Why it might be interesting to create a Wi-Fi adapter report
Currently we want to have our devices connected to a Wi-Fi network to access the Internet. It is increasingly difficult for us to see the concept of a PC or laptop that could not navigate the network of networks. Either in our, in the office or in a public Wi-Fi protected by a VPN we want to have the highest possible stability and speed in our connection.
Thus, for the proper functioning of a Wi-Fi network we need to have a set of specifications, use a series of protocols, encryption and more. Some of the things to keep in mind are:
- The quality of the devices that offer the signal and their receivers.
- Obstacles or architectural barriers that can interfere with the transmission of the signal from that router or access point. An example of this could be the walls. Also, if we are on a different floor, the signal that will reach us is lower.
- The distance we have with that Wi-Fi emitter. Thus, the further away we are, the worse our coverage will be.
One aspect to keep in mind is that in Windows 10 we can automatically generate a report of the Wi-Fi adapter. Thanks to him, we will be able to do administrative and support tasks that help us analyze our Wi-Fi connection, and also find possible solutions to our problems.
How to generate the Wi-Fi adapter report
The way to create the Wi-Fi adapter report requires the use of a command run as administrator. In this case, Windows 10 has been used to carry out this tutorial and we are going to follow these steps:
- We are going to Start Menu.
- We wrote CMD or Symbol of the system.
Then a screen like this will appear:
There, we click on the red box Execute as an administrator. Also in Symbol of the system If we press it with the right button, this option will appear. Once this is done, a window like this will appear where we will enter the command that will generate that report.
The command in question that we must write is the following:
netsh wlan show wlanreport
Here you have the command entered before executing it.
After pressing «enter» it will generate the report of the Wi-Fi adapter as you can see below:
Once finished, the last line marked with a red box indicates the path where we are going to find the report that has been created.
After executing the command, a great deal of information about our Wi-Fi network has been collected, starting with all the events related to our wireless network. In addition, it also obtains information about the execution of network commands such as “ipconfig” with which we can see details of our adapter and also the IP addresses that it is using. It also provides an analysis of available network devices, and information on system events and the current user of the system.
The next step we have to take is to open the Windows file explorer. Then we have to follow the following route C: ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsWlanReport.
Then we will see that we have the following files available in the WlanReport folder.
The file containing the Wi-Fi adapter report is called wlan-report-latest and it is the one that you have indicated in the red box. Another piece of information that you should know is that this file has the extension “html”, so the easiest way to open it is with our Internet browser.
Get started with the report
The first thing we are going to do is double click on wlan-report-latest so we can see the report in our default browser. If you look at the previous image, it has the Google Chrome icon which is our default browser. If you would like to use another or you have display problems, right-click the file and select To open with and choose another browser.
This would be the first screen that you will be able to see after having opened the report of the Wi-Fi adapter.
As you can see above, we have a graph where the operation of our wireless network is detailed. Thus it offers details such as:
- The moment the connection starts.
- When we disconnect from the network.
- Changes in the power states of the adapter.
- When the network is connected to the Internet.
- Times when the network has limited or no connectivity.
- Connection errors.
Thanks to the data offered by this graph, we can make an initial assessment of the Wi-Fi network to which we are connected.
The different sections of the report
Next, in order of appearance, we are going to list the different sections of the Wi-Fi adapter report. These that appear here would be the following after the graph:
The section Report Info refers to when the report was created and its duration.
The next section General System Info It shows us information about our team such as:
- The name of the computer.
- Equipment manufacturer.
- BIOS date and version.
- Compilation of the operating system.
- Machine identifier.
In this case, it shows basic information about the laptop with which we have made this manual. Then in User Info We can see the username that the computer was next to the domain user and DNS if they are used. On Network Adapters We can see all the adapters that we have both physical and virtual. There we will obtain detailed information on:
- Device Name.
- PNP ID.
- Guid of the adapter.
- Driver version and date.
The next section Script Output displays the results after running various commands in a Command Prompt window. To mention some of the commands that it executes we have ipconfig / all and netsh wlan show all.
From here we can extract information such as:
- Local IP address of the computer.
- Default Gateway.
- The DNS we are using.
- Developer of the Wi-Fi adapter.
- MAC address.
- SSID (network name), authentication, encryption, if we are using password and more.
Then the results of certutil -store -silent My & certutil -store -silent -user My which would show the team’s certificates. Then comes «Profile Output»Where the profiles of the Wi-Fi networks that we have used would be.
Then it would come Summary which provides an overview of:
- The number of successful and failed connections.
- Reasons why a disconnect has occurred.
- The duration of the sessions.
Finally, we have the section Wireless Sessions.
Here you have information such as:
- Name of the network interface we use.
- Name of the Wi-fi network to which we connect.
- Session time.
- Reason why the computer disconnected from the network.
- Detailed list of events.
Finally, as you may have seen, the Wi-Fi adapter report offers us a detailed report of our wireless connection.