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WiFi Floor Plan

WiFi Floor Plan builds a room-scale diagnostic map using measured browser download throughput rather than RSSI. Every point shows both how well the link performs and whether distance or activity on the channel is limiting it.

Before beginning

The survey uses a dedicated, open Wi-Fi network named Floorplan, broadcast by the appliance measurement radio. This is separate from the Toolbox network used for the main menu. Seeing “No internet” while connected to either appliance network is normal.

Room names and dimensions are saved automatically and remain available after relaunching the tool or restarting the appliance. Measured points are retained only for the current survey, so save the completed map as a PDF before exiting.

Only one device can operate Wireless Toolbox at a time. If another device is already using it, an in use screen appears and the tool starts automatically when that device finishes.

Conducting a survey

1. On the Initialize screen, choose the Wi-Fi band and channel used for the survey. Available choices are channels 1, 6, and 11 at 2.4 GHz, or non-DFS channels 36, 40, 44, 48, 149, 153, 157, 161, and 165 at 5 GHz.
2. Select Set. Preparing the survey network takes approximately 10 seconds; wait for confirmation that Floorplan is broadcasting before opening Wi-Fi settings.
3. Open the phone’s or computer’s Wi-Fi settings and join Floorplan. No password is required, and a “No internet” warning is expected.
4. Return to the browser and select Start.
5. Add a room, giving it a name, length, and width. The plan is drawn to scale.
6. Walk to a location in the room and tap the corresponding point on the plan.
7. Wait while the browser performs a short download test and records the result.
8. Continue measuring locations until the coverage pattern is sufficiently detailed.

Use Undo point to remove the most recent measurement or Reset room to clear every measured point in the selected room. Delete removes a room and its measurements. To survey on a different channel, return to the Toolbox menu and relaunch WiFi Floor Plan.

If a point displays retry instead of a measurement, the transfer did not finish, usually because the phone or computer briefly disconnected from Floorplan. Tap the point again; retry does not mean zero throughput.

Reading the map

Each point carries two kinds of information. Its color and letter grade show delivered throughput; a blue arc shows how much of the link’s capability is being taken by other activity on the channel. Overlapping samples blend into a coverage estimate.

Performance grade

The letter repeats the color’s meaning so saved PDFs remain readable in black and white and for people who have difficulty distinguishing colors. Grades are deliberately conservative: the survey radio uses a 20 MHz channel while a modern access point commonly uses 80 MHz, so treat a grade as at least this good, not as a prediction of maximum network speed.

Channel-availability arc

The blue arc starts at the top of a point and grows clockwise. No arc means the channel is clear and the measured speed is principally limited by the link itself. A quarter-circle means roughly one quarter of the link’s capability is being used elsewhere. A closed circle means the channel is effectively unavailable.

Read the grade and arc together:

• A or B, no arc: Fast and clear; no action is needed.
• A or B with an arc: Fast now, but with reduced headroom. Consider a different channel before traffic increases.
• C, D, or F, no arc: Distance or coverage is the likely limitation. Move the access point closer or add another one.
• C, D, or F with an arc: The channel is crowded. Change the access point’s channel; moving it closer will not solve the underlying problem.

This distinction is the key advantage over an RSSI map. Distance and congestion can produce the same poor result but require opposite remedies.

Point details

After every measurement, the panel below the plan provides the evidence behind the diagnosis:

• Throughput: Data that actually arrived during the test and its grade.
• Link rate: Negotiated capability, including modulation, spatial streams, and channel width.
• Channel available to you: Delivered throughput as a share of what the link should have delivered at that rate. This value controls the blue arc.
• Frames sent again: The percentage of transmissions that required retries.
• Airtime used: How much of the test window the access point spent transmitting. It tends to rise with distance and fall when congestion prevents the access point from taking a turn.
• Signal (uplink): How loudly the appliance hears the phone. This may differ from the phone’s signal bars because the two measurements describe opposite directions of the link.

The tool calibrates the comparison against the best point in the current survey so its own overhead cancels out. If every point is congested, it falls back to a known reference instead of treating the least-bad point as perfect.

The displayed footprint is smaller at 5 GHz to reflect its typically shorter propagation. Walls, furniture, antenna orientation, and local interference still affect the result, so add more points wherever the map changes quickly.

Returning to the Toolbox

Select ☰ to open the Return to the menu instructions. In the phone’s or computer’s Wi-Fi settings, reconnect specifically to Toolbox, not the normal home or venue network. A “No internet” warning is normal. The tool detects the connection and opens the appliance menu automatically.

Save as PDF

Before leaving, open the ⋮ menu and select Save as PDF to preserve the measured map and its legend in the phone’s or computer’s Downloads folder. Files are timestamped so later surveys do not overwrite earlier ones. Reconnect to normal Wi-Fi or mobile data before emailing or sharing the PDF.