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What Wi-Fi is around me?

Your computer already knows which Wi-Fi networks are around you, which channel they sit on and how strong they are. It does not tell you because nobody asks, and when you do ask it answers in a language that is neither English nor plain. This page teaches you the question and translates the answer.

Before you paste any command, here or anywhere else

Anyone who hands you a command to paste, me included, has to explain first what it does and why. If they do not explain, or if they hurry you, do not paste it. No real problem is ever solved by pasting a command you have not understood: that is instead how one of the most widespread scams of the moment works, showing you a fake error and asking you to paste something to fix it. Below you will find the explanation before the command, and that is the right order.

In plain words

Channel: the lane a Wi-Fi network travels in. If two nearby networks use the same lane, they get in each other's way and both slow down. Band: the road the lanes are on. 2.4 GHz travels far but is crowded; 5 and 6 GHz are faster and emptier, but do not reach as far. SSID (Service Set Identifier): the network's name, the one you see in the list. BSSID: the code of the individual device broadcasting that network. If one network has several BSSIDs, several boxes are broadcasting it, a repeater for instance.

1. What you are about to ask the computer

You are about to ask Windows for the list of Wi-Fi networks it can see right now. It is a question, not an order: the computer answers and that is all. It changes nothing, installs nothing, connects to nothing.

2. The command, word by word

netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid

  • netsh the Windows program that deals with networking. The name comes from network shell.
  • wlan means Wi-Fi. It stands for wireless local area network.
  • show means show, and it is the word that matters. A command that shows only reads. If it said set or delete instead, it would change something, and I would tell you.
  • networks means networks.
  • mode=bssid asks for the detailed answer, the one that also includes each network's channel and strength.

All together: "network shell, show me the Wi-Fi networks, detailed version".

3. How to run it

  1. Press the Windows key and type terminal.
  2. Open Terminal. A dark window with text opens: that is normal, not an error.
  3. Paste the command and press Enter.
  4. Select everything that appeared and copy it.
One thing to watch:

Do not use the Run box, the small one that opens with Windows+R. There the command runs and vanishes without showing you anything, which is the condition a scam works best in. In the terminal you see the result, and that is the whole point.

4. Paste the result here

That text contains your neighbours' network names and the codes of their devices, which are data a place can be traced from. It stays in your browser: the translation happens here, on your device, and is not sent to me or to anybody else.

What to do with it

If there are many networks around you on 2.4 GHz, the most useful move is to put your router on a less crowded channel. The most common scheme is 1, 6 and 11: at the standard width of 20 MHz those three do not overlap at all. Above I have told you which of the three is least crowded where you are now.

One clarification many people skip: that is not the only possible scheme. Europe also has channels 12 and 13, which the United States cannot use, and for that reason the 1, 5, 9 and 13 scheme is also used here, allowing four networks instead of three at the price of a small overlap. The right choice also depends on the channel width your router is using and on what it lets you set. After changing it, run the measurement again and see whether it helped, rather than trusting the theory.

If instead your neighbours' networks are nearly all on 2.4 GHz while yours also exists on 5 GHz, the move is a different one: put the devices near the router on the 5 GHz network, and leave 2.4 for the distant ones. On many routers both networks share one name and the device chooses by itself, often badly. Giving them two different names is a one-off change that solves a great deal.

The router's channel is changed from its configuration page, which opens in a browser at the address written under the box. The steps are in Slow Wi-Fi: six checks to make before calling your provider.

What this page does not know

This is a snapshot of one instant, taken from where you are now. Neighbours' networks come and go, and strength changes if you move two metres. If you are deciding where to put a repeater, run the command in each room and compare.

I do not know which of these networks is yours: the command does not say, and I can only point at the strongest one, which usually is yours but not always. Nor do I know how fast they are: signal strength and speed are two different things, and you measure the second one with How is my connection?

And this is for Windows only. The command exists in that form there: on Mac and on Linux the road is a different one, and once I have tried it on a real machine I will add it here rather than writing it from memory.