Your neighbours
The networks around you by channel, so you can see who shares your air. Never their names.
Neighbours (⌘4) draws every network the last scan heard, on 5 GHz and on 2.4 GHz, by channel. Other people’s network names are never shown.
- Each bar spans the channels a network uses: width is how much of the band it uses. Its label is its strength in dBm.
- Yours is blue and labelled Yours. Neighbours stronger than −70 dBm are dark; fainter ones are light.
- Above each band: where you are (for example “You’re here: channel 100, 160 MHz wide · 10 networks”), or “Not in use by you”.
The headline
- Your channel is quiet. No strong network shares it.
- One strong network shares your channel., or how many do. A strong neighbour is one stronger than −80 dBm: it competes with yours for airtime.
- On 2.4 GHz, only channels 1, 6 and 11 don’t overlap. When more than five strong neighbours overlap your 2.4 GHz channel and one of 1, 6 and 11 is quieter, Plain Air says how many overlap yours and which channel is quieter, and suggests moving your router to it.
The scan
The scan runs during a check. Check says what it heard: “Measured 2 minutes ago, with a scan that heard 18 other networks.” If it didn’t finish: “The scan for neighbours didn’t finish this time. Check again to try once more.” When your Mac isn’t on Wi-Fi there are no neighbours to compare.
Some 5 GHz channels share the air with radar. Every answer Plain Air can give explains what that means for you.