Tool for checking for WiFi signals
Is there anything better than Network Manager for checking for WiFi signals? Network Manager is fine for when I'm at home where the laptop and tablet simply connecting to the home router but as soon as there's any difficulty deciding what to connect to it's pretty useless:- There's no control over [re-]scanning so you can't move to different positions and request a re-scan to see if there are different WiFi signals and/or signal strength has changed. The signal strength indication is no help in optimising the signal, one needs a more accurate level indicator to tell if moving this way or that improves the signal. There's no indication of the type of encryption on signals which have encryption keys. This is a real killer sometimes when somoene knows the password/key but not what *type* of key it is. I had this problem at my wife's office recently. Windows XP reports the encryption type so surely Linux should be able to. Are there any tools specifically for scanning/characterising WiFi signals and/or are there any replacements for Network Manager that make handling WiFi connections easier? -- Chris Green
Not quite Linux but this is a good Android app if you have such a device handy: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer Cheers Neil
On Sat, Feb 08, 2014 at 02:51:09PM +0000, Neil Sedger wrote:
Not quite Linux but this is a good Android app if you have such a device handy:
[1]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer
Thanks, yes I have an Android tablet so it may well be useful. -- Chris Green
On Saturday 08 February 2014 12:09:15 Chris Green wrote:
Are there any tools specifically for scanning/characterising WiFi signals and/or are there any replacements for Network Manager that make handling WiFi connections easier?
You could do a scan from command line (as root): iw DEVICE scan where DEVICE is your wifi interface name, most likely wlan0. You can see your interfac(es) with "iw dev". Look in the Interface section for each phyX. The output of the scan can look a bit complicated, but you would be most interested in the WPS, WPA and RSN sections of the output. As an alternative, you can sniff the air traffic with wireshark on a given wifi channel and then look at the fields in detail from the GUI. Cheers, Thomas
On 08/02/14 20:07, Thomas Pircher wrote:
On Saturday 08 February 2014 12:09:15 Chris Green wrote:
Are there any tools specifically for scanning/characterising WiFi signals and/or are there any replacements for Network Manager that make handling WiFi connections easier? You could do a scan from command line (as root):
iw DEVICE scan
Similar to the above is iwlist. Usage iwlist DEVICE scan I also use linux app Wifi Radar which works OK. I also recommend Android App Wifi Analyser This page lists some perhaps useful commands or utilities http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-find-out-wireless-network-speed-signal-s... HTH Steve
On Sun, 09 Feb 2014 01:20:10 +0000 steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk allegedly wrote:
On 08/02/14 20:07, Thomas Pircher wrote:
On Saturday 08 February 2014 12:09:15 Chris Green wrote:
Are there any tools specifically for scanning/characterising WiFi signals and/or are there any replacements for Network Manager that make handling WiFi connections easier? You could do a scan from command line (as root):
iw DEVICE scan
Similar to the above is iwlist. Usage iwlist DEVICE scan
I also use linux app Wifi Radar which works OK. I also recommend Android App Wifi Analyser
This page lists some perhaps useful commands or utilities http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-find-out-wireless-network-speed-signal-s...
HTH Steve
and tuxmobil has a useful list at http://tuxmobil.org/linux_wireless_sniffer.html Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 http://baldric.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------
On Sat, Feb 08, 2014 at 08:07:47PM +0000, Thomas Pircher wrote:
On Saturday 08 February 2014 12:09:15 Chris Green wrote:
Are there any tools specifically for scanning/characterising WiFi signals and/or are there any replacements for Network Manager that make handling WiFi connections easier?
You could do a scan from command line (as root):
iw DEVICE scan
where DEVICE is your wifi interface name, most likely wlan0. You can see your interfac(es) with "iw dev". Look in the Interface section for each phyX.
iw wasn't installed, I've installed it now, it does produce a lot of output doesn't it! I had already discovered 'iwlist <Device> scan' but it also produces *too much* output. When there are dozens of Wifi signals out there it produces so much output that it's difficult to handle. I was actually seriously thinking of writing a script to use iwlist and filter the output down to the few items I want to know about. The output for *one* WiFi signal is:- Cell 03 - Address: 00:AC:54:CA:2C:FA Channel:1 Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1) Quality=27/70 Signal level=-83 dBm Encryption key:on ESSID:"BTHub3-QFZJ" Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s Mode:Master Extra:tsf=00000020199d4d9e Extra: Last beacon: 19368ms ago IE: Unknown: 000B4254487562332D51465A4A IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824 IE: Unknown: 030101 IE: Unknown: 2A0100 IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1 Group Cipher : TKIP Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP Authentication Suites (1) : PSK IE: Unknown: 32043048606C IE: Unknown: 2D1AAC011BFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 IE: Unknown: 3D1601080000000000000000000000000000000000000000 IE: Unknown: 4A0E14000A002C01C800140005001900 IE: Unknown: 7F0101 IE: WPA Version 1 Group Cipher : TKIP Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP Authentication Suites (1) : PSK IE: Unknown: DD180050F20201018A0003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00 IE: Unknown: DD0900037F01010000FF7F IE: Unknown: DDA70050F204104A000110104400010210570001001041000100103B00010310470010565AA94967C14C0EAA8FF349E6F5931110210002425410230017486F6D652048756220332E30204D756C7469204D6F646510240010425420486F6D652048756220332E3041104200122B3035383732302B313230363030313038361054000800060050F204000110110010425420486F6D652048756220332E3041100800020084103C000101
The output of the scan can look a bit complicated, but you would be most interested in the WPS, WPA and RSN sections of the output.
Yes, iw does tell one more about the encryption than iwlist. I can see a script using both iwlist and iw taking shape. Thanks for the reply. -- Chris Green
On 08/02/2014 12:09, Chris Green wrote:
Is there anything better than Network Manager for checking for WiFi signals?
Another vote for WiFi Analyser on Android; it's top. Also, if you want information about the network you're currently attached to, I recommend Fing on Android. As a pair, they are really useful tools. Cheers, Laurie. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com
participants (6)
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Chris Green -
Laurie Brown -
mick -
Neil Sedger -
steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk -
Thomas Pircher