Hello all,
So in helping someone this afternoon I was able to give them some knowledge that was quite helpful to this person and we were able to get their signal problem solved exquisitely quick.
If you’ve been here for a minute you’ve no doubt seen people when the maven or the mod team has asked how they’re signal is at the device location and they say it’s good. Usually followed by a screen capture of this, The infamous three-bar signal indicator on the device info page.
Maybe with full bars but hey give me a break here 
Although that is a fair guideline it doesn’t really give you an idea of the signal strength in detail. At least not the detail us nerds need.
The person I helped this afternoon happened to be using the Wyze router pro. And unbeknownst to them if you can find the device you’re searching for in that router and I do know of some other routers that offer this as well you can actually see the decibel milliwatt measurement for that particular device at its location. That is the indicator we’re looking for when we ask the particular question about signal. That is how good the signal is after any interference and weakening of signal over distance. And that is measured in a strict number. That number correlates to a way you can actively measure locations on your property where you’re thinking about putting devices. There are apps you can use and although your phone may have a better antenna than our cameras you can get a rough idea for how good the signal actually is in any general location. So, let’s break down the app I use. Just in case anyone else on Android wants to use that particular app. Usually you’ll see them labeled in your respective app store as Wi-Fi strength or Wi-Fi analyzer or any number of things. But be aware that Wi-Fi analyzers can sometimes give you different types of info rather than strength.
I use this one because it’s extremely quick and extremely easy. And you can actually get a live number as you walk around seeing how the signal changes so you can actively measure any interference if you live in a congested area. You can watch those numbers raise or drop.
Here’s how it shows up in the app
Below that lovely 100% picture that RSSI number followed by the -36 DBM. That is the number you’re looking for. Now those numbers sadly don’t correlate to 0 through 100% for strength.
Here’s the levels you’re looking at there
It’s kind of counterintuitive but hey what are you going to do, at least you have a concrete number to go by. and keep in mind that different apps will have a slightly different scale of “excellent” and “good” and such, this particular scale above was taken was a request from Chat GTP as it is a conglomerate from a larger overall search of the net. versus just me in a good search for a scale and getting just one scale of what qualifies as good and better and best and all that 
Here’s one that I was just testing as I had moved it to a new location and I needed to see if the signal was good enough. Not bad at all. And this was also using the wyze router pro to gain this information.
I hope this post can serve as a reference for people and give just a little more understanding to the not so nerdy like myself.
There are so many silly variables in the world that getting good signal to a camera is a little more complex and less than straightforward but hopefully using the tools at hand if you do run into trouble either the Maven or the mod team can ask you just a little bit more specifics on your setup and get this kind of information and get to the bottom of the cause of the issue. Especially as more and more people switch to mesh networks.
I hope this is able to help many others as it did for at least one community member today.
