Is there such a thing as a software only network analyzer? Something that might indicate if you're approaching the limits of your wifi hub?
Can you bemore specific about what kind of analysis you’re looking to perform, and what kind of limits you’re referring to?
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Many consumer grade routers are limited to ~32 clients (wired and wireless combined).
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Well I know next to nothing about wifi and networks. But I have to assume there is some limit to how much a network can handle. I have 4 TV's that connect to my Linksys hub. and use Amazon Prime video, 2 printers, 4 tablets, 3 laptops, 3 PCs, two cell phones and of course Hubitat, I'm sure I missed something in there. Just seems like I should maybe see if I'm overloaded, or close to overloaded.
I can remember back in the days of dial up with a Hayes 300 baud Smartmodem some of my associates would scold me if I failed to remove the original email content when I sent a reply.....claiming I was wasting bandwidth. Things have come a long way, but there still must be limits.
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and is a client a laptop, pc, printer, etc? If so maybe I'm not in too bad a shape. I live in the country and get my internet via RF (wifi I assume) from a nearby water tower. I average about 3 MBPS which is fast enough to receive Amazon Prime video without pauses.
As @aaiyar mentioned, there could be a limit to the number of connected devices, but it sounds like you’re more concerned about exceeding your available internet bandwidth?
Edit: a client in this context is anything that has an IP address.
concerned about exceeding anything.
You listed 19 devices above, so most likely that’s not a problem.
If your total internet bandwidth is limited to ~3 Mbps then that’s your bottleneck. Unless you also have a truly ancient WiFi access point.
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I'm sure my wifi router (Linksys E2500) is somewhat dated, but it has been 100% reliable and seems to work fine. While I do have the devices listed above, only my wife and I use them. So most are sitting idle much of the time. I have been in the habit for years to leave my computers running 24/7. They do all hibernate or sleep most of the time though. My guess is the Amazon streaming video is what would consume most of the bandwidth. Oh yes, I forgot I have Dish Network and some of their video comes thru wifi I believe, but I'm going to shut it down soon as the wife seldom watches it. Anyway I feel a little better that perhaps my wifi isn't close to imploding. Thanks for the comments.
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Yes most likely streaming video will use more of your bandwidth than anything else you do (unless you’re also an avid online gamer, BitTorrent downloader or something like that).
If you’re not watching from multiple devices at once, or you haven’t noticed significant issues while watching, probably not much to worry about.
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Thanks for you time and comments. I hardly watch TV at all. They wife spends a lot of time on Facebook and Facetime with her family. I spend most of my time tinkering with Hubitat or trying to sell a lot of my accumulated stuff on eBay. Thanks again and have a great night.
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Same here!
Just started selling my unwanted Home Automation devices on eBay!
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Forgot about the 4 Amazon Alexa devices and 4 Google Minis. So that's 8 more on the router. These things add up fast. I'll not add too many more just as a precaution.
Ouch. That’s a very underpowered router. Also had a security hole that needed a firmware update IIRC
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Do you have a consumer grade router you recommend? I really hate to think of adding all my devices to a new router, but it could be a good project to keep me busy.
I will and someone will recommend something else 
You have kids that you need parental controls for?
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If I might chip in, I've had decent luck with ASUS routers in the past. Many of them have built-in support for OpenVPN, or PPTP VPN, making it easy to connect to your home network while traveling.
And the hardware has been fairly reliable.
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+1 for ASUS routers.
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I recently did an install of a sophisticated system with a Unifi Dream Machine and Wireless Access Points all through the house (and even outside).
I would NOT recommend this for a typical house. (I believe that it's overkill).
In my house, I have a pair of Asus routers. The reasons why I like Asus:
- each router can be re-purposed into a node of a mesh system
- they are just easy to install, easy to use, and don't break down.
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no kids - youngest is over 50
