How do I understand the # of clients?

MetaGeek Products inSSIDer
1

Hi,
I am new to inSSIDer. I am trying to figure out what is wrong with my wifi at night. I am in an apartment complex so I have A TON of overlapping 2.4G networks. During the day the wifi is fine but at night it is crap. I am guessing it is because everyone is at home using their wifi.
Here is my first question. When I look at my network it says that there are 6 clients. But when I click on “clients” only 2 are listed (and the computer I am working on is not listed as a client). I only see two Apple products (my iMac and what I assume is an iPhone) listed. What are the other 4 clients? How do I figure out what those clients are? I turned off my printer’s wifi and unplugged my Chromecast - thinking that those might be “clients” on my network. But I am still getting 6 clients (but I can only see 2 listed).
Next question: I got a message on my “dashboard” that recommended I turn off my printers wifi. So I turned it off. However, I am still getting the message to turn off my printer’s wifi. What am I doing wrong?
Thank you.

2

Hello dansohayl,

when I click on “clients” only 2 are listed (and the computer I am working on is not listed as a client). I only see two Apple products (my iMac and what I assume is an iPhone) listed. What are the other 4 clients?

A couple things might be happening here…

  1. I recommend starring the network you would like to see clients for, and then be sure that the Star icon is selected at the top under Filters. Clicking the Clients column defaults to LAN discovery which I’ve found will sometimes only list hardwired clients, not all WiFi clients. Here is a screenshot of my own network with all WiFi clients on my starred network:

    Screen Shot 2020-08-24 at 6.03.07 PM
    Screen Shot 2020-08-24 at 6.03.07 PM1279×1338 69.9 KB

  2. If you don’t already own a compatible packet capture adapter from this list and a MetaGeek Plus subscription here, then we can only “guess” or ascertain client count if that info is present in the beacon of an AP. If you see 6 in the client column, then that means your AP is telling us that it has 6 clients connected to it. Unfortunately you can’t really see those clients or their behavior without the above packet capture adapter and a MetaGeek Plus subscription.

I got a message on my “dashboard” that recommended I turn off my printers wifi. So I turned it off. However, I am still getting the message to turn off my printer’s wifi.

You should be able to dismiss or delete those recommendations as seen here:

Screen Shot 2020-08-24 at 6.01.42 PM
Screen Shot 2020-08-24 at 6.01.42 PM1279×604 32.1 KB

Let me know if those buttons aren’t showing up for you or if you have any other questions!