Need to be able to run Hyper Terminal, also need Hyper Terminal

[Admiral Awesome]

I have a wireless broadband connection (Huawei USB modem dongle), and after a first 6-8 months of shaky, unreliable performance, it's getting to be really good - speeds are occasionally very good.

However, the Huawei/ISP application that manages the connection has no built-in tool for measuring signal strength, and the Notification Area icon

is of course only a rough indication - you get no figures.

The other day while casting about for some third-party application to show momentary signal strength I came upon this excellent guide: How to Measure & Improve Mobile Broadband Reception | Mobile Fun Blog.

In it, the author suggests simply using good old Hyper Terminal while also noting that it for some reason went out with Windows XP and is not a part of Windows 7 and on.

But wait! There was hope yet in the form of HyperTerminal Private Edition from hilgraeve.com. I downloaded a trial version a week or so ago and - lo and behold - it worked flawlessly and I was for a time transported to the past and issued Hayes-commands like it was 1989.
Here's what it looked like in my case:

and using a conversion table in the article, the 24,99 figure translated to a signal strenght of about 63 dBm which was about what I had expected so this solution is the real deal.

I was happy as a pig in muck until I saw the price HILGRAEVE was asking for adapting this, essentially freeware, applet to run under Windows 7: $64.99 which is to my thinking way too much for their 'trouble' as well as money I can't spare anyway.

So, I was thinking maybe I could run a virtual XP machine using my old XP installation disk and do it that way.
Any thoughts on that?

Thanks

 

[Pauly]

If all you are trying to do is get a measure of signal strength/quality it would be easier to use a wifi scan tool that will show you everything you need and more
Two I have used in the past that were pretty handy - inSSIDer & WifiInfoView
Will give you details on strength/quality/encryption/channel ID + more for yours and all nearby networks

 

[Admiral Awesome]

Thank you Pauly. Yes, get a measure of signal strength/quality is exactly what I want to do. I will try inSSIDer and WifiInfoView and report back, although it will take a couple of days before I do as I like to be sure whereof I speak.
Cheers

 

[strollin]

In addition, have you tried Phone and Modem which is basically the replacement for HyperTerminal? Phone and Modem is accessed from the Control Panel and is available on Win 7, 8 and 10.

 

[Admiral Awesome]

In addition, have you tried Phone and Modem which is basically the replacement for HyperTerminal? Phone and Modem is accessed from the Control Panel and is available on Win 7, 8 and 10.

Thanks strollin (Keep on Truckin'!) No I haven't. I wasn't even aware of Phone and Modem, yet it was only a few mouse clicks away. I got on the Hyper Terminal track from reading that article which seems to be written when Vista was current.

Perhaps Phone and Modem came with Windows 7 and this is why the author says "Windows Vista users can download a free trial version of HyperTerminal here"? I.e. perhaps Vista didn't have a counterpart?

Anyway, thx for the tip, I will of course try it. But...it felt like old times what with the clunkiness of the HT screen and sending Hayes commands like back in the day...

 

[Admiral Awesome]

@Pauly

Nether inSSIDer or WifiInfoView panned out as they couldn't find the dongle:

perhaps Wi-Fi and wireless bradband are different technologies and software expecting
to find the one does not recognize the other?

I am a n00b in these matters (in case you couldn't tell

Nice try though, and it didn't take much more than an hour to get this far.
That's always something!