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Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic

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  Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic Martim <NOTAREALEMAILMartimPereira@vodaphone.pt> - 2025-05-14 18:03 +0100
    Re: Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic Shadow <Sh@dow.br> - 2025-05-14 14:21 -0300
      Re: Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic "Jan K." <janicekoziol@nie.ma.spamu.prosze.com> - 2025-05-14 21:03 +0000
      Re: Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic Charlie <charlie@nospam.com> - 2025-05-14 17:16 -0400
        Re: Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic david <this@is.invalid> - 2025-05-14 22:46 -0600
    Re: Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic wasbit <wasbit@REMOVEhotmail.com> - 2025-05-15 09:25 +0100
      Re: Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic Martim <NOTAREALEMAILMartimPereira@vodaphone.pt> - 2025-05-15 22:21 +0100
        Re: Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic wasbit <wasbit@REMOVEhotmail.com> - 2025-05-16 09:44 +0100

#184449 — Freeware Wi-Fi analyzer similar to Acrylic

I was using this to debug a Netgear wireless extender issue.
Acrylic Wi-Fi Analyzer
https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/wifi-analyzer/
https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/downloads/

But it's only a 5-day free evaluation. 
Running a few searches I found these might do almost as well.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_history_view.html

Any others you might suggest for debugging Wi-Fi router issues?

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#184450

On Wed, 14 May 2025 18:03:48 +0100, Martim
<NOTAREALEMAILMartimPereira@vodaphone.pt> wrote:

>I was using this to debug a Netgear wireless extender issue.
>Acrylic Wi-Fi Analyzer
>https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/wifi-analyzer/
>https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/downloads/
>
>But it's only a 5-day free evaluation. 
>Running a few searches I found these might do almost as well.
>
>https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html
>https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_history_view.html
>
>Any others you might suggest for debugging Wi-Fi router issues?

I use Nirsoft Wireless Network Watcher. So I can see who or what is on
my wifi.
What are you trying to debug? You can usually log into your Wireless
router using telnet and read the logs. Have you tried that?
	[]'s
-- 
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy  - Google 2012
Google Fuchsia - 2021

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#184451

W Wed, 14 May 2025 14:21:19 -0300, Shadow napisal:

>>Any others you might suggest for debugging Wi-Fi router issues?
> 
> I use Nirsoft Wireless Network Watcher. So I can see who or what is on
> my wifi.
> What are you trying to debug? You can usually log into your Wireless
> router using telnet and read the logs. Have you tried that?

'netsh wlan show profiles' lists the WiFi profiles saved on your computer.

'netsh wlan show networks' displays the WiFi networks currently visible.

'netsh wlan show wlanreport' generates a detailed HTML report of your WiFi
activity over the last three days, which can be very helpful in diagnosing
connection issues. This report includes information about SSIDs you've
connected to, connection attempts, errors, etcetera.

'netsh wlan show interfaces' shows details about your WiFi adapter.

'arp -a' shows you a table that maps IP addresses to their physical MAC
addresses on your local network.

'netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid' gives you a more granular view of the
Wi-Fi environment by listing the details of each individual access point
(identified by its BSSID) broadcasting a Wi-Fi network. ' 

'nmap -T4 -A -v 192.168.0.1/24' scans all IP addresses in the range of
192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.254 on your local network for live targets.
https://nmap.org/zenmap/

'lswifi' displays the Wi-Fi characteristics of your wireless network.
https://github.com/joshschmelzle/lswifi

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#184452

On Wed, 14 May 2025 14:21:19 -0300, Shadow wrote:

>>https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html
>>https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_history_view.html
>>
>>Any others you might suggest for debugging Wi-Fi router issues?
> 
> I use Nirsoft Wireless Network Watcher. So I can see who or what is on
> my wifi.
> What are you trying to debug? You can usually log into your Wireless
> router using telnet and read the logs. Have you tried that?

Like the shadowy man said, the Nirsoft suite has a free information viewer, 
a history viewer, and a network watcher on the Windows platform.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_history_view.html
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_network_view.html

Some others which have been suggested on a.c.f in the past are below.

NetSpot: Offers both a free version and paid versions. The free version 
allows you to perform basic site surveys and visualize your WiFi network.
https://www.netspotapp.com/ 

inSSIDer: A well-regarded tool, often used by professionals, for scanning 
and analyzing WiFi networks. While it might be more geared towards business 
use, it's generally user-friendly. There might be older free versions 
available, but current versions are typically paid.
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html

WiFi Analyzer (Microsoft Store app): A free and straightforward app 
available on the Microsoft Store that visualizes your WiFi network and 
helps identify the best channels. It's good for basic home use.
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nblggh33n0n?hl=en-US&gl=US

Vistumbler: A free and open-source WiFi scanner that provides detailed 
information about access points.
https://www.vistumbler.net/

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#184454

Using <news:100317f$1kc0$1@neodome.net>, Charlie wrote:

> inSSIDer: A well-regarded tool, often used by professionals, for scanning 
> and analyzing WiFi networks. While it might be more geared towards business 
> use, it's generally user-friendly. There might be older free versions 
> available, but current versions are typically paid.
> https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html

You can usually find a free version if InSSIDer for Windows at the MetaGeek
site or at the TechSpot site, but both require a MetaGeek account. 

The last Windows version that didn't require you to sign up is the "Legacy
Version 3.1.2.1" https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html
https://files02.tchspt.com/down/inSSIDer-installer.msi

If you can't find a free wear version of InSSIDer, try Angry IP Scanner
https://angryip.org/download/ 
https://github.com/angryip/ipscan/releases 

IP Range: 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.254
Hostname: dave IP: 192.168.0.0/24 or 255.255.255.0 (either way works fine)

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#184455

On 14/05/2025 18:03, Martim wrote:
> I was using this to debug a Netgear wireless extender issue.
> Acrylic Wi-Fi Analyzer
> https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/wifi-analyzer/
> https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/downloads/
> 
> But it's only a 5-day free evaluation.
> Running a few searches I found these might do almost as well.
> 
> https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html
> https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_history_view.html
> 
> Any others you might suggest for debugging Wi-Fi router issues?
> 

Are you sure it's a 5 day evaluation?
I only see a limit of 5 devices in the free version, however as I 
haven't installed the programme I can't say for sure that this is the 
only restriction.
  - https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/wifi-analyzer/

Scroll down the page for the version comparison.


-- 
Regards
wasbit

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#184469

On Thu, 15 May 2025 09:25:37 +0100 wasbit said:

> Are you sure it's a 5 day evaluation?
> I only see a limit of 5 devices in the free version, however as I 
> haven't installed the programme I can't say for sure that this is the 
> only restriction.
>   - https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/wifi-analyzer/
> 
> Scroll down the page for the version comparison.

I'm not sure of anything. In fact, I'm really quite confused as I'm 
completely out of my element when it comes to debugging Wi-Fi networks.

I haven't had the problem for a full five days yet, but since I can't
unbrick my Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 Nighthawk Mesh Extender Model
EAX80, I've had to learn a lot of Windows network debugging commands.
https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/EAX80/EAX80_UM_EN.pdf

It's confusing to me when I have to work with ports & MAC addresses more
than with IP addresses when trying to debug why a mesh extender is failing.
 arp -a | findstr 192.168.1.
  192.168.1.250         3c-37-86-fa-4f-9e     dynamic
  192.168.1.255         ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff     static

I tried all sorts of scans for ports, MAC addresses & even UDP scans.
https://nmap.org/zenmap/

 zenmap GUI
 (Target: 192.168.1.1/24)
 (Command: nmap -T4 -A -v 192.168.1.1/24)
 (Profile: Intense scan plus UDP) needed since flashing uses UDP

 Nmap scan report for 192.168.1.250
 Host is up (0.00076s latency).
 Not shown: 999 closed tcp ports (reset),
 Not shown: 983 closed udp ports (port-unreach)
  PORT      STATE         SERVICE      VERSION
  53/tcp    open          domain       dnsmasq 2.78
  23/udp    open|filtered telnet
  53/udp    open          domain       dnsmasq 2.78
  67/udp    open|filtered dhcps
  772/udp   open|filtered cycleserv2
  829/udp   open|filtered pkix-3-ca-ra
  5353/udp  open|filtered zeroconf
  5355/udp  open|filtered llmnr
  17663/udp open|filtered unknown
  17787/udp open|filtered unknown
  19663/udp open|filtered unknown
  19728/udp open|filtered unknown
  20522/udp open|filtered unknown
  26720/udp open|filtered unknown
  29256/udp open|filtered unknown
  32528/udp open|filtered unknown
  40622/udp open|filtered unknown
  49191/udp open|filtered unknown
 MAC Address: 3C:37:86:FA:4F:9E (Netgear)
 Device type: general purpose
 Running: Linux 3.X|4.X
 OS CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel:3 cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel:4
 OS details: Linux 3.2 - 4.9
 Uptime guess: 0.129 days (since Thu May 15 12:02:17 2025)
 Network Distance: 1 hop
 TCP Sequence Prediction: Difficulty=262 (Good luck!)
 IP ID Sequence Generation: All zeros
  TRACEROUTE
  HOP RTT     ADDRESS
  1   0.76 ms 192.168.1.250

Almost all of that I don't really understand because I'm only trying to
figure out what to fix so that I can make the mesh extender work on my LAN.

Alls I really want is to find a network-debugging tool that will tell me
what is going on when one mesh extender works while the other does not.

Luckily, I happen to have two of those EAX80 units on my network, where one
is working perfectly but the other is not working yet - where I'll term it
'half bricked' given it shows up on the network - but it won't work right.

So I put the bad EAX80 into recovery mode to try to flash the firmware.
https://www.netgear.com/support/download/?model=EAX80

But Windows nmap network discovery commands are really complex for me.
https://nmap.org 

At first I tried tftp flashing (with & without the powerful freeware GUI).
But it's really hard nowadays to find the tftp gui as they're all dead.
https://pjo2.github.io/tftpd64/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/tftpd64/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/tftpd/

But I thought I finally found where the TFTP GUI moved to but it failed.
http://www.tftpd64.com/

It didn't matter as the EAX80 won't allow tftp port 69 firmware uploads.
 nmap -sU -p 69 192.168.1.250
  69/udp closed tftp

 tftp -i 192.168.1.250 put firmware.chk
  Connect request failed

So I have to use NMRP flashing freeware but this is uncharted territory.
https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash/releases/latest

Not only do I need to deal with obscure ports & MAC addresses, but I even
have to refer to strange network naming conventions I've never used before.

 nmap -A 192.168.1.250
  MAC Address: 3C:37:86:fa:4f:9e (Netgear)(sometimes Epigram!)

 nmap -sV -sC 192.168.1.250
  53/tcp open  domain  dnsmasq 2.78

An example is you need to know the "net name" to flash with NMRP.
 nmrpflash.exe -L
  net9   192.168.1.22     00:13:ef:30:0a:6f  (Wi-Fi)
  net5   169.254.243.239  02:00:4c:4d:4a:50  (Npcap Loopback Adapter)
  net8   192.168.1.100    00:26:55:4a:19:cb  (Ethernet)

 nmrpflash.exe -i net8 -f firmware.chk
  Waiting for Ethernet connection (Ctrl-C to skip).
  Advertising NMRP server on net8 ... /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
  Received configuration request from 3c:37:86:fa:4f:9e.
  Sending configuration: 10.164.183.253/24.
  Received upload request.
  Uploading firmware.chk ... 
  Warning: TFTP block rollover. Upload might fail!
  OK (36307022 b)
  Waiting for remote to respond.
  Remote finished. Closing connection.
  Reboot your device now.

The timing constraints are awful and mostly wild-assed guesses at how long
to hold the paper clip, when to turn off power & when to turn it back on.

But even after flashing, I can't connect wirelessly to the mesh extender.
 netsh wlan show networks
 netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid
 netsh wlan connect ssid="NETGEAR" name="NETGEAR"
  There is no profile "NETGEAR" assigned to the specified interface.

Nothing in the help files seems to be working for me in this problem.
https://kb.netgear.com/29746/I-can-t-access-www-mywifiext-net-what-do-I-do
 
Unfortunately, even DD-WRT or Tomato or OpenWrt firmware doesn't seem to
exist for the EAX80 extenders (apparently due to use of Broadcom chips).

So I'm stuck with trying to figure out how to unbrick a Netgear mesh
extender where I have a good one to compare against but I'm dealing more in
ports and Transport Layer Protocols and Ports and MAC addresses than in IP
addresses.

Which is why I needed freeware similar to that of Acrylic.

In my searches to find some way of telling me the information I need to
debug why the one bad mesh extender isn't working, I ran across this
report-generating native feature of Windows which is useful to try once.
 netsh wlan show wlanreport

That detailed report includes all the SSIDs you've connected to in the past
three days including all failed connection attempts, errors, etcetera.

Open the graphical report in a web browser on Windows using this URL.
file:///C:/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/WlanReport/wlan-report-latest.html

Anyways, my biggest problem is I don't know how to debug when one mesh
extender is working fine while the other exact same model extender fails.

I was hoping Acrylic or some other Wi-Fi analyzer would help in the debug.
I will find out soon if it's only a five-day license or if it still works.

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#184472

On 15/05/2025 22:21, Martim wrote:
> On Thu, 15 May 2025 09:25:37 +0100 wasbit said:
> 
>> Are you sure it's a 5 day evaluation?
>> I only see a limit of 5 devices in the free version, however as I
>> haven't installed the programme I can't say for sure that this is the
>> only restriction.
>>    - https://www.acrylicwifi.com/en/wifi-analyzer/
>>
>> Scroll down the page for the version comparison.
> 
> I'm not sure of anything. In fact, I'm really quite confused as I'm
> completely out of my element when it comes to debugging Wi-Fi networks.
> 
> I haven't had the problem for a full five days yet, but since I can't
> unbrick my Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 Nighthawk Mesh Extender Model
> EAX80, I've had to learn a lot of Windows network debugging commands.
 >
> Snip <
 >
> I was hoping Acrylic or some other Wi-Fi analyzer would help in the debug.
> I will find out soon if it's only a five-day license or if it still works.
> 

I was just pointing out that you might have downloaded the Pro trial 
version of Acrylic rather than the free one.



-- 
Regards
wasbit

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