WiFi Analyzer

Wi-Fi signal analyzer, channel planner and local connection diagnostics tool.

Built with GTK4/Adwaita. Part of the Danne L10n Suite.

Example networks shown; the app displays scan results from the local device.

Fictional local measurements shown; the text list complements the chart for screen-reader users.

Features

• Scan access points through NetworkManager D-Bus only after selecting Scan; no privileged shell command is required.
• Prefer the adapter with an active NetworkManager connection when the computer has multiple Wi-Fi devices. Active-link width and Wi-Fi generation are read from that interface.
• Filter results by network name, BSSID, channel or security type.
• Show cautious security advice for open, Enhanced Open, or older security modes on the connected network.
• Inspect 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz bands with a channel-overlap graph.
• Navigate the channel graph with Left/Right and Home/End, filter channels with Enter/Space, and hear channel selections read by screen readers.
• Show NetworkManager's announced AP bandwidth when available, with a clearly marked estimate as a fallback.
• Mark 5 GHz DFS channels. Their availability depends on the local regulatory domain.
• Estimate channel overlap from access points visible in a scan. The score does not measure client traffic or hidden networks.
• Exclude channels outside the locally reported regulatory ranges and channels marked NO-IR, passive-scan or no-beaconing from recommendations when that information is available.
• Sort results by signal, channel, or security and group repeated SSIDs by access-point count.
• Export visible, filtered results as CSV, JSON, anonymized JSON or an HTML diagnostic report, with a user-selected file name and destination.
• Escape formula-like untrusted text in CSV exports so nearby network names are not interpreted as spreadsheet formulas.
• Keep up to 100 local scan summaries for future history views. Scan data never leaves the device and can be cleared from the menu.
• Review local signal history with an accessible chart summary and a newest-first text list of measurements.
• Mark the active access point and use the actual channel width reported by iw for that radio when available.
• Identify Wi-Fi 4, 5, 6/6E and 7 for the active link from iw PHY markers. A generation is never guessed for an unconnected AP.
• Compare consecutive scans to identify new, missing, or materially changed access points.
• Create a self-contained HTML diagnostic report or an anonymized JSON export that omits SSIDs, BSSIDs and connection-specific fields. Radio measurements remain and can still reveal a location; review the file before sharing it.
• Select an access point to identify the strongest overlapping neighbours.
• Show the active connection's gateway and DNS servers from local system diagnostics.
• Use optional 60-second monitoring and location profiles for private local scan history.

Installation

PyPI (Debian/Ubuntu)

GTK, libadwaita, PyGObject and Pycairo use native system libraries, so install them from your distribution before installing the Python package:

sudo apt install python3-gi python3-gi-cairo python3-cairo gir1.2-gtk-4.0 gir1.2-adw-1 network-manager iw pipx
pipx install --system-site-packages wifi-analyzer

Debian/Ubuntu

wifi-analyzer is distributed through the Danne L10n Suite APT repository, not the default Debian or Ubuntu repositories. Add the repository before installing:

APT metadata now uses the replacement signing key with fingerprint C7982569D1DCC5468A072D94D7B45ED27B9EBB63. The previous key is retired. Verify the downloaded key with gpg --show-keys --with-fingerprint /tmp/yeager-repo-key.asc and confirm its fingerprint before installing it. Existing users must install the new key before running sudo apt update.

wget -qO /tmp/yeager-repo-key.asc https://yeager.github.io/debian-repo/yeager-repo-key.asc
sudo install -m 0644 /tmp/yeager-repo-key.asc /usr/share/keyrings/yeager-repo.asc
echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/yeager-repo.asc] https://yeager.github.io/debian-repo stable main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yeager.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wifi-analyzer

If APT still cannot find the package, check that the repository appears in apt update and run apt-cache policy wifi-analyzer. The signed APT index may lag behind the latest release. To install the current version, download the .deb from GitHub Releases and install the downloaded file with sudo apt install ./wifi-analyzer_*.deb.

Source packages follow Debian policy and can be built with:

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b

Fedora/RPM distributions

The release includes an RPM built on Fedora 44. Download it from GitHub Releases and install it on Fedora 44 with sudo dnf install ./wifi-analyzer-*.rpm. The iw utility is recommended for extra radio-link and regulatory details; basic access-point scanning uses NetworkManager and does not require iw.

Build the source RPM with:

rpmbuild -ba packaging/rpm/wifi-analyzer.spec

GitHub Actions builds both .deb and .rpm artifacts for releases and pull requests.

Translations

The user interface ships gettext catalogues for 21 locales. Swedish is complete and reviewed; other catalogues may be partial, and untranslated strings fall back to English. See po/README.md to contribute or validate a translation. The Swedish manual page is installed as wifi-analyzer(1) and is maintained in docs/man/sv.

Flatpak

The Flatpak package is built from flatpak/io.github.yeager.wifi-analyzer.json. GitHub Actions builds an installable .flatpak bundle for pull requests and pushes to main. For a version release, the workflow creates a temporary manifest pinned to that exact release tag and includes the bundle alongside the DEB and RPM files on GitHub Releases. Download the .flatpak file and install it like this:

flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub \
  https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install --user ./io.github.yeager.wifi-analyzer.flatpak

License

GPL-3.0

Author

Daniel Nylander — danielnylander.se