How To Access Wi-Fi Scanner Tool In OS X And Tweak Your Wireless Performance

Although companies like Apple and Microsoft are continuously tweaking existing versions of their operating systems and building next-generation software to power PCs and Macs, it would all be pretty much useless without a connection to the internet. You would actually be extremely surprised at how much of your day-to-day computing activity actually relies on being connected to the world wide web, meaning there is nothing more infuriating than a poor or dropped wireless connection.

As part of OS X, Apple has included an extremely easy route to get a Mac machine up and running on any Wi-Fi network. The simple Wi-Fi indicator bars located in the Finder bar at the top of the display act as a simple wizard-type interface that displays all visible networks and allows a security key to be easily entered to request permission to connect. Additional options can be configured from within the same interface such as turning Wi-Fi on or off, as well as creating a network using custom settings.

 

Depending on what network you are connected to and how far away you are from the source can greatly influence the level of wireless signals received on your Mac, but the indicators only really display the received signal through a four bar visual indicator. Thankfully, for those who are running OS X 10.7 (Lion) or Apple’s latest OS, which is OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), a hidden utility is available that can display additional information about the connected network. There are a few ways that users can gain access to this diagnostic tool, but the quickest is to simply hold the Option button down and click on the Wi-Fi indicator icon in the Finder bar before selecting Open Wi-Fi Diagnostics from the bottom of the resulting menu.

When the tool is invoked, the on-screen interface provides various different options. To get quick access to the network performance visuals, Mountain Lion users can simply pressCommand+N to quickly open up the performance page. The tools provide relatively simple, visual information that can help you determine whether or not things might need to be changed on your router to get a better signal. For more information and a full walkthrough, head on over to LifeHacker who take an in-depth look at this diagnostic tool.