![]() Each vendor-specific icon is surrounded by colored bands that represent signal strength range. HeatMapper correlates those clicks with Wi-Fi observations, crunching data to position each discovered AP on the map. You can pause, undo, or add to the current survey at any time, taking measurements for up to 15 minutes. Move slowly throughout a single floor, left-clicking at regular intervals to mark your current location (aka “drop breadcrumbs”). The program auto-launches a 2D map, plotted on a basic grid or any imported image (e.g., a drawn-to-scale JPG of your home’s floorplan). Just run the installer on any Windows Vista or XP (32-bit) laptop with at least 512MB RAM, 1GB HDD, 500MHz CPU, and any Wi-Fi adapter. Home owners and small office staff with no Wi-Fi knowledge can easily use HeatMapper for brief, informal site surveys. Rather, HeatMapper is a basic utility, designed specifically to map small WLANs with minimal user input or interpretation. While HeatMapper leverages the same positioning engine, it is not a stripped-down version of Ekahau Site Survey Standard or Pro. ![]() ![]() Keep it simpleĮkahau recommends that WLANs with over five APs invest in sophisticated Site Survey products for multi-floor/building 3D mapping, expert RF planning, load simulation, design optimization, and real-time tracking. Real-time locationing vendor Ekahau has now filled this gap with HeatMapper, a simple, clean, and surprisingly effective bit of Windows freeware. While such tools can record vital WLAN stats (e.g., SSIDs, MAC, RSSI), they don’t make it easy to pinpoint AP locations or visualize their coverage. When it doesn’t, somebody wanders the area, scanning for nearby APs with an ordinary Wi-Fi client or shareware “stumbler.” But most home and small business WLANs are “plug and pray”-install one AP (or maybe a few) and hope that does the trick. Large WLANs are best designed and mapped using sophisticated planning and site survey tools. Pros: Great way to map small WLANs, relatively accurate, can’t beat the price (free!)Ĭons: 15 minute survey limit, no pan/zoom, no result save (beyond snapshots), XP/Vista only
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December 2022
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