NetSpot (for Mac)

We've come to depend on Wi-Fi as a way to work and play on our phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, home video game consoles, and a myriad other products. As such, it's important to have a strong, dependable signal to transfer data. NetSpot, a free Mac utility from Etwok, lets you scan your immediate area for Wi-Fi signals and view related information such as open and closed signals, dead zones, and more. More importantly, NetSpot has a drawing tool that lets you map a Wi-Fi-friendly floor plan in your home or office, so that you can arrange your router and electronics in such as fashion that you'll receive strong throughput.

The NetSpot Experience
NetSpot is used in one of two ways: as a simple Wi-Fi detector (with color-coded readouts in the left column) or as an advanced tool for arranging your router and hardware to create the strongest network possible. When I fired up NetSpot, it quickly picked up dozens of signals (both in the PCMag.com lab and beyond), and identified the strength of each, whether or not they were open or password-protected, SSID, and more.

If you want to see where the signals are the strongest and weakest within your immediate vicinity, NetSpot can help with that, too. When you click a spot on the screen (which can either be a blank or populated with a generic floor plan), NetSpot scans the area for available wireless networks. NetSpot then prompts you to walk around the area while carrying your laptop so that you can see the various strengths in different areas of the room. As such, this mapping feature isn't very useful to desktop computer users.

That said, I like that you can even add measurement information so that you can draw floor plans to scale?very cool. Once you identify the dead points in your home or office (and their sizes) you can remedy the problem by physically relocating your router or purchasing a repeater to give your wireless signal a boost.

Net-worthy
NetSpot is a powerful free app that serves up a surprising amount of relevant Wi-Fi data, and a no-brainer Editors' Choice winner. Desktop users may not take advantage of the mapping feature due to their computers' relative immobility, but laptop users who have even the faintest interest in the surrounding wireless networks should download this app.

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