapters. These little gadgets can keep an eye on your network traffic and let you sniff out anything that’s amiss. They’re a good half-step between using your built-in router tools and more heavy-duty solutions.
But if you’re running a network at scale, you need a more advanced method of WiFi analysis.
Using an Advanced WiFi Monitor App
When you’re administrating a network of hundreds (or more) of devices, you need specialist tools to monitor your systems.
WiFi monitor apps can keep track of every data packet sent and received by devices on your network. They are able to conveniently organize the devices on your system in a way that is intuitive and manageable, and provide tools to handle network devices at scale.
For example, the Enterprise WiFi app organizes network devices by manufacturer, OS, channel, signal quality, and more! That kind of granular breakdown of information is crucial for handling larger WiFi networks. If you’re dealing with a home network of 11 devices, the jumbled list of MAC addresses your router provides is good enough.
It’s not good enough when you’re dealing with 1100 devices, though.
Keeping an Eye Out
The great thing about WiFi monitoring is scalability. For home users, you might only need your router’s client list or — for more serious users — a monitor mode WiFi adapter. After all, you probably only need to track down a single misbehaving device.
On the other hand, you might deal with thousands of machines. In that case, there’s no end of apps that can organize the information you need and give you the tools to handle it.
Whatever your situation, there are traffic monitoring apps to suit you.
Liked this article? Check out our site for more!
