Opinion Chip: Google promises a simple solution for the maximum possible coverage of the WLAN-network of each house. With the help of the Google WiFi system, the Internet giant can really seriously improve hardware. The system is very easy to configure and offers high performance even in the most remote corners of the apartment.
You can get Google WiFi system with one, two or three "units" - their number depends on the size of your home. In the case of the set we tested, we are talking about two "units" of Google WiFi, which together should provide a complete WLAN-signal coverage of an apartment of up to 100 square meters.
Compact and efficient
Wrapped in white plastic clothes, the Google WiFi system thanks to a quad-core processor and 512 MB random access memory has enough power. At the same time in Google WiFi built-in four antennas - two for the band 2.4- and two for the 5-GHz. According to the manufacturer, the system is able to work simultaneously in two bands and thus achieve in theory the maximum data transfer rate up to 1200 Mbps.
With the help of technology of forming a directional signal (Beamforming), the transmitter power can be further increased. In addition, for LAN or WAN connections, you can use two Gigabit ports. As a method of encryption, Google WiFi uses WPA2-PSK - this is a modern standard.
Google WiFi: extends according to the size of the apartment
All through the app
Setting up a WLAN system from Google is done exclusively through the application (Google WiFi), which is installed on a smartphone or tablet. In this case, all the user's customization actions are accompanied by a really good assistant assistant. Even without its prompts, you must first connect one of the "units" of Google WiFi to an electrical outlet and your Internet connection (an existing modem-router or modem) - via the integrated Google WiFi modem will not be available.
Then you should run on your smartphone an application for configuration, equipped with an assistant. Via Bluetooth, the application will find your "primary unit" of Google WiFi. Then, using the camera, scan the QR code located on the back of Google WiFi, after which the WLAN connection should be installed.
Now you give your network a name, then you set a password to connect to it - and you're done! Adding the second "unit" is just as easy: connect it to a power outlet, hold a smartphone with Bluetooth on for a while, scan the QR code - and you're done!
In something more, in something less: really more information the Google WiFi application will not share You can not do much
There are really a lot of options to configure the application does not offer. You can prioritize the requests of certain users, create a guest network, add new Google WiFi devices, test the speed of the Internet connection and take advantage of a couple of other functions.
Moreover, connection tests show "heterogeneous" results: if a pure Internet connection speed test (measured on the LAN port of the primary "unit") yields a result in "real" numbers, then the quality of communication between individual "units" of the system is estimated by the application only by school marks .
Everything is displayed visually, intuitively understandable and graphically designed accordingly. But all this - not for those users who are engaged in setting up networks on a professional level! In particular, it will be in vain here to search for the possibility of manually installing WLAN-channels or changing other settings on the network.
The best WLAN-network is everywhere!
With daily use, you really will not notice when your device will "change" one "unit" of Google WiFi to another - in this sense the network is completely homogeneous. Here in our test apartment we could not find any "narrow" place that used to be found in one corner or the other - the system imperceptibly and constantly connects you to the device Google WiFi at the given moment.
Now everywhere the signal level is really very good, which is marked not only by subjective sensations, but also by the results of measurements of the Google WiFi application. Perhaps, the automatic choice of channels functions here very well.
Alternative: more power - Netgear ORBI AC3000 (RBK50-100PES)
Netgear also with its WLAN system, which costs about 27,000 rubles, promises the best WLAN coverage in all corners of your apartment or your home. Based on the results of the practical test, we can confirm that it works really well. Moreover, setting up the Orbi system is also very simple.
About the choice of the channel Wi-Fi written already not a few articles and detailed manuals. The result is always the same - the freer the channel, the more stable, stronger and more stable the signal. For Windows 10 finally came the preview version of the most popular utility for fast monitoring of radio channels - WiFi Analyzer. Now you know the free range - it's easy
The Windows version assumes that you already have Windows 10 on board, so you need to upgrade. On phones under control Windows Phone the utility will not get up for the same reason - you need a "dozen", but since it has not yet come out, you can install it only on personal computers.
External influences exert a huge influence on the signal. Walls, electrical appliances, other Wi-Fi networks. Even the material of your interior door can play a big role in the bandwidth of the channel. Their detailed description can be found at http://optim-yug.ru/. There you can ask for price and choose a good interior door for yourself.
Download WiFi Analyzer for Windows 10
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/wifi-analyzer-preview/9nblggh33n0nHow to use?
When you start the program, the window opens:
1 - Receiver sensitivity.For my adapter is 46 dBm (decibel-milliwatt). Sensitivity, in this aspect - this is the minimum signal level at which Wi-Fi will work. The closer you are to the access point (router), the lower the sensitivity. The further - the receiver needs more "plowing" to correctly process the signal. A value greater than -85 dBm is considered unsatisfactory for normal operation.
If any of the icons is lit, then:
2 - Signal quality
3 - The main parameters of the network. Here we will see the name (SSID) of the network to which we are connected, the frequency and the current channel.
4 — BSSID - The MAC address of our wireless network.
Separately about BSSID - what is it?
Basic service set identification (BSSID) -the unique number (mac-address) of our wireless network. If your router supports MBSSID technology, then you can configure up to several access points on a single router. Those. multiple networks within a single Wi-Fi network. One SSID can have up to four BSSIDs, each one has its own mac address. You can check it out in the command line team netsh wlan show networks mode = bssid . Here's how it looks:
What is it for? For different security policies (guest network / personnel network), different routing policies (static IP, DHCP), and so on. Yes, you can buy a second access point and configure everything there, but this is an additional financial cost + an extra device on the network.
How to choose the right channel?
Go to the tab "Analyze" at the top of the program and see the following picture:
Each arc is someone's Wi-Fi network, respectively, on the left sensor sensitivity (signal level), at the bottom - channels. Thus, you can track which of the channels "grazes" the largest number of access points. To be clearer, try turning on the SSID display. So the picture becomes even clearer:
Please note that the program itself recommends which channel is the most profitable for our laptop / PC:
Thus, we found out the most "noisy" air, looked at the sensitivity of the receiver and learned that the most free radio channel for our device - 12
What can I do?
If the signal between the router and the laptop still leaves much to be desired, and the distance between them is very small (1-3 meters), then it is recommended to remove the router from the walls to avoid interference from neighboring devices (this may not necessarily be a router). Try to put the router in different points of your apartment - even minor movements around the room can give up to 90% (!) Of signal improvement and, accordingly, speed over Wi-Fi connection
Often there is a need to quickly check level of WiFi signal to select the most free channel with good reception quality. For this task, the simple android application Wifi Analyzer.
With its help you can easily not only determine the free channels, but also check the quality reception of Wi-Fi at different places apartment or cafe or view the changes in the signal in time. After launching, the main window of the program will display a graph showing the visible wireless networks, the reception level and the channels on which they operate. If they intersect on the graph, this will be visually displayed.
You can also see the "rating" of channels, by the type of any star rating, which clearly shows how the choice of one or another of them is at the moment. Another feature of the application - the analysis of strength wi-Fi signal. First, you need to choose which wireless network to check, then watch the receive level, while there is nothing to stop moving around the area or to check the reception quality change depending on the location of the router.
Also, it is not superfluous to add that our interest in WiFi network can be not only in a passive analysis. With help mobile phone you can also try to pick up the password for the wireless access point. To do this, you will need an application called WIBR.
WIBR is a unique application with which you can hack a neighbor's Wi-Fi and use its Internet for free. This is not a joke, WIBR works on the principle of automatically selecting passwords (brute) to Wi Fi, and if the password is simple, then the probability to pick a password is close to 100 percent.
Vibra supports hacking several Wai-Fi networks simultaneously, and displays information on one screen, when you click on one of the networks you can see detailed statistics about the progress of work: the number of passwords per minute, how many password options are already checked and how much is left.
The application supports loading of own dictionaries, for this you need to download them (or write all options of possible passwords in your notebook yourself and save in txt format), specify the path in the program itself. Especially for our users, we added more than 10 dictionaries with the most common passwords.
