WiFi Overview Pro is a wireless analyzer and sniffer that runs on an Android phone or tablet. While this lightweight app (which costs the odd sum of $1.31, there’s free edition too, subject to ads) is not a substitute for enterprise-level wifi analyzers that can do reporting, auditing and aid in troubleshooting wireless network issuesthe app servers as a portable wireless tool that offers handy information about wireless networks in an area. There are a few issues here and there with the app not doing what it’s supposed to do, but otherwise quite impressive for the price.

WiFi Overview Pro’s CapabilitiesOn my Android phone (somewhat dated with the Gingerbread software) I can’t see much information about wireless networks other than the signal strength as represented by fours bars, the encryption level of a WLAN, link speed, and the IP address the Android device receives when connected. Pretty basic information within the native OS. Even other Wi-Fi Android apps I’ve tested such as Wi-Fi Ruler and Fing, don’t provide much more than the information you can see natively within the Android OS.

There’s a lot more information displayed in WiFi Overview. On the main screen alone all of the wireless networks nearby are displayed with color-coded signal strength bars for each network. The color coding indicates if the network is one to which you are connected, a known network, or an open network.

In addition, the main screen provides the SSID, MAC address, channel and frequency. A quick tap on the wi-fi network I connected to, provided even more detail: the signal strength in dbm, wifi speed, IP address, netmask, gateway, DHCP and DNS servers, and the external IP address of any WAN/Internet connection. There’s also a graph rendered in real-time which displays the signal strength as you are connected.

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