A question from a reader:

Tony do you know of a “Simple” program that will measure antenna signal
strength in dB while you are connected to your wireless link. I guess it could
be called a signal strength meter. The ones avaiable either show you in a
bar graff or some other rediculas manner that is good for Non Tech folks but
to most of us Geeks it would be nice to be able to see the readout in dB so
the antenna could be fine tunned for the best signal.

And my (less-than-perfect) answer:

Heya. This seems like something that would be exposed from the Network Interface object of the Performance Monitor snap-in, but I couldn’t find it. I did find the dB listed by network diagnostics, however. Do this (in Windows 7):

1. Right-click the wireless network icon in the notification area, and then click Open Network And Sharing Center. Or just open Network And Sharing Center some other way.
2. In Network And Sharing Center, click the wireless network.
3. In the Wireless Network Connection Status dialog box, click Diagnose.
4. Let Windows Network Diagnostics run. When it announces that it can’t find a problem, click the View detailed information link at the bottom of the page.
5. In the Detection Details section, scroll down to the “List of visible access point(s)”. It lists the dB of every access point. You can copy the whole thing to the clipboard so you can easily search it.

List of visible access point(s): 1 item(s) total, 1 item(s) displayed
BSSID        BSS Type PHY    Signal(dB)    Chnl/freq    SSID
————————————————————————-
00-13-46-86-01-FC    Infra     g    -66        2     myhomeap

It’s not quite as easy as I’d like, but the raw information is there. If you find a prettier tool, do let me know.

Tony