On windows devices it has always been a challenge to know what the wireless connection was doing and what AP or Channel you are connected to without the use of some client software. In the enterprise that I work we do not install any special client software so when we needed to work the client into the troubleshooting process we needed to download and install the special client software. This is not too bad but sometimes depending on the client it does not really have the information you need.
Use of the "netsh" command in windows.
The netsh command gives you access to a lot of information about the wifi network and the client configuration.
Determine driver levels and wireless card capabilities
C:\Windows\System32>netsh WLAN show drivers
Interface name: Wireless Network Connection 5
Driver : Proxim Wireless 8494 802.11a/b/g/n USB Adapter
Vendor : Proxim
Provider : Fluke Networks Inc.
Date : 4/12/2011
Version : 3.1.0.112
INF file : C:\windows\INF\oem78.inf
Files : 1 total
C:\windows\system32\DRIVERS\arusb_lh.sys
Type : Native Wi-Fi Driver
Radio types supported : 802.11b 802.11a
FIPS 140-2 mode supported : Yes
Hosted network supported : No
Authentication and cipher supported in infrastructure mode:
Open None
Open WEP-40bit
Shared WEP-40bit
Open WEP-104bit
Shared WEP-104bit
Open WEP
Shared WEP
WPA-Enterprise TKIP
WPA-Personal TKIP
WPA2-Enterprise TKIP
WPA2-Personal TKIP
WPA-Enterprise CCMP
WPA-Personal CCMP
WPA2-Enterprise CCMP
WPA2-Personal CCMP
Authentication and cipher supported in ad-hoc mode:
Open None
Open WEP-40bit
Open WEP-104bit
Open WEP
Current connection and channel/data rate
C:\Windows\System32>netsh WLAN show interfaces
There is 1 interface on the system:
Name : Wireless Network Connection 5
Description : Proxim Wireless 8494 802.11a/b/g/n USB Adapter #7
GUID : c4d89218-94b7-46e1-a36d-70d0b217aad1
Physical address : 00:20:a6:e2:e4:bc
State : connected
SSID : psmshmc
BSSID : 3c:ce:73:39:a0:71
Network type : Infrastructure
Radio type : 802.11b
Authentication : WPA2-Enterprise
Cipher : CCMP
Connection mode : Profile
Channel : 1
Receive rate (Mbps) : 130
Transmit rate (Mbps) : 130
Signal : 100%
Profile : psmshmc
Hosted network status : Not available
Show all visible networks
C:\Windows\System32>netsh WLAN show network mode=bssid
Interface name : Wireless Network Connection 5
There are 7 networks currently visible.
SSID 1 : attwifi
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : Open
Encryption : None
BSSID 1 : c8:f9:f9:1a:94:a6
Signal : 28%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 161
Basic rates (Mbps) : 18
Other rates (Mbps) : 24 36 48 54
BSSID 2 : c8:f9:f9:1a:94:ae
Signal : 26%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 161
Basic rates (Mbps) : 18
Other rates (Mbps) : 24 36 48 54
SSID 2 : ACS-Mobile
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 0c:d9:96:00:3c:a2
Signal : 42%
Radio type : 802.11g
Channel : 1
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11 24
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 36 48 54
SSID 3 : ACS-NHO
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA-Enterprise
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 0c:d9:96:00:3c:a0
Signal : 42%
Radio type : 802.11g
Channel : 1
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11 24
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 36 48 54
BSSID 2 : 64:d8:14:b3:ba:d0
Signal : 22%
Radio type : 802.11g
Channel : 1
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11 24
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 36 48 54
SSID 4 : ACS-Guest
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : Open
Encryption : None
BSSID 1 : 0c:d9:96:00:3c:a1
Signal : 36%
Radio type : 802.11g
Channel : 1
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11 24
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 36 48 54
BSSID 2 : 0c:d9:96:9c:ce:31
Signal : 10%
Radio type : 802.11g
Channel : 6
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11 24
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 36 48 54
Monitoring your connection and roaming
Often when I am taking a look at basic performance issues on a floor area I want to see how a particular client is roaming and how it progresses between access points. You can create a simple .bat file to run the command every 5 seconds and see how the client roams and to what AP and channel.
With a text editor create a simple .bat file like:
:loop
netsh WLAN show interfaces
timeout /t 5
goto loop
When you run this the screen should refresh every 5 seconds with the Channel, Signal level, Speed and BSSID (AP) information of the current connection.
Hope this helps.
JC
Update: Matt Frederick did a great job running this ball further down field. See it at:
https://finesine.com/2016/09/17/using-netsh-wlan-show-interfaces-to-monitor-associationroaming/
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