Announcing:
The Wireless Signal Monitor v2.5

Features:
Shows, in vertical graph format, the strength of your 802.11b/g card's signal received from the access point and the SSID of the access point in the details window. It updates every second. If there is no signal, it should show 0%. For properties window, right click on the performance panel, select Wireless Monitor, and click edit.

Feature Explanation:
Min/Max values - enter the highest and lowest values of the raw data that your card can receive (get this by unchecking all options related to meter display) and the algorithm takes care of the conversion to a number between 0 and 100.

Offset - this value is ADDED to the raw data to make it positive. You can use the default value of 100 or provide your own.

Multiplier - this value is multiplied by the data (after the offset if that is selected) in order to scale it closer to 100.

Use Caps - turn on this value if you want the panel to make sure your values do not got above 100 or below 0. Turn it off to remove those caps.

Title - You can enter a new title for your monitor. It is limited to 5 characters, b/c you can have more than 3, but too many won't work. I allowed 5 to make room for the user's skin settings in case it makes these graphs wider.

Show Details Window - fairly obvious

Installing:
New users:
Once you run the DSPACKAGE file while DS is running, you must restart DS before you can see "Wireless Monitor" on the Add menu of the Performance Panel.
Requires Microsoft .NET Framework to be installed before using.
Requires Windows XP
Upgrade:
You can run the DSPACKAGE. DS will ask if you want to disable the plugin and you can click yes. Restart DS completely (!) and once it opens back up, run the DSPACKAGE again. If people want it, I can release a ZIP file for those of you who just want to overwrite the DLL which is all that is updated.

Known Issues:
- Might not work on systems without XP.
- Might not be supported by some cards. No list yet. Please help test it.
- Might not work with ObjectDock's systats wifi monitor. Works for some, but not all.
<waiting for reports>

Thanks to:
-GoMa - for being my guide, and releasing code as an example and for finding pieces of code for me to get the proper functionality.
-yyy and Prism and GoMa for all of their help with the Details Window "crisis".
-DemonBob for helping me with troubleshooting, and finding references on the internet for coding in C#.
-kdam for trying to fix the details window code. it didn't work out in the end, but a fix should be coming soon i hope.

Please, please, please give me feedback. I want to make this better. The current vision for the next build is to allow the user to input a custom equation to better scale his signal results. Enjoy!

Panel Available in FileForum

Nice I don't have a WiFi so I see 0% You don't have to thank me - I just suggested some things Thanks anyway.

Well, if he shouldn't thank you, he especially doesn't have to thank me.
I have only disturbed him.

It's not WiFi. If you have an 802.11b adapter, it should work. I just didn't want it to get mixed up with wireless accesories such as keyboards and mice.

Oh and I do need to thank you b/c yesterday, I was afraid to try and with your help, I was able to get this out. So thank you!

Thank you also, Prism. You didnt' disturb me. Just made sure I didn't miss anything.

I also don't have an 802.11b adapter too so

Oh OK, I read it again and now I understand.

Just by answering my questions quickly b/c I was eager to get it out.

yyy, installation went OK for you, right? I followed the install file instructions in the SDK

Yes, installation worked great I'm so happy to know that the SDK documentation helped you That proves that it was needed

I'll try it at the office. I've been sitting on this panel for a while myself because the only way I could find to interface with wireless support was by using WMI. Indeed, I got this to work, however, I also found out 2 big problems:
1) The necessary WMI hook you need is only supplied in Windows XP. It's not in 9x/ME/NT or 2000.
2) Even in Windows XP, the vendor has to support that hook and only a few did. I tried it in several different scenarios mostly utilizing notebooks with built-in wireless support and most didn't work. My best luck was using an XP notebook with a Linksys 802.11b PCMCIA card.

Well I have a Belkin, and it is working. I am using XP. I'll put your notes in the first post. Thanks mattisking. Let me know how it works at your office.

Using a True Mobile mini-PCI card in my Dell laptop, it's basically an Orinoco card and everything seems to work fine.

Great work and thanks! Can't wait for future versions. Also you noted that it would only return values in multiples of 20, but mine is showing 1% increments... just fyi... looks great!

Really? It is giving you an exact percentage? Wow, that is really cool. I think it can only be even numbers though so is it really increments of 2?

I'm not sure. mattisking thinks it has to do with driver support and I'm leaning that direction as well. The increments of 2 is my doing, as the strength is reported from -50 to -100, so I make it positive, subtract it from 100, and multiply by 2 so that it scales from 0 to 100.

Now this is funny. I have a 802.11g card. And I get nothing. I'm talking no performance ticket...nothing under the Add button...nothing. But it says it installs successfully.

That is strange. Are you running SP2? I didn't test it on SP2. Do you think that could be an issue?

I don't know why it isn't working on IM's machine...

Oh wait!
IM, did you restart DS? I think you have to restart DS for the monitor to appear in the Perf Panel. GoMa's battery monitor had to do the same thing. That is the only thing I can think of right now.

I guess I have to put this on the file forum....this is a first.

Panel has been added to fileforum.

Good job. I am using a Linksys 802.11G Wireless Card and it installed fine. I did have to install and restart DS before I could add it to the Performance Panel, but it works fine after that. I am getting a full spectrum of signal strengths although it does only show even numbers. Nice.

~acommonjo

I'm afraid I can't help the even numbers. Glad to know it works. I don't know why, but apprarently, you have to restart DS before an added performance monitor will show up. I have yet to find out if it's from the code, or if kdam designed it that way.

I remember something from a little while ago saying that it is an error of DS that kdam would have to fix not you. I don't mind the even number thing too much. It would be nice to have the same display options that the other Perf_Monitors have, but that is something for you to worry about later.

~acommonjo

I'll get to that as soon as I figure it out. I'm still working on getting the functionality that I want. Right now, I've figured out how to get the name of the active SSID, but I don't know what to do with it. I'm thinking of putting it in the details window or tooltip. I'm not sure how to do either right now, but it took 6 hrs to figure out how to get the SSID in the first place, so I'm definitely going to use it!

Hi Eitan,
I'm happy you sorted out the issues!
It's not your fault that DS has to restart after installing, it's just that the Performace panel doesn't update its list of counters.

I was very happy to help, if you have more questions contact me.

does this panel cause an increase in cpu usage?

Great work. I installed it without a problem and it seems to be working well. Here are the details:

I am using a NetGear MA521 PCI Card. After I installed, I opend the NetGear Config utility, which also shows a graphical display of the WSS.

Both hover at the same spot when I don't move around, which is very good. It seems like the DS plugin reports more spikes then the config utility. For example, the config utility will continue to hover at around 65-70% while the DS plugin will spike up to 80-95% for a second, and then drop back down.

The thing is, I am not sure which one is correct! Could something else be influencing the reporting from the DS plugin? I really have no idea.

Thanks Eitan!

Coult69

P.S. I do notice a slight uptick in CPU use. 15-16% before adding it, 18-20% after...

Actually I did.

Well it appears that I'm at least partially right.

I can only get a 0% reading on my Windows 2000 desktop at work. It's using a USB Linksys 802.11b. I doubt it's that it's Linksys but as I said earlier, it's likely that the hooks needed for WMI don't exist in Windows 2000. Still, this panel should work fine for most users using Windows XP. I use XP everywhere else... but can't at the office.

New twist. I shutdown Objectdock which had a SystemStat for WiFi signal...and now the monitor works.

Now that is interesting....I have the same systats wifi monitor on my object dock and they both work exactly the same for me. glad to know it works for you on some level.

So it only works on XP? I'm going to note that in the first post. If anyone has it working on Win2000, let me know so I can put that information up.

Interesting... I just got a reading of -200% on my WSS monitor. Only for a couple second though.

I was actually just starting this post to let you know that I have tested 2 other 802.11b cards and have had no problems at all. Congrats! I can't wait to see the next release. Hopefully all of your trouble with the details window will be worth it.

~acommonjo

Yeah me too. Geez, I promise to never ask for details window help again as soon as I get this one working.

BTW, the card returns -100 if there is no signal. I can't even think of how it would return -200...unless the card returned -200!

Good point! I am so close, but I can't get rid of the flashing. It is as if the OnShowDetails function is calling itself over and over.

It is. That's why I told you to add this check (see other two threads about this topic).

acommonjo - I added a condition to the monitor so that it will prevent negative numbers from showing up on the panel. It will be in the next release.

Sorry...never went back to see the reading after I got the performance ticket enabled. I show double the value...so if Objectdock shows 65...I see 130...but I could really care less. I don't need Objectdock anymore.

That is strange. That is only when you run them together or all the time?

Also, I've had values as high as 106%... still works good though..

Weird....I wish my wireless card gave me more values from the function. i only get multiples of 20.

I have had values as high as 180% when sitting next to my router. See attached picture.

~acommonjo

Uh oh...I'm not sure what that is. I wish microsoft would publish the return range for the WMI class I am reading. Some ppl seem to get -50 to -100 so the math works out to values between 0 and 100. If you get values from 0 to -100, I guess it would make sense that you get 0 - 200.

actually, acommonjo, is there a way for you to see if it is actually -180?

What would you suggest I do to test that for you. I just tried using the Linksys Network Monitor that came with the card itself and it just shows 100%. Maybe it actually can get more than 100, but the Linksys Monitor just doesn't show it. I dunno... If there is any other tool/monitor that I can run to give you a better diagnosis let me know.

~acommonjo