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Hidden Wi-Fi Diagnostics Application In OS X Lion

Posted by samzenpus on from the keeping-an-eye-on-things dept.

WankerWeasel writes "The latest version of Apple's operating system, OS X 10.7 Lion, has a hidden Wi-Fi Diagnostics application that allows the user to view information about their wireless network performance, record performance and also capture raw frames. Hidden away in the System folder the application is meant for Apple tech diagnostic use but is also very useful for any user interested in diagnosing wi-fi problems or checking network performance."

7 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Hidden while useful? by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Most of the users would not understand the signal / noise graph and data anyway ; that feature would not contribute to the user-friendly interface image the Mac OS X has.
    Any true admin should have a look in this "hidden" directory anyway.

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    1. Re:Hidden while useful? by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      It should be in Applications/Utilities, along with other apps that not every user would understand like Console and RAID Utility.

      I could not disagree more. By putting all those utilities in a folder you essentially create a clusterfuck equivalent just doing a directory listing in the system folder. None of this is hidden by the way. It doesn't occur to you to look System/Library/CoreServices? Does it occur to you to look for ping.exe in c:\windows\SysWOW64\ ?

      Why should any of this be linked? It's important to you so Google would often suffice. Look at a typical Windows 7 machine. There are 300 (exactly) applications in the SysWOW64 directory, the vast majority of them powerful, and the vast majority of them no one will ever have a need to execute.

  2. yawn by pbjones · · Score: 5, Insightful

    undocumented is not hidden. There is also a bucket load of standard UNIX apps there for you to play with too.

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  3. Re:Who Cares? by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some do, most don't. Same as Windows, really.

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  4. Off-topic advice by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just a pedant's note: looking in SysWOW64 shouldn't occur to you at all. Despite the name, it's the 32-bit version of the 64-bit files, which actually live in the awkwardly-named system32. When a 32-bit program runs, SysWOW64 is mapped onto system32, just like Program Files (x86) is mapped onto Program Files, and parts of the registry are remapped (although I don't have the exact key name on hand, it's something like [HKCU|HKLM]\software\wow64node).

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  5. Who cares? Sounds like you do. by CountBrass · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd suggest someone who reads a thread and then posts to it. They care.

    I'm guessing you're a closet apple 'fanboi' who just lacks the money to indulge.

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  6. Re:Hidden? by pknoll · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That directory also houses applications that are not usually directly invoked by the user, but from another event (apps like Installer, Bluetooth Setup Assistant, Keyboard Setup Assistant, and so forth, most of which are started by taking action within the System Preferences app.)

    I'm not certain how you'd invoke Wi-Fi diagnostics, but it might be part of the troubleshooting path which also contains the Network Setup Assistant.