Creating a WLAN Report and Wi-Fi History
You can use either Windows Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell to run these reports. Just remember that whichever one you choose, you need to run it as an administrator. For this article I am using Command Prompt. First, open the command prompt by pressing Win + X. Choose “Command Prompt (Admin).”
At the prompt type in this command and then press enter. After it finishes its report, the tool shows you where you can locate the report. You can either navigate to the folder it’s found in, or you can copy and paste the location into your address bar on your browser.
Reading the Report
The report includes several sections with detailed information about your networks, general system, users, and adapter.
WLAN Report
The first section of this report displays a graph with connection information. When you hover your mouse over a session, it shows you detailed information about that session. There are circles of different colors with different letters to mark events during the connection. The graph is interactive, so you can hover over those circles for a summary or click on them to see the full report.
Report Information
This section shows the date you ran the report and the duration for which the report gathered information.
User Info
Next, the report displays general information about the user who generated the report, such as the username, domain, and their user DNS domain.
Network Adapters
This section has a detailed list of all the network adapters on your PC. This list includes any hidden devices as well. Information displayed consists of the device name, Plug and Play ID, Global Unique Identifier, current driver, driver date, and device node flags.
Script Output
You’ll see the results of some Command Prompt commands in this section of the report. These present further details regarding your network adapters and WLAN information. The ipconfig /all command shows detailed information about adapter states on your computer. It includes the MAC address of the adapter, IP address, DNS server, and many more.
The NetSh WLAN Show All command gives you details about your Wi-Fi adapter. The information includes its capabilities, all the Wi-Fi profiles on your PC, and a complete list of all the networks the scan found when you ran the report. The CertUtil - store -silent My & certutil -store -silent -user My command displays a list of all the current certificates you have stored on your computer.
Profile Output
This section includes a detailed list of all the Wi-Fi profiles you have stored on your PC. Any time you connect your computer to a different wireless device, your computer saves the information used to connect to it. You’ll see everything but the encrypted keys and passwords displayed here.
Summary
The summary section is split up into three parts. One shows the session successes, failures, and warnings. Next, it displays the reasons your computer disconnected and the length of each session. The second chart shows the reasons your computer disconnected from the network. The last chart displays the length of your sessions in bar graph form.
Wireless Sessions
In this section you will see a detailed list of all the events that occurred during each Wi-Fi session. Each session is divided into a separate section. When you click the plus to expand an event, it reveals even more information about it. Some of these details include the interface name, connection mode, connection profile, network name, and disconnect reason.
Whenever you are having trouble connecting your computer to a wireless network, run this report. It will give you a comprehensive report that may help you diagnose the problem you are having.
