WiFiScanner for Mac: Complete User Guide

What this guide covers

This is the screen-by-screen reference for WiFiScanner's native Mac app. It covers the direct-download (non-App Store) build specifically: the version whose license activates with a pasted key rather than an in-app purchase.

The two builds share the same screens. The only real difference is how the License pane looks and works, called out where it matters.

Windows and Mac are two separate native apps built to work the same way wherever possible. Where this guide's screens differ meaningfully from the Windows app, see Where This Differs From Windows at the end, or go straight to the Windows Complete User Guide if that's the platform you're on.

Software updates

In the edition downloaded from our website, WiFi Scanner tells you when a new version is available and installs it for you, after you say yes. It checks about once a day. When there is a new version, it shows what's new and offers three choices:

• Install Update downloads the new version and checks that it is signed by AccessAgility. When the download finishes, choose Install and Relaunch, and WiFi Scanner opens again on the new version.
• Skip This Version stops the reminders for that version.
• Remind Me Later asks again later.

WiFi Scanner never installs anything without asking you first. To check yourself, choose WiFi Scanner → Check for Updates…. To stop the automatic check, turn off Automatically check for updates in Settings > General > Software Updates; you can still check yourself at any time.

The App Store edition is updated by the App Store, like any other App Store app, so it has neither the menu item nor the setting.

WiFi Scanner tab

The home screen: a live grid of every WiFi network your Mac (or a connected SSH sensor) can hear, a filter tree on the left, and graphs, beacon details and alerts along the bottom. The grid updates by itself as networks are heard; there is no scan button to press.

Filter with the tree

The tree groups the scan by Band, SSID, BSSID, Signal, Vendor, Channel, Channel Width, Mode, Security, saved Filters, BSSID Notes, Watched and Information Elements.

• Click a row to show only those networks.
• ⌘-click to add or remove more rows.
• Press Space to switch the row you added last between is and is NOT.
• Click All Networks to clear the filter.
• The arrow keys move through the tree, and the grid follows as if you clicked.

Rows in the same group widen the filter (two SSIDs means either one). Rows in different groups narrow it (an SSID and a band means both). Whatever you pick is written into the Filter box, so you can see the filter being applied.

Channel rows read in numeric order. Mode is the newest 802.11 mode the AP advertises (for example 802.11ax or 802.11be), as the Mode column shows it.

Type a filter

For more precise filters, type an expression into the Filter box:

The filter also applies to the views below the grid: Spectrum Graphs, Signal vs. Time, Signal Summary and Alerts show only the networks it keeps. Alerts that are not about one network always show. The setting that keeps your connected network visible while filtering applies to the grid only.

Look inside a beacon

SSID Details at the bottom decodes the selected AP's beacon down to the bit: HT, VHT, HE and EHT capabilities, Transmit Power Envelope, RSN and RSNXE, WMM and MU EDCA, Spatial Reuse, and the AP name that thirteen vendors broadcast.

The Information Elements group in the tree is built from the scan itself: one row per 802.11 element any AP is broadcasting, with how many APs carry it.

To turn a field into a grid column, right-click its row in SSID Details, or an element in the tree, and choose Add as Column. A row already shown as a column has a filled tag. For a field the grid already has (Country, Station Count, Channel Utilization, Basic Rates or Supported Rates) the menu reads Show “Country” Column instead and turns on the built-in column.

Choose and rename columns

• Right-click a column header to show or hide columns. The first items are for the header you clicked: Hide and Rename, or Remove for a column you added. The rest of the list is alphabetical.
• Columns you added from beacon details have their own section in that menu; untick one to remove it. They are marked with a * after their name in the header, the menu and Settings → Columns, and hovering the header says which element and field the column shows.
• Rename a column for the name your team uses, such as TxBF for SU Beamformer. The grid shows your name; the tooltip, the menu and Settings → Columns show both (TxBF (SU Beamformer)). Clear the name to put one header back, or choose Restore Default Header Names to put them all back. Names can be up to 40 characters.
• Columns stay where you put them. A column you show again returns to its old place; one shown for the first time goes right after the visible column before it in the menu.

Vendor and Security

Vendor comes from the BSSID's registered maker (its OUI). A randomized BSSID has no registered maker, so the vendor comes from the beacon instead: the manufacturer the AP advertises for WPS, or else the AP maker's own vendor element (for example Cisco Meraki). Elements that name a standard or a chip rather than the AP maker, such as WMM, WPA, Broadcom or Qualcomm, are skipped.

Security is read from the AP's own beacon whenever the Mac has it, so Enterprise, WPA3-only and Enhanced Open networks are named as the AP advertises them. Wi-Fi 7's SAE-EXT-KEY counts as WPA3.

Group by AP

Tick Group by AP above the grid to show each physical access point as one row, across all its bands and networks. In a grouped row:

• SSID lists every network the AP broadcasts, Hidden first if any are hidden.
• BSSID shows the shared address with the differing digits as #, or the lowest BSSID and +N when they share nothing.
• Count is how many BSSIDs were merged.
• Channel, Band, Width, Signal, Mode and Generation give one value per radio, for example 6 / 44 / 133, 2.4 / 5 / 6 GHz and 40 / 80 / 320 MHz.

Signal vs. Time and Signal Summary then draw one line per AP. The Spectrum Graphs keep every radio, so a dual-band AP still appears on both band graphs.

Wi-Fi 7 multi-link APs

A Wi-Fi 7 AP can run several bands as one device (multi-link operation, MLO). Each link keeps its own row, because each has its own channel and signal.

• The MLO column shows how many links the AP runs and which client modes it supports, for example 3 links (2.4/5/6) · EMLSR, or Off for a Wi-Fi 7 radio not using MLO.
• The MLD Address column is shared by every link of one AP.
• Click a link and the AP's other links get a light blue tint, even when they sit far apart in the list.
• Right-click a link and choose Select All 3 Links of This Wi-Fi 7 AP to select them together. The row you right-clicked stays the one the views below follow.

Open a capture file

File → Open Capture… opens a pcap or pcapng file in the Scanner. A bar above the grid says Showing data from the file and how many networks it holds, and live scanning pauses so the file stays on screen. Back to Live Scan (or Start) returns to the air. Frames the capturing radio marked as failing their checksum are left out, since their addresses are corrupt.

Signal Summary and Signal vs. Time

• In Signal Summary, drag each RSSI slider to hide weaker networks.
• In Signal vs. Time, spread two fingers on the trackpad to zoom in on the time axis (down to 10 seconds) and pinch to zoom out. Swipe sideways with two fingers, or drag, to look back, and double-click to see it all again. Zooming needs a little history first; until there is enough, the chart says so.

Toolbar and sharing

• Scan Interface picks what to scan from: your Mac's adapter, an SSH sensor, your ESP32-C5 cards, or a shared scan from another computer.
• The card icon opens the ESP32-C5 cards window.
• The Alerts bell opens the alerts drawer.
• The globe and QR-code icons share your scan: the globe makes a link anyone can open in a browser, the QR code makes a Zero-Touch pairing code for WiFi Scanner on another computer. They appear once Remote Scanner is licensed; the Windows guide describes both in full.

Only the sharing computer needs Remote Scanner. To view a share, choose Zero-Touch Remote WiFi Scanner as the Scan Interface and enter its code; no license is needed. When the sender has a spectrum analyzer, its trace, waterfall and detections appear on your Spectrum Graphs under the sender's analyzer name with (remote) after it.

Scanning via an SSH sensor

An SSH sensor is how you survey a site remotely: a Raspberry Pi (or similar Linux box with a WiFi adapter) runs the sensor side over SSH, and your Mac does the analysis.

1. Configure the sensor in Settings → Remote Scanner.
2. On the Scanner tab, open the Scan Interface dropdown. Every SSH sensor device you've configured shows up as its own entry, right alongside your Mac's own WiFi adapter.
3. Select it. That device's scan results stream into the same grid, filters, and graphs as a local scan.

ESP32-C5 cards

A low-cost ESP32-C5 board running the WiFi Scanner card firmware is a small Wi-Fi scanner and spectrum analyzer in one, over USB or Bluetooth. Each card can:

• scan Wi-Fi networks into the Scanner (2.4 and 5 GHz),
• draw spectrum on the channel graphs (needs the Spectrum add-on), and
• capture frames in the RF Monitor and Capture tab.

A board on ESP-SDR becomes a card in about 20 seconds: see Convert a board. A new board, or one on other firmware, gets the card firmware the same way: see Install the card firmware on a new board.

Add a card

1. Open the ESP32-C5 cards window: click the card icon in the Scanner toolbar, or Manage C5 cards… in Settings → Spectrum.
2. Plug a card into USB and click Add USB followed by its ID. For a card over Bluetooth, click Find cards, then Add and its name under Bluetooth cards. The first time, macOS asks whether WiFi Scanner may use Bluetooth.
3. WiFi Scanner checks the card's identity, then lists it. Click it to set what it does (below).
4. Click Run cards. Each card's line counts its Wi-Fi scans and RF sweeps as they come in.

Up to 12 cards. Pause cards stops them and Disconnect lets them go; Run cards brings them back.

What each card does

When more than one card draws spectrum, Spectrum display chooses whether the graphs show the combined Automatic coverage or one card. Remove card takes a card out of the list.

Scan Wi-Fi with cards

Once a card has a Wi-Fi role, ESP32-C5 cards appears in the Scanner's Scan Interface menu. Choose it and the grid, filters and graphs fill with the networks the cards hear, like a scan from your Mac's own adapter. Cards are 1x1 radios with no 6 GHz, so they see 2.4 and 5 GHz networks only.

Card firmware updates

WiFi Scanner carries the latest card firmware. With Update card firmware automatically on (it is on by default), a card on older firmware updates when it connects: about 30 seconds over USB, about 100 seconds over Bluetooth, and a card on firmware older than 2.3 over USB only, in about 20 seconds. The card's line shows the progress, for example Updating firmware to 2.3.2: 45%, then the card restarts and carries on. Keep it plugged in (or in range) until then. On firmware 2.3 or later an interrupted update leaves the previous firmware in place, and the card tries again the next time it connects.

Alerts drawer

Open the alerts

• Click the Alerts bell in the title bar, or
• Click the Alerts tab alongside Spectrum Graphs/Signal vs. Time/Signal Summary/SSID Details at the bottom of the Scanner tab.

Act on an alert

Each card names the specific BSSID/SSID behind the finding and explains what's wrong in plain language. Each card offers two ways on:

• Show in Scanner jumps to and selects that row.
• Open in Copilot routes to the matching outcome card.

This is the same evidence-routing Copilot's own cards use, so you land in the same place whichever direction you start from.

Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 findings

Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 findings include:

• Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link Security Mismatch: the links of one MLO network advertise different security.
• 6 GHz WPA3 Without Hash-to-Element.
• Target Wake Time (TWT) Required: devices without TWT cannot connect.
• Channel Switch in Progress: the AP is announcing a move to another channel, usually after radar on a DFS channel.
• BSS Color Collision: raised only between two radios on the same band and channel, never between two networks of one radio.
• Non-PSC 6 GHz Channel: raised only when no other access point's neighbor report lists the network.

LAN Scanner tab

The other half of the picture. WiFi Scanner scans the air; LAN Scanner scans the wire. It finds every device answering on your local subnet, not just the wireless ones: phones, laptops, printers, cameras, NAS boxes, consoles, anything with an IP.

Scan the subnet

Nothing runs until you ask.

Listen for DHCP

Listen for DHCP is off by default and worth turning on for a long session. A device's DHCP fingerprint is the strongest identification signal available without credentials.

• It is passive and local: it binds UDP 67 and reads broadcasts, transmitting nothing.
• It only catches a device while it joins, reboots or reconnects. One already holding a lease stays quiet until it renews.

Device names

Naming a device. Whatever a device calls itself is rarely what you call it.

1. Right-click a row.
2. Choose Name This Device and give it the name you actually use.

That name is what appears from then on: in the list, in the details panel, and in the exports. Names are kept per device address, so they survive a rescan, a Clear Results and a restart. Clear a name and the discovered one comes back.

Names from the App Store version

If you used the App Store version of WiFi Scanner, where this tab is called Who’s On My Network, the names you gave devices there come across. The App Store build does it by itself the first time it starts.

This direct build cannot reach the older app’s data without your permission, so import the names once:

1. Open Settings › Devices.
2. Use Import Names from Previous Version.
3. Pick either the old app’s WiFi Scanner folder or its Database.sqlite file.

A name you have already typed in this version is never overwritten.

Copilot tab

Rather than making you know which screen answers your question, Copilot leads with the goal itself. Each goal is its own card: "My Wi-Fi feels slow," "Detect rogue access points," "Check roaming readiness."

Run a card

• Click a card. Cards badged AUTO run their action immediately when clicked (a diagnostic, a scan comparison, a report) instead of just routing you to the right screen to finish manually.
• Cards that need a specific network first show an SSID/BSSID field. It is pre-filled when you arrived from a specific row in the Scanner grid.

Security check an SSID, Is this SSID mine?, Check roaming readiness and Why is my speed capped? take an SSID, or a BSSID to check the network it belongs to.

What the cards check

WiFi Checker

WiFi Checker is a second page within the same tab (not a separate top-level tab). It runs a three-track best-practice audit (RF, configuration, security). Each finding shows the actual scan evidence behind it, rather than a bare pass/fail.

Performance tab

Click Run Full Diagnostic to walk the whole path: your device, the WiFi access point, the switch/LAN, the router, the internet, a test server, and finally the applications you use. It explains what it finds at each stage instead of just reporting a single speed number.

The panel on the left shows your current connection's exact details (SSID, BSSID, band/channel, width, security, signal, noise, SNR), pulled straight from the active scan.

Devices, speed tests & diagnostics

Five more sub-tabs sit alongside Summary, each a focused tool.

How the Internet Speed Test measures

Each provider is measured the same way: a fixed Duration per direction over your chosen number of Parallel streams, with the first two seconds excluded while TCP ramps up.

• Clear Results empties the log.
• Run Full Diagnostic uses the provider you have chosen and names it in its report.

WiFi Planning and Survey tab

WiFi Planning and Survey opens with a sample project loaded so there's always something on screen to explore.

Open a project

• Use Open or New to work on your own. A project opens fitted to the window so you see the whole floor first.
• Projects saved by the Windows app open here too.
• If a project cannot be opened, an alert says why and the current project stays on screen.

The three modes

The tab has three numbered modes, walked through via the stepper at the top, each with its own left-side tool rail:

1. Planner
2. AP-on-a-Stick
3. Post-Validation

Planner: import or draw a floor plan, place APs (or let Auto-Place APs and Auto Channel Plan do it), and preview coverage with the heatmap before anything is physically installed.

The Planner's steps above the toolbar (Floor Plan, Prediction Area, Calibrate, Walls, Place APs) show where the floor shown stands: a finished step gets a green check mark, and the next one is highlighted. Click a step to open its tool, or hover it to see what it does. The steps help you get started; in normal use, work from the buttons on the left.

Place and edit APs

Moving and deleting a planned AP:

• With the Pointer tool, press on the AP's icon or label and drag it. The move is one undo step.
• Right-click an AP on the canvas for Edit Properties and Delete AP.

Cable routes: with Cable Route, click an AP, click anywhere to add bends, then click an IDF to finish. To change a route later, drag a bend to move it, double-click the route with the Pointer tool to add a bend, or right-click the route for Insert Bend Here and Delete Cable Route (right-click a bend for Delete Bend). Undo reverses each change, and the report measures the cable along its bends.

AP Type is the model a new AP is: its bands, PHY mode, spatial streams, TX power and antenna gain. Choosing a model fills in New AP TX and Gain with its figures. Change them and every AP you place afterwards, by hand or with Auto-Place, uses your values.

In AP Properties, choosing a model applies it to that AP.

Walls, floor plan and Prediction Area

Drawing walls: Draw Wall is a continuous run.

1. Click each corner. The wall keeps going, staying joined as you follow the plan around.
2. Right-click or press Esc to end the run. The next click starts a fresh one.

The wall material picked in the toolbar applies to each segment as it is drawn, so you can change material partway round.

Importing a new floor plan image over an existing one, such as a higher-resolution rescan, carries the walls, APs and other markers across so they stay where they were on the building.

Prediction Area: a simple box around the building is enough; it does not need to follow the exterior walls. Its dashed outline and corner flags appear only while the Prediction Area tool is selected. They are editing handles rather than part of the plan, so they stay out of the way while you place APs or read the heatmap. Reselect the tool to move them again.

The heatmap and the signal readout under the cursor both stop at its edge.

To delete a Prediction Area:

• Right-click inside it and choose Delete Prediction Area, or use the button shown while the Prediction Area tool is selected.
• Right-click a corner to delete only that corner.

Undo restores either.

Environment

Environment sets how much the space around the APs absorbs signal, on top of the walls you draw.

It is saved with the project, and projects made before it existed open as Office.

Legend, readout and coverage circles

Legend shows or hides the legend in the bar below the map, beside the zoom controls, so it never covers the floor plan. It follows the heatmap view: Signal, SNR, AP Overlap, CCI, Roaming or Data Rate.

For Signal, the gear on the legend opens its settings:

With the Pointer tool, the readout by the cursor shows the predicted signal where the heatmap is drawn, for the AP rank the heatmap shows. The strongest APs are listed under it (data rate in the Data Rate view).

The readout does not appear:

• with the heatmap off,
• outside the Prediction Area,
• below Hide below,
• or while you place or draw.

Coverage Circles draw a ring around each planned AP where its signal falls to the Good ≥ threshold (Thresholds & Requirements). They stop at the Prediction Area, or at the edge of the floor plan when there is none.

Auto Channel Plan

Click Auto Channel Plan to give every AP on the floor a channel and width on each band, so that APs that hear each other well do not share spectrum. The line beside the button gives the number of overlapping pairs before and after.

Undo and redo

⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z undo and redo in WiFi Planning and Survey, like the Undo and Redo buttons. While you are typing in a field they undo the typing instead.

AP-on-a-Stick

Walk the actual space with a temporary AP and your Mac, recording real signal readings to validate the plan against reality. The numbered stepper keeps you on track:

1. Place Test AP
2. Add Measurement
3. Freeze Placement
4. Move to Next Location

The stepper helps you get started; in normal use, work from the buttons on the left. Clear Step Guide in the toolbar to hide it, and select it again to bring it back.

The right-side panel shows live ping stats and ties each walk point back to the network you're actually connected to.

Take a measurement

What a measurement click does: a passive measurement takes a fresh scan at that exact spot rather than reusing the last scan tick, which takes a few seconds.

• A ring appears on the point straight away and fills as the scan runs, so you can see the click registered and how much of the wait is left.
• The marker replaces it when the reading lands.
• Clicking again while the ring is still filling does nothing; wait for it to finish.

Freezing a placement ends that walk. The next measurement starts a new path, so each placement's readings stay separate instead of being joined into one line across the floor. The stepper then checks off the first three steps and shows Move to Next Location until you place the next test AP, so you can tell at a glance that the placement is frozen.

Right-click a placement on the plan to freeze or delete it (in Post-Validation, an installed AP to delete it). Clicking a placement with the place tool selects it instead of adding a new AP on top of it.

Review a walk point

Reading a point back: with the Pointer tool, click any walk point to open every network that was heard there: SSID, BSSID, channel and signal, strongest first, with that point's own strongest reading highlighted.

This is the whole passive snapshot, not just the headline network, so you can answer "how strong was the other SSID right here?" long after the walk.

Active points record only the connected network, so they show that one instead of a list.

Post-Validation

After APs are permanently installed, walk the space again to confirm real-world coverage matches what was promised.

The SLA Scorecard panel gives a straight pass/fail verdict rather than making you eyeball a heatmap. It covers coverage percentage at or above your target, and speed tests where required.

Design controls, export and sharing

• The right rail (Planner mode) holds design controls (AP type, band, heatmap display, capacity thresholds, infrastructure).
• Export and Report produce PDF/Word deliverables.
• Share opens multi-user survey collaboration, syncing through a hosted relay.

RF Monitor and Capture tab

This tab locks a configured SSH sensor, or an ESP32-C5 card, onto one channel instead of hopping the whole band. It trades BSSID-only coverage for the chance to see which clients are actually associated to which access points.

Regular scanning already covers BSSIDs well; this is what adds client visibility on top.

What you need

• A Pro license, which includes RF Monitor and Capture.
• A sensor: a Raspberry Pi or WLAN Pi running iw, ip and tcpdump with passwordless sudo for those three, or an ESP32-C5 card.

Sensors are configured in Settings → Remote Scanner. This tab only picks among the ones already configured.

Setting up a capture

1. Capture Interface: which configured sensor to use.
2. Frequency: 2.4, 5 or 6 GHz. Bands the adapter does not report are hidden entirely, so a card with no 6 GHz radio does not offer 6 GHz.
3. Channel Width: 20/40/80/160 MHz (320 MHz on 6 GHz). Widths the adapter does not advertise are hidden.
4. Channel: the grid narrows as the width widens, showing only channels that are legal primaries at that width. DFS marks 5 GHz channels requiring radar detection, PSC marks 6 GHz Preferred Scanning Channels, and REC marks the non-overlapping 2.4 GHz channels (1, 6, 11).
5. Press Start Monitor Capture.

The status line confirms the lock and reports the width and center frequency the radio actually applied, for example Channel lock confirmed (5180 MHz, 80 MHz wide, center 5210 MHz).

Clients

The table lists every client seen on the locked channel, with:

• its MAC and vendor,
• the BSSID it is associated to and that AP's vendor,
• its IP if it happens to be on your own LAN,
• RSSI, and when it was last heard,
• how it was seen: data frames, management frames (Mgmt Frames) or probe requests,
• any SSIDs it probed for.

Mgmt Frames counts the authentication, association and action frames between a client and its access point. They tie a client to its AP even when the capture holds none of its data frames, which is the usual case over Bluetooth.

Any column header sorts.

Stop and save

Stop Capture offers to save the capture as a pcapng and opens it in Wireshark if it is installed.

Capture with an ESP32-C5 card

The ESP32-C5 Card Capture section captures through a card from the ESP32-C5 cards window, with no sensor to set up.

1. Choose the card in Capture Card. Its name shows whether it is on USB or Bluetooth.
2. Choose 2.4 or 5 GHz, then a channel, or turn on Hop every channel in the band. The card always listens 20 MHz wide and has no 6 GHz radio.
3. Click Start C5 Capture. The frame count rises as frames arrive.
4. Stop Capture offers to save a pcapng and opens it in Wireshark if it is installed.

While a capture runs, your cards stop scanning and drawing spectrum. They carry on when you stop.

Reports

Open Reports from any of these:

• The Reports button in the title bar, which appears when your license includes the Reports add-on.
• The Copilot tab's Reports card.
• The report-generating AUTO cards in Copilot, which jump straight here with a specific type pre-selected.

To close Reports, click Done at the top right or press Esc.

Network Brief

The Network Brief at the top is always current: a live Connectivity/Performance/Security summary of the active scan. Each has a one-click Review… link into the relevant detail.

Export a report

1. Below the Network Brief, pick a report type.
2. Export it as a PDF, Word document, or standalone HTML file.

Full Audit Report combines all five types into one document.

Settings

Open Settings with ⌘, or WiFi Scanner → Settings….

It's a flat icon-grid of panes (not macOS's usual tab strip).

Buttons elsewhere in the app that lead to a setting open Settings on the right pane. Examples are Enter License Key, About's Manage License… and the RF Monitor settings link.

General also has Software Updates; see Software updates.

Remote Scanner

Add, edit, and remove SSH-connected sensor devices here: host, port, username, and a key or password credential. Use any Raspberry Pi or Linux sensor with a monitor-mode-capable WiFi adapter.

A device configured here is what powers both:

• the SSH Scan Interface entry on the Scanner tab, and
• RF Monitor's channel-lock capture, which comes with a Pro license.

BSSID Notes

Every classification and note you set feeds the same store, whether you set it from this pane, the grid's own controls, or the "Is this your network?" prompt. So alerts, reports, and AP monitoring stay scoped to networks you've actually told WiFiScanner you manage.

Spectrum

Spectrum Analyzer

Spectrum Analyzer covers a directly-attached WiPry Clarity or Wi-Spy. It sets:

• whether to keep the analysis controls on screen at all times,
• whether sweeping starts by itself when an analyzer is plugged in,
• how the live trace behaves (below).

Unified ESP32-C5 cards

Manage C5 cards… opens the ESP32-C5 cards window, where cards on the WiFi Scanner card firmware are added and given Wi-Fi scanning, spectrum, or both.

ESP32 ESP-SDR board

ESP32 ESP-SDR (2.4 and 5 GHz) turns a low-cost ESP32-C5 board into a spectrum analyzer. This section covers boards on the free ESP-SDR firmware; a board can also be converted to the WiFi Scanner card firmware, which adds Wi-Fi scanning, frame capture, Bluetooth and automatic updates. A new board can get the card firmware directly, with no ESP-SDR step: see Install the card firmware on a new board.

1. Install the free ESP-SDR firmware on the board from the ESP-SDR web installer (see the steps below).
2. Plug it in. It is found automatically.

• This section shows the board and lets you connect, disconnect, or move a single board between 2.4 and 5 GHz. The 2.4 and 5 band pills in the title bar do the same.
• Plug in two boards and one sweeps 2.4 GHz while the other sweeps 5 GHz, so both graphs stay live at once.

Several analyzers at once

Connect more than one analyzer, for example a Wi-Spy DBx and an ESP32-C5 card, and each sweeps its own band, so the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz graphs are both live.

• The Spectrum Analysis menu lists every analyzer with the band it is on, for example Wi-Spy DBx · 5 GHz. Open one to move it to another band (if another analyzer is already there, the two swap) or to disconnect just that analyzer.
• ESP32-C5 cards are listed in the menu itself under ESP32-C5 cards (or the card's name when there is only one), each card with the band it sweeps, followed by Disconnect for the cards. The cards divide the bands among themselves, so they are not moved from this menu.
• A disconnected analyzer stays disconnected until you choose Connect in the same menu or plug it in again.
• The title-bar band pills light every band being swept; point at one to see which analyzer is on it.
• Reset keeps the analyzers connected and clears the accumulated traces, density, waterfall and detection icons.

Levels are approximate dBm, calibrated against the networks the scanner measures. The board samples the air in short snapshots, so very short bursts can be missed.

A board straight from the web installer can stay silent until it is restarted; WiFiScanner restarts it for you.

First-time board setup

Installing ESP-SDR on a board. To use a board on ESP-SDR, install that firmware once from a web page; nothing to download. (For the WiFi Scanner card firmware, skip this and install it from Settings.)

1. Quit WiFiScanner, so the web page can use the board (only one program can use it at a time).
2. Connect the board with a USB data cable (some cables only charge) to its USB socket, not the one marked UART. WiFiScanner finds the board only through its USB socket, so use the same one afterwards.
3. In Chrome, Edge or Firefox on a computer, open the ESP-SDR web installer.
4. Click Connect device and choose the board's port in the list the browser shows. If it does not connect, hold the board's BOOT button while you click Connect device.
5. In Chip / firmware profile, choose the ESP32-C5 profile (the page usually suggests it once it has detected the chip).
6. Click Install ESP-SDR firmware and wait until the installation log says it has finished. This replaces whatever was on the board before.
7. Close the web page, then open WiFiScanner. The board is found within a few seconds and its live trace appears on the channel graphs. If the board stays at "Not detected", unplug it and plug it in again.

The board keeps the firmware, so this is a one-time step. Then convert it to the card firmware (below), or keep ESP-SDR for spectrum only.

Convert a board to the card firmware

1. Plug the board, running ESP-SDR, into USB and open Settings → Spectrum.
2. Next to the board, click Convert to WiFi Scanner card firmware…, then Convert in Convert this board?
3. Keep the board plugged in for about 20 seconds. When it says Converted to firmware and the version, the card restarts and appears in the ESP32-C5 cards window, ready to add.

If it says Conversion failed, unplug the board, plug it in again and convert it again. If it is then listed as a board that did not answer, install the card firmware from there.

To go back to ESP-SDR later, install it again with the ESP-SDR web installer.

Install the card firmware on a new board

A board that runs neither ESP-SDR nor the card firmware (new from the factory, blank, running other firmware, or left unusable by an interrupted conversion) gets the card firmware straight from WiFi Scanner. When you plug one in, a bar above the Scanner list says New ESP32-C5 board found: click Install Firmware… there, or Not Now to hide it for that board. A stock ESP-SDR board gets the same bar with Convert…. Settings → Spectrum offers both at any time:

1. Plug the board into USB with a data cable, using its USB socket, not the one marked UART, and open Settings → Spectrum.
2. The board is listed as did not answer as ESP-SDR or a card. Next to it, click Install WiFi Scanner card firmware…, then Install in Install the card firmware? Whatever the board runs now is erased.
3. Keep the board plugged in for about 20 seconds. When it says Installed firmware and the version, the card restarts and appears in the ESP32-C5 cards window, ready to add.

Before writing anything, WiFi Scanner checks that the board is an ESP32-C5 with at least 8 MB of flash. Any other board, such as an ESP32-S3 or ESP32-C6, is restarted as it was, and the status says why.

Unexplained energy

Unexplained energy. With a spectrum analyzer connected, WiFi Scanner compares the energy it measures with the networks it scans. Energy the scanned networks do not explain is shaded on the channel graph.

What it probably is appears as a small icon in the row above the graph:

• Bluetooth
• a microwave oven
• Wi-Fi on a channel the scan missed
• a continuous or intermittent narrowband signal (such as a video sender, a sensor or a Zigbee device)
• a frequency-hopping device (Bluetooth audio such as headphones, a digital baby monitor or a cordless phone, which jumps around the band many times a second)
• an analog video or audio sender (an older wireless camera or baby monitor, which sits on one frequency all the time)
• intermittent wideband energy (something wide that comes and goes, found even when it lights each frequency for only a moment)
• other unexplained energy
• a whole band whose background has risen well above what that analyzer showed earlier

Working with the icons:

• Point at an icon to read the details, for example Bluetooth LE advertising: 2479–2481 MHz (17% busy), and when it was first and last seen.
• Icons stay until you clear them, so an alert is still there after you look away. An icon is bright while its signal is being detected and dims once it stops.
• Click an icon to clear it (it comes back only if the signal returns), or clear them all with Spectrum Analysis → Reset.
• The first icon in the row is the analyzer itself; point at it for its name.
• Turn the shading and the icons off with Spectrum Analysis → Flag Unexplained Energy.

Waterfall

Waterfall colors. The waterfall's colors follow each band's noise floor, so the quiet background shows as dark blue and anything about 30 dB above it as green, whatever the analyzer.

The waterfall takes at most a third of the graph's height, so the power spectrum keeps most of the room.

Focus on one channel

Focusing on one channel. To watch one channel closely, focus the spectrum on it in any of these ways:

• Click the channel's number under the graph.
• Double-click the graph near it.
• Right-click a network in the grid and choose Focus Spectrum on This Channel (it uses the network's own width).

The graph zooms to that channel and a label on the graph names the focus, for example Focus: channel 6 · 2427–2447 MHz, with the widths you can switch to and an × to leave.

In focus the analyzer sweeps only that channel, so the waterfall above the graph fills much faster:

• The waterfall turns on and grows taller while you are focused.
• A thin strip above it keeps the last whole-band sweep, with the focused channel outlined, and says how old that sweep is. Click the strip to move the focus there.
• When you leave focus, the whole-band waterfall you had before comes back.

Network Spectrum Device

Network Spectrum Device takes sweeps from an analyzer plugged into a WLAN Pi Go, Oscium Nomad, or Raspberry Pi running the Oscium spectrum service on port 3264, rather than into this Mac. Enter the device's address and the band to sweep, then Connect. A WLAN Pi Go reached over its own USB network answers at 198.18.42.1.

Spectrum Performance

Spectrum Performance is four sliders to trade detail for speed if the spectrum views feel sluggish:

• display refresh rate
• max points per trace
• waterfall history depth
• density resolution

Integration

Credentials are stored in the macOS Keychain, never in plain preferences.

Accessibility

The colorblind-safe palette substitutes blue-family colors for the usual green in charts and heatmaps. It also leans on shape/glyph cues rather than color alone for alert severity.

Alerts

License

Paste a license key and it's active.

Add-on status

Below the license block, every add-on shows its own status: Active or Not included (with a Buy link).

• Core Features (live scan grid, alerts, CSV export) is never gated. It works with no license at all.
• RF Monitor comes with a Pro license.

Auto Save

Enable Auto Save saves your session automatically on a timer (default every few minutes, adjustable). Options let it:

• only save when something meaningfully changed,
• offer recovery after an unexpected close.

Reopen a session

Auto-saved sessions reopen from File → Open Session, which shows the session in the Scanner. It also opens:

• sessions saved by WiFi Scanner for Windows, including its older database sessions,
• this app's older .wifiscan sessions,
• Ekahau survey projects.

File → Save Session saves a .wifi-scanner file, the same kind WiFi Scanner for Windows saves, so a session saved on either computer opens on the other. Auto Save writes the same files.

Spectrum recordings

While you scan with a spectrum analyzer connected, WiFi Scanner records what the analyzer measures, and the session keeps the recording (up to the last 4 hours). When you open a session that has one, the Spectrum Graphs show the recording instead of a live analyzer, with a bar above the graphs:

• Play / Pause plays the recording at the chosen Speed (1x, 10x or 60x).
• Drag the position to any moment; the time beside it is when that part was recorded.

The trace, average, maximum, waterfall and detections work as they do live. Viewing a recording does not need the Spectrum Analyzer add-on or an analyzer.

Columns

Toggle which of the scan grid's columns are visible. Added by You, above the full list, shows only the columns you turned on beyond the standard set, so you can find and untick them without searching the full list. It is hidden while you show only the standard columns.

Column Profiles save and restore a named set of visible columns:

• Save Current, then Apply or Delete a saved profile.
• Import… / Export… a profile as JSON.

Custom Filter

Save named filter expressions for reuse, e.g. rssi > -70 AND band == "5 GHz".

1. Add a name and filter text.
2. Click Save.

Existing filters can be edited, duplicated, or deleted. Import… / Export… use CSV.

Performance

Speed test and diagnostics settings:

• Transfer Size for the internet speed test (larger is more accurate but slower).
• Automatic repeat testing on an interval or whenever the connected network changes.
• A Local Speed Test server toggle: serve as a throughput target for other devices on your LAN.
• A default host for Network Diagnostics.
• The editable list of endpoints Application Tests checks (add, edit, delete, or Restore Defaults).

Serve as a speed-test target

1. Switch the target on.
2. The pane shows the Server Port and every address this Mac is listening on, in address:port form.
3. Select an address and copy it straight into the other device.

Every address is listed rather than one: a Mac routinely has Wi-Fi and Ethernet up at the same time, plus perhaps a VPN, and only the one on the same network as the other device will answer.

Reports

Devices

Two settings for the LAN Scanner tab's network sweep tune how the LAN device scan trades speed against reliability on slower or more congested networks:

• Ping Timeout
• Concurrent Pings

Data & Reset

Local data management, kept separate so one type of data can be cleared without affecting another.

Prompts you'll see

"Location Access Needed"

Shown on the Scanner tab until Location permission is granted. See Scanner tab above.

If macOS never shows the system dialog (common right after a fresh install), the app falls back to opening System Settings → Privacy → Location Services after a couple of seconds so you can enable it manually.

"Is this your network?"

The first time you connect to a network WiFiScanner hasn't seen classified before, it asks once:

• Yes, This Is Mine classifies it Own.
• No, Not Mine classifies it Neighboring.

This is the same classification shown and editable later in Settings → BSSID Notes.

"Recover Session?"

If WiFiScanner didn't close cleanly last time, this offers to reopen the most recent auto-saved session rather than silently losing it.

Where this differs from Windows

The two apps are built to the same design and cover the same workflows, but a few differences are real and worth knowing rather than discovering by surprise:

• RF Monitor (channel-lock packet capture) works through an external SSH sensor or an ESP32-C5 card. Same as Windows, this Mac's own WiFi radio can't do local monitor-mode capture.
• ESP32-C5 cards scan Wi-Fi into the Scanner on the Mac (and the iPad). On Windows the Scanner keeps using the PC's own adapter, and cards add spectrum and frame capture.
• Raw 802.11 Information Elements: both apps now decode the same elements to the same depth. What remains is the source, not the decoder: macOS's public WiFi APIs hand over fewer of an AP's raw elements for a locally scanned network than Windows can read directly, so a capture or an SSH sensor shows more than the Mac's own radio does.
• Survey Collaboration syncs through a hosted relay on both platforms. It is temporarily unavailable on both while a sync bug is being fixed.
• Controller integrations are the same on both platforms: Cisco Meraki and Aruba Instant, with an Enterprise license (not Pro, not the trial).