How can I Sniff a wireless network?

[d.beaver]

I am a consultant in the Carolinas and deal exclusively with the Cisco wirless equipment. I do alot of site surveys and installations and I usually try to scan for existing wireless AP's prior to survey start using Netstumbler or Mini-Stumbler. This is only effective if the AP's are broadcasting their SSID's. If broadcast is turned off, then Netstumbler cannot see them.

Has anyone used or does anyone know of another product that would allow me to sniff for AP's other than NetStumbler? Any and all information would be greatly appreciated.

David B.

[ndoshi]

Hi ,

You can use Airmagnet or Airopeek or sniffer pro or Airsnort wireless sniffer .

If you disable broadcast ssid , it will stop transmitting broadcast in beacon but

you can stop SSID in initial probe request and reply .

Thanks

Nilesh

[jschulle]

I have both Air Magnet and Airopeek NX. Airopeek is an excellent tool and quite a bit more easier to navigate as it runs on your laptop. I like to use Airopeek NX to troubleshoot actual problems and Air Magnet when scanning for rogue APs. I have found that Air Magnet is able to pick up APs at quite a further distance.

Eric Schuller

Network Engineer

UNC Healthcare

[pallette]

I agree with Eric's comments. I use both, and AiroPeek prides its software on ease of its GUI interface. The only thing I wish is that Airopeek would come out with version for IPAQ. They said they probably won't, that makes AirMagnet a little easier when scanning using a pda. Depending on which antenna the pcmcia card has utilizing AirMagent, it can cover further distances