R language

Compare two WiFi networks on a Windows machine.

Purpose

Provides R code that compares the relative speeds of two competing WiFi networks on a Windows machine. . Written for fun more than anything else.

Background

This script was written to compare the ping performance of a standard home WiFi connection and the equivalent supplied from the same router via a signal extender. It can be used to compare two standard WiFi networks though.

Assumptions

• You have the log in credentials to your network saved locally. The script will connect and reconnect to WiFi networks using netsh wlan for you.
• You are somewhat controlling for confounding variables like network traffic.

Use netsh wlan show profiles to see all of the networks you have used on your local machine. Add key=clear to see the respective WiFi passwords saved on your machine in plain text!

Misc

This was written in between making dinner and washing up, so there are many ways it can be improved in terms of the R syntax, the design of the experiment and the range of tools used. I also considered using wmic, for instance:

wmic NIC where NetEnabled=true get Name, Speed

But I couldn't seem to get enough variability out of it. I'm also aware there are libraries like network, but again, that's not fun.

How to use it.

Install dependencies:

install.packages("data.table")

Set your input variables:

wifiRouter <- "Router"
wifiExtender <- "Extender"

loci <- c("Lounge", "Kitchen", "Stairs")
host <- "www.google.com" # or just ip.

noPings <- 150

Get useful functions:

source("functions.r")

Run the lapply command and answer the prompt in between each location:

dfList <- lapply(loci, ufnApplyAll)

Collect the results.

Sample output

While the names have been the changed, the data is real. It seems my extender experiences more dropouts that its routed counterpart, and also has a higher average ping time to Google. Luckily it's barely noticable!

Minimum	Maximum	Average	PacketsLost	Pings	Website	Location	Network
7	116	17	1	150	www.google.com	Lounge	Router
10	391	31	10	150	www.google.com	Lounge	Extender
6	126	19	0	150	www.google.com	Kitchen	Router
11	364	35	5	150	www.google.com	Kitchen	Extender
7	133	16	1	150	www.google.com	Stairs	Router
12	338	32	11	150	www.google.com	Stairs	Extender

All of the ping data is printed to the user in the script, so if you feel like extracting the rest then go for it.

Fun stuff

If you want a proper HTML report of your WiFi stats, run this on a command prompt as an administrator:

netsh wlan show wlanreport