Access Point Details

Geoff Lane · External Since: Aug 02, 2009 Posts: 5

I know Linux historically can supply plenty of network details but I
have tried to search for Linux programs similar to netstumbler and airsnare.

The former gives details of surrounding access points (channels etc) and
the latter warns of any attempts to join your network.

Any suggestions of similar Linux programs appreciated.

Geoff Lane

Allen Kistler · External Since: Jun 26, 2004 Posts: 367

Geoff Lane wrote:
> I know Linux historically can supply plenty of network details but I
> have tried to search for Linux programs similar to netstumbler and
> airsnare.
>
> The former gives details of surrounding access points (channels etc) and
> the latter warns of any attempts to join your network.
>
> Any suggestions of similar Linux programs appreciated.

kismet and airsnort are the classic ones.

John Thompson · External Since: Jun 07, 2005 Posts: 377

On 2009-08-02, Geoff Lane <datemasde.t1m DeleteThis @gishpuppy.com> wrote:

> I know Linux historically can supply plenty of network details but I
> have tried to search for Linux programs similar to netstumbler and airsnare.
>
> The former gives details of surrounding access points (channels etc) and
> the latter warns of any attempts to join your network.
>
> Any suggestions of similar Linux programs appreciated.

"iwlist scan" will find local access points:

root@vector root # iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:25:3C:43:0C:F1
ESSID:"whatever"
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.447 GHz (Channel Cool

Quality=100/100 Signal level=-33 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s

wifi0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:25:3C:43:0C:F1
ESSID:"whatever"
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.447 GHz (Channel Cool

Quality=100/100 Signal level=-33 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s

--

-John (john@os2.dhs.org)

Shadow_7 · External Since: Aug 03, 2009 Posts: 1

> The former gives details of surrounding access points (channels etc) and
> the latter warns of any attempts to join your network.

Never heard of those two, but I don't leave linux that often.

# iwlist wlan0 scanning
# netstat -tunap
# tcpdump -i ppp0

Kind of cryptic, but I'm sure there's some pretty front ends somewhere.
knetworkmanager? snort? nexus? chkrootkit? and others.

HTH

Geoff Lane · External Since: Aug 02, 2009 Posts: 5

John Thompson wrote:

> "iwlist scan" will find local access points:

That one gives just the details I need.

I've got an erratic wifi connection and I think there may be a channel
conflict with a neighbouring AP.

Geoff Lane

Geoff Lane · External Since: Aug 02, 2009 Posts: 5

Allen Kistler wrote:
>
>> I know Linux historically can supply plenty of network details but I
>> have tried to search for Linux programs similar to netstumbler and
>> airsnare.
>>
>> The former gives details of surrounding access points (channels etc)
>> and the latter warns of any attempts to join your network.
>>
>> Any suggestions of similar Linux programs appreciated.
>
> kismet and airsnort are the classic ones.

I've briefly viewed kismet before but found it a wee bit complicated but
I think I'll give it another go, thanks for reminder.

Geoff Lane

Geoff Lane · External Since: Aug 02, 2009 Posts: 5

John Thompson wrote:

>> I know Linux historically can supply plenty of network details but I
>> have tried to search for Linux programs similar to netstumbler and airsnare.
>>
>> The former gives details of surrounding access points (channels etc) and
>> the latter warns of any attempts to join your network.
>>
>> Any suggestions of similar Linux programs appreciated.
>
> "iwlist scan" will find local access points:

From the iwlist --help command it lists the 'scanning' option, is this
different to iwlist scan

Geoff Lane

John Thompson · External Since: Jun 07, 2005 Posts: 377

On 2009-08-03, Geoff Lane <datemasde.t1m.DeleteThis@gishpuppy.com> wrote:

> From the iwlist --help command it lists the 'scanning' option, is this
> different to iwlist scan

"scan" and "scanning" are synonymous. From the iwlist man page:

scan[ning]
Give the list of Access Points and Ad-Hoc cells in
range, and optionally a whole bunch of information
about them (ESSID, Quality, Frequency, Mode...).
The type of information returned depend on what the
card support.
Triggering scanning is a priviledged operation
(root only) and normal users can only read letf-
over scan results. By default, the way scanning is
done (the scope of the scan) will be impacted by
the current setting of the driver. Also, this com-
mand is supposed to take extra arguments to control
the scanning behaviour, but this is currently not
implemented.

--

-John (john@os2.dhs.org)

Geoff Lane · External Since: Aug 02, 2009 Posts: 5

John Thompson wrote:
> On 2009-08-03, Geoff Lane <datemasde.t1m.DeleteThis@gishpuppy.com> wrote:
>
>> From the iwlist --help command it lists the 'scanning' option, is this
>> different to iwlist scan
>
> "scan" and "scanning" are synonymous. From the iwlist man page:
>
> scan[ning]
> Give the list of Access Points and Ad-Hoc cells in
> range, and optionally a whole bunch of information
> about them (ESSID, Quality, Frequency, Mode...).
>
Thanks John,

This is a useful command which should give me the info I require.

Geoff Lane