Denpa / Support

Support

Applies to: Denpa Network Check (Mac) 1.0

This is the support page for the Mac version. For the iPhone version, see here.

Contact

highislandtec@gmail.com

Replies may take some time.

When you report a problem, these details help narrow down the cause.

Your Mac model and macOS version
Which band the Wi-Fi is on (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz), if you know
Which screen you were on, and what you did when it happened
A screenshot, if you can take one

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I do not allow Location?: The app works. The difference is that the network name (SSID) and the address (BSSID) are not shown. The table of nearby networks becomes a list without names, and channel utilization and the least busy channels are not shown either. Signal strength, noise, and the channel number can still be read without it. macOS requires location access to read the others; Denpa does not use the location itself. It never records or sends your location.
What happens if I do not allow Local Network?: Quality to the router cannot be measured. A notice appears on screen with a button that opens System Settings. Measurements toward the internet — speed, response time, and DNS — work without it.
This differs from the iPhone version, which can measure the first device even without this permission.
How long is a recording kept?: Up to 24 hours. Anything older is discarded automatically. To keep it for longer, choose File → Save as you go and write it to a .denpa file. A saved file can be opened later in a read-only window.
Does recording continue if I put the Mac to sleep?: No. It records only while the app is running. Sleep breaks the recording there.
Channel utilization shows “—”: That value is reported by the access points themselves, and devices that do not report it show nothing. It is not the app’s estimate of how congested a channel is, so there is nothing the app can put in its place.
Can I see how many retries or dropped packets there were?: No. macOS does not count them, and there is no published way to get the figures. The app says so on screen. It does not show “0”.
The speed on Page is lower than the speed measured in Diagnostics: They measure different things. The speed on the Page screen is derived from the whole page load. Page loads are dominated by waiting, so the value comes out lower than the speed of the connection itself. Measure the speed of the connection on the Diagnostics screen. Do not compare the two figures or treat them as the same thing.
How much data does one measurement use?: You can choose in Settings. Each direction uses 5 MB on Small (S), 20 MB on Medium (M, the default), or 30 MB on Large (L), and because download and upload use the same amount, one run uses 10 MB on Small, 40 MB on Medium, or 60 MB on Large in total.
Can I change the speed test server?: No. The Mac version always uses Cloudflare (speed.cloudflare.com).
Can I print a recording or a diagnostics result?: Yes. File → Print or PDF… lays it out on A4 pages to print, or saves it as a PDF. What gets printed is whatever is in front: the recording on the Signal screen, or the result on the Diagnostics screen.
Is there a history by location?: No. The screen on the iPhone version that collects results by location and averages them is not in the Mac version. The recording on the Signal screen is a different thing: it records what the signal is doing, continuously, and writes it to a .denpa file.
Where are results saved?: On this Mac only. Nothing is sent anywhere. See the privacy policy for details.
Are the URLs I open on the Page screen saved?: No. The URLs you enter, the pages you view, and their content are not kept. The cache is cleared before every load, so no page data remains on the Mac. The traffic is the same as a browser’s, so to the site you connect to it looks like ordinary browsing (including cookies being sent and received). See the privacy policy for details.
Can it make my connection faster?: No. Denpa is a tool for measuring and narrowing down, not an app that makes your connection faster. It cannot change your router settings either. Its job is to narrow down the cause.
Changing the display language: Not inside the app. Change it in System Settings → General → Language & Region → Applications. The iPhone version is the same — the switch is in the OS. The only difference is that the iPhone version has a row that takes you straight to the Settings app, and the Mac version does not.

How to use

How to use each screen is covered under How to use for Denpa Network Check (Mac). Help → Denpa Help in the app opens the same page.