How to gather client signal strength stats for AiMesh network?

[jay613]

I want to collect signal strength statistics FOR EACH CLIENT from an AiMesh network, repeatedly over time, so I can identify clients having trouble.

I purchased several RT-AC68U routers on ebay at great prices and setting them up with AiMesh and wired backhaul I'm pretty happy with the results. I'd like to make improvements based on observed performance.

I used the Android "WiFi Analyzer" app to walk around and measure signal strength from each AiMesh node in every room in the house. That gave me a great starting point on where to position the routers but it's tedious and it doesn't really tell me how each phone, laptop and TV is doing signal-wise.

In the Android "Asus Router" App you can click in to each client and see its signal strength. But doing this client-by-client for dozens of them, and doing it daily, and transcribing all the data by hand, is also too tedious. The web interface doesn't seem to provide this data point .. does it? It's not under the Clients interface as far as I can see.

In the web interface you can look at "WiFi Logs" under system logging and it shows you a signal strength per device. This shows promise but it seems to only show devices connected to the primary router.

Is there any way to see WiFi signal logs for other nodes? Or is there another way to collect client signal strength data for lots of clients, repeatedly, without using a GUI to click on each one and do it manually?

 

[L&LD]

I would gently suggest that what you're asking for isn't necessary or possible on a consumer router setup today.

To do what you want, you would need to install such monitoring software on each client device, which will affect the normal performance they are used for.

Use the network normally and only turn your attention to clients that show issues. You can't be 'pro-active' in Wi-Fi.

You can only fix the current Wi-Fi environment. Tomorrow, your neighbor, your city, your state, or your military can and will make changes to it without consulting you. And you're beginning from nothing again. Particularly if the 'interference' introduced is non-Wi-Fi interference (i.e. it is 'invisible' to your 'app').

The logs you seek to analyze are not useful by themselves either. Missing is the location, orientation, usage, surrounding objects/people, and many other factors that determine that single number 'signal strength'.

A router determines how to operate based on what it 'sees' around it. The client merely is along for the ride.

What the client sees (or worse, what a different handheld client sees using an 'app') is only 10% of the information of how the client and router will interact. 90% (yes, these are my best guesses) is what the router decides will happen.

Use the network as it is intended. If issues arise, the user(s) will let you know which clients are troublesome faster than any statistics you can gather/analyze.