Wi-Fi Signal Strength in Open Mobile and iPassConnect
Open Mobile reports the signal strength as a percentage, and iPassConnect reports the signal strength in decibels (dB).
Scoring the Signal Strength
Open Mobile
Open Mobile reports signal strength as a percentage (with 100 being the highest) with a score from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest) as shown in the following table.
| Signal Strength | Score |
|---|---|
| 81%-100% | 5 |
| 61%-80% | 4 |
| 41%-60% | 3 |
| 21%-40% | 2 |
| 0%-20% | 1 |
iPassConnect
iPassConnect reports signal strength as a decibel (the lower the decibel the higher the signal strength) with a score from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest) as shown in the following table.
iPassConnect reports the decibel without indicating that it should be a negative value.
| Signal Strength | Score |
|---|---|
| X > -45 dB | 5 |
| -45 dB > X > -65 dB | 4 |
| -65 dB > X > -80 dB | 3 |
| -80 dB > X > -90 dB | 2 |
| -90 dB > X | 1 |
Connection Score
For both Open Mobile and iPassConnect, users should be able to connect if the network has a score of 3 or greater. For Open Mobile, this means a signal strength greater than 40%, and for iPassConnect, this means a signal strength higher than -80 dB.
In some rare instances, users will not be able to connect with a score of 3. In this case, the user may need to move just a little to improve the signal to noise ratio (perhaps a steel column was scattering the signal).
Command Prompt
On Windows 7 or Windows Vista machines, the signal strength (as a percentage) can be obtained through the command Prompt.
Using the Command Prompt to obtain the signal strength:
- Open the Command Prompt.
- Type:
netsch - Type:
wlan - Type:
show all
Below is a screenshot of the result (with signal strength circled in red).
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