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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information Network
Tue, Nov 6 2007 at 12:30PM PST • Contributed by: TypeMRT
Option-clicking on certain icons on the right side of the menu bar provides additional technical information.

As noted in this hint, for example, you can easily see more detailed Bluetooth information. What's new in 10.5, though, is detailed information in the AirPort menu item. Clicking on the AirPort signal icon in the menu bar normally shows only the network name and whether it's secure or not.

By Option-clicking, you can also see the AirPort's MAC address, channel, signal strength (RSSI), and transmit rate, as seen in the image at right. With this new feature, the AirPort signal menu bar icon is useful when setting up or troubleshooting a wireless connection.
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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information | 9 comments | Create New Account
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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information
Authored by: tchambers on Tue, Nov 6 2007 at 1:52PM PST
You failed to mention that if you further hold down the mouse and drag through your networks, that by pausing you will see the RSSI and Security for each of them to the right of the menu entry.

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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information
Authored by: tchambers on Tue, Nov 6 2007 at 1:53PM PST
I meant left of the menu entry - (my other right).

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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information
Authored by: robg on Tue, Nov 6 2007 at 4:21PM PST
Perhaps the hinter has but one network, which would mean they didn't know that :)

-rob.

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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information
Authored by: huwr on Tue, Nov 6 2007 at 4:54PM PST
Why is the RSSI negative?

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSSI

I would have thought it would be between 0 and 255 - an unsigned short. Could it be that the AirPort menu is displaying it as a signed short, rather than an unsigned short?

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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information
Authored by: megagram on Tue, Nov 6 2007 at 9:31PM PST
I'm not an expert but my theory is Apple is using dBm for measurement. The greater the negative number, the worse off your signal is. The equation is something like db=10log(p2/p1) where P1 is your original signal in decibels and P2 is the received signal level in decibels.

So, if you have P1=P2 (no signal loss) the signal loss is 10log1 which is 0. If P1=100 and P2=10, the signal loss is 10log.1 which is -10. For P1=1000 and P2=10, the loss is 10log.01 which is -20.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the gist of it.

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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information
Authored by: jestinson21 on Wed, Nov 7 2007 at 3:34PM PST
Not sure about 802.11x but in the cell phone world (GSM, CDMA, UMTS, etc.) the RSSI is usually expressed as negative number (0 being the optimal signal with no loss at all). My base station is sitting about six feet from my laptop and I get a RSSI of -48. All the neighbors are coming in at about -90 so that seems about right.

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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information
Authored by: ferret-slayer on Wed, Nov 7 2007 at 10:21AM PST
A clarification: you don't see the MAC of your own Airport card,
but rather the MAC of the Base Station for that network. It could
be useful for distinguishing phishing stations.






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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information
Authored by: semaja2 on Thu, Nov 8 2007 at 4:13AM PST
You can also view more information in the bluetooth menu, its funny the simple tips that make it onto OSX hints but the ones that dont

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10.5: See detailed AirPort connection information
Authored by: robg on Tue, Nov 20 2007 at 6:45AM PST
That one has already been on macosxhints.

-rob.

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