NetStumbler v0.4 Released

mindless4210 writes "A new version of the popular wireless network discovery tool NetStumbler was released today. Updates include support for more wireless cards, ip address reporting, new scripting features, and several bug fixes. This is the first new release since late August of 2002, over a year and a half ago. A new version of the handheld version, MiniStumbler, is also available for download."

Comments

Awesome.

[mtrisk]

Score one for using your neighbor's bandwith.

Release notes (in case the server goes bye bye)

[Anonymous Coward]

NetStumbler v0.4.0 Release Notes

Marius Milner

Thank you for your interest in NetStumbler. It is provided to you as a convenience, at no cost and without warranty. If you don't like it, or if you feel that it doesn't quite do what you want, you are free to delete it from your system. By installing or using it, you agree to be bound by the terms of the License Agreement.

NetStumbler is "beggarware". This means that you do not have to pay for a license to use it. However if you use it and like it, please consider making a donation at http://www.stumbler.net/donate to support future development, web hosting and other costs that I incur as a result of making this software available to you. Please bear in mind that I do this as a hobby in my spare time, not as a full time job.

Commercial and Government users are strongly encouraged to donate. The suggested donation is US$50 per copy. You may donate by visiting the web site http://www.stumbler.net/donate. You can pay in a variety of ways and may send a Purchase Order if needed.
What is NetStumbler?

NetStumbler is a tool for Windows that allows you to detect Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) using 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g. It has many uses:

* Verify that your network is set up the way you intended.
* Find locations with poor coverage in your WLAN.
* Detect other networks that may be causing interference on your network.
* Detect unauthorized "rogue" access points in your workplace.
* Help aim directional antennas for long-haul WLAN links.
* Use it recreationally for WarDriving.

Requirements
General Requirements

The requirements for NetStumbler are somewhat complex and depend on hardware, firmware versions, driver versions and operating system. The best way to see if it works on your system is to try it.

Some configurations have been extensively tested and are known to work. These are detailed at http://www.stumbler.net/compat. If your configuration works but is not listed, or is listed but does not work, please follow the instructions on the web site.

The following are rules of thumb that you can follow in case you cannot reach the web site for some reason.

* This version of NetStumbler requires Windows 2000, Windows XP, or better.
* The Proxim models 8410-WD and 8420-WD are known to work. The 8410-WD has also been sold as the Dell TrueMobile 1150, Compaq WL110, Avaya Wireless 802.11b PC Card, and others.
* Most cards based on the Intersil Prism/Prism2 chip set also work.
* Most 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g wireless LAN adapters should work on Windows XP. Some may work on Windows 2000 too. Many of them report inaccurate Signal strength, and if using the "NDIS 5.1" card access method then Noise level will not be reported. This includes cards based on Atheros, Atmel, Broadcom, Cisco and Centrino chip sets.
* I cannot help you figure out what chip set is in any given card.

Firmware Requirements

If you have an old WaveLAN/IEEE card then please note that the WaveLAN firmware (version 4.X and below) does not work with NetStumbler. If your card has this version, you are advised to upgrade to the latest version available from Proxim's web site. This will also ensure compatibility with the 802.11b standard.
Other Requirements and Compatibility Issues

* Your card must be configured in such a way that it can be seen by the management software that came with the card.
* The Microsoft-provided Orinoco drivers that come with Windows 2000 do not work with NetStumbler. Please visit Windows Update or www.proxim.com and upgrade to the latest drivers.
* When NetStumbler is in "auto reconfigure" mode (the default), it will occasionally disconnect you from your network. This enables it to perform its scans accurately, and is not a bug.
* If you have the WLAN card configured to connect to a specific SSID, NetStumbler may not report any accees points other than tho

Re:Release notes (in case the server goes bye bye)

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you download that or "intercept" it? :)

Re:Release notes (in case the server goes bye bye)

[Anonymous Coward]

Netstumbler is an active scanning tool, not a sniffer.

Re:Release notes (in case the server goes bye bye)

[Col. Panic]

thank you - that was the first thing i looked for

i see it works with the orinoco 8240. i will have to try my 8480 and see if there is any joy

Re:Release notes (in case the server goes bye bye)

[IO ERROR]

Yes, but did they fix the bug where NetStumbler sends packets out? I find this unacceptable in a wireless monitoring tool, and that's why I'm using kismet. Well, that and the fact that I would never sully my laptop with the required Windows operating system.

Kismet

[Noksagt]

Kismet also recently announce a new version: Kismet-2004-04-R1.

Re:Kismet

[Anonymous Coward]

anyone knows the difference between using kismet to sniff packets and using ethereal? When using kismet my wireless card can't download/upload; when using ethereal I can sniff and download/upload. My suspicions is that using ethereal limits you to your subnet, the channel you're on, and the essid you're associated to, but I don't know for sure.

Re:Kismet

[krisp]

When you are sniffing with kismet, you are putting your card into a monitor mode, which basicly shows you everything that is going over the air. This includes the 802.11 encapsulation packets, beacon frames, probe requests, etc. When you are in monitor mode you can't be associated with an access point.

On the other hand, when you sniff with ethereal when connected to the network, you are sniffing the ethernet network, not the wireless network. It's like sniffing inside a pptp tunnel, you don't see the raw ppp frames.

Re:Kismet

[petabyte]

ethereal sniffs on the network level. So it'll soak up your tcp, udp, icmp, etc and display that. Kismet sniffs on the link level (basically the level above). You'll get the wlan traffic going back and forth but if its encrypted you'll have to wait until enough weak traffic has gone by for it to crack the wep.

Of course, if the wlan isn't wep'ed up, kismet will happily read and drop the packets to a log file just like ethereal will. Basically your hunch was right.

Re:Kismet

[mAineAc]

cool thing about this is that in monitor mode you are invisible to the networks, where as with netstumbler you can be seen on the networks.

Re:Kismet

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're using kismet to scan for wireless networks, then the card is constantly changing channels, and it should be obvious why you can't transmit/recieve. Most (all?) cards can't recieve on all channels simultaneously.

Re:Kismet

[psiphre]

Kismet sniffs on the link level (basically the level above).

Do you mean the level below?

Re:Kismet

[FireFury03]

Has anyone tried decoding and encoding the raw 802.11 frames in software and stuffing them into the IP stack? That way you could continue to use the network card while sniffing...

Re:Kismet

[mossmann]

That kind of thing is potentially possible with AirJack.

Looks good

[Anonymous Coward]

Version 0.4.0 (April 21, 2004)

Fixed bug (introduced in 0.3.30) that caused "Reconfigure" to put ORiNOCO cards into a state where they would report no access points.
Support for Atheros, Atmel, Intersil Prism2 based wireless cards. Improved support for Cisco cards.
Allow use of Serial Earthmate GPS. (USB Earthmate should already work using NMEA and serial driver)
If you scroll all the way to the right of the graph view, it will auto-scroll new data.
Fixed bug (introduced in 0.3.30) in graph view: corrupted display when scrolling.
Fixed bug in graph view: improper scroll bar tracking with large data sets.
If "Reconfigure" is on, the Windows XP Wireless Zero Configuration service will be stopped when you start scanning. It is restarted when the application exits.
If you connect to a network that supports DHCP, the IP subnet is reported.
If the access point is discovered in the ARP table, its IP address is reported.
While you are scanning, the system will be prevented from going into standby unless power is critically low.
Large files load several times faster than before (though the really large ones still don't load fast enough).
A whole lot of new Scripting features.

Yeah but

[dj245]

When will there be a version that can integrate motion sensors to alert you that the home owner is approaching you with a shotgun?

Re:Yeah but

[LostCluster]

Since when did Security-By-Shotgun become part of the 802.11 standards?

Re:Yeah but

[DAldredge]

When they moved the 802.11 standards body to Texas. :->

For the Mac user in you..

[overbyj]

There is the new release of iStumbler. Works pretty well.

http://www.istumbler.net/

Re:For the Mac user in you..

[Anonymous Coward]

thanks for the link - perfect for my new toy (iBook with Airport Extreme)

Re:For the Mac user in you..

[dlelash]

Or KisMAC:

http://binaervarianz.de/projekte/programmieren/k is mac/

share with your nieghbor why not :)

[Anonymous Coward]

wouldnt it be great if we could share the bandwidth with our nieghbor? he's got a 512 kbit link I have got a 512kbit link wouldnt it be nice to share and have a 1 meg link between us sure sometimes we would both be using it but a lot of the time its sat doing little if anything.
is it that different from modem doubling ?

regard john

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[Adriax]

Kinda complicated if you have to use wireless.
You'd have to get a real router (not one of those cheap broadband NATs) with 3 ethernet ports, two wireless access points and a wireless bridge. Link one port in through ethernet, another through the access point and bridge, and set those to loadbalance the traffic to the 3rd port (with NAT, and DHCP if you want). Stick the second access point off that and have double speed broadband.

Complicated and probably rather touchy, but if you really wanted to, you could. Though it'd be cheaper to just use one broadband account and pay for the combine bandwidth, and share that out.

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[JPriest]

It is probably different with Slashdot reading geeks but during peak hours, a max of only about 10% of the total users are transferring files at any given time.

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Build a cheap GNU/Linux box with 3 ethernet cards.

You can link the first two together -- I can't remember the name of the kernel module that allows this at the moment, but some googling should get you going.

Have the last card going out to a switch and set up forwarding/masquerading as needed.

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[blackest_k]

can you make the equivilent of a beowulf cluster in networking terms? lots of small bandwidth isp accounts contributing to make a huge peak flow rates and more pedestrian rates at peak times

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[dasmegabyte]

Um, if you're both on cable, you're already sharing the link. Each of you has 512k in burst, but you can't both sustain that. Otherwise, cable companies can get around selling 1000 people 512k links would need some mythical 512 megabit pipeline (okay, 10 or so T3s would do the trick, but that's be insanely expensive and not covered by the $45,000 per month they were bringing in when you factor in the cost of techs, etc)

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[Anonymous Coward]

This could be done, but only in some kind of overlay network which uses the internet as "virtual wires" and has its own addressing scheme. Something which would also enable IPv6 including end-to-end encryption without the cooperation of network providers. Now someone only needs to assume organizational authority to make it work...

(The reason why it can't be done on the classic internet is that connections have only one target IP, so all incoming traffic which belongs to a connection only flows through one downlink. You can send through multiple links, if your provider doesn't filter "spoofed" packets, but most people are more interested in combining downlink bandwidth.)

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[dan_polt]

In the UK, your upstream is limited to 256kb/s, so it could have upstream possibilites.
Although i'm not sure wirless would be the best way to do it..

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[stienman]

Set up a QoS router and route all your bulk (high latency acceptable) traffic through your neighbors router. Leave your own connection (wired, I hope) for low latency and burst transfers (gaming, browsing, etc).

Then, when your neighbor asks, just say, "Oh yeah, we're sharing alright. I've set everything up."

-Adam

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[negacao]

I'd just like to point out that I have a 6 mbit link...

nyeah nyeah nyeah <g>

Re:share with your nieghbor why not :)

[VonSnaggle]

Don't you mean:

share with your nieghbor why not )(

if you are like me..

[Suppafly]

and had no idea that netstumbler is..

Q. What is Netstumbler?

A. NetStumbler is a Windows tool that allows you to discover 802.11b (and 802.11a, if using Windows XP) wireless LANs. It includes GPS integration and a simple, intuitive user interface.
Though primarily targeted at owners of wireless LANs, it has been the de facto tool for casual users such as "war drivers" since 2001.

NetStumbler 0.3 won the eWeek / PC Magazine i3 award for Innovation In Infrastructure, 2002.

I find it interesting that it isn't opensource.

Re:if you are like me..

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it interesting that it isn't opensource

Oh, groan. As if that's important to you, and as if you'd contribute if it were.

Re:if you are like me..

[LostCluster]

I find it interesting that it isn't opensource.

Not all programers drank the GNU/Kool-aid.

Re:if you are like me..

[WinterpegCanuck]

Obliguitory Family Guy quote:

You weren't supposed to drink it yet, I need you all to die with me. Haven't you ever been in a cult before? If I die alone, then it will just be freaky.

Re:if you are like me..

[Anonymous Coward]

ugh. quotes from memory are bad, mkay?

minor risk assessment

[ChipMonk]

From his weblog:

NetStumbler is not open source. Indeed it contains a lot of code that was developed under Non-Disclosure Agreements, and the source cannot be released to the general public - if I do so then several teams of lawyers will show up on my doorstep.

What about the RIAA and FBI agents showing up on our doorsteps, just for using it?

Re:minor risk assessment

[datan]

don't you mean the RIAA and the FBI agents showing up on the doorsteps of the neighbour that you're um...sharing his connection with?

Re:minor risk assessment

[InfiniteWisdom]

Don't use it then.

Re:minor risk assessment

[drewzhrodague]

wardrivers say , and the FBI also says there aren't any known issues. Of course, I'm biased, since I not only wardrive, but operate a location based wi-fi site. Be ready for The World Wide Wardrive coming-up in June!

Re:minor risk assessment

[ALpaca2500]

Be ready for The World Wide Wardrive coming-up in June!


hmm... i'll have to get a gps and a car adapter for my laptop... but count me in.

Re:minor risk assessment

[meringuoid]

What about the RIAA and FBI agents showing up on our doorsteps, just for using it?

Surely the whole point here is that they show up at somebody else's doorstep? Just like you did one day with your laptop?

Warning: It's not easy being slashdotted...

[LostCluster]

Look at these side effects from being slashdotted so often...

Since I released NetStumbler 0.3.30, I have experienced birth, death, illness, new job, and increased bandwidth costs.

Well, at least Slashdot causes one of them. I'm pretty sure about the others too...

Re:Warning: It's not easy being slashdotted...

[74nova]

i find it hard to believe that slashdot has caused any births...

New Poll Idea...

[zelurxunil]

Did you respond to the last slashdot story? 1) On your internet connection 2) At a public access terminal 3) From your neighbors WiFi

Re:New Poll Idea...

[selfabuse]

4) Via Carrier Pigeon to CowboyNeal

Re:New Poll Idea...

[ottffssent]

3, actually. Only I have no idea which neighbor it is.

Clearly, I should share Britney songs with 100,000 of my closest friends through a net link paid for by one of my closest neighbors.

Re:New Poll Idea...

[InfiniteWisdom]

4) I H4XORed into the slashdot webserver and posted that way
5) I e-mailed my response to Cowboyneal

Re:New Poll Idea...

[Afrosheen]

Yeah but with pigeons you always have to worry about hawks in big cities eating them.

Where did you think they got the phrase 'NO CARRIER' from? A pigeon that got 0wnt by a local hawk.

Re:New Poll Idea...

[elemental23]

4) I H4XORed into the slashdot webserver and posted that way

If you're going to go to that much trouble, just post your own story the way someone did a couple years ago.

Note to editors...

[c4Ff3In3 4ddiC]

Freshmeat.net can be reached at http://freshmeat.net/.

HTH

New chipsets supported

[chrispl]

Ah now my cisco wifi card is finally more supported than before. It worked pretty good on the old version but netstumbler would often just shut down instantly when more than one access point were available at the same time. This new version seems to work MUCH better.

The cisco cards work great under linux and its nice to see this great app become even more useful even if it is for windows. On that topic has anyone ported NS or another active wifi scanner to linux?

Re:New chipsets supported

[cavebear42]

I know, i have always thought that it was odd that I bought the cisco that was considered the top of the line (and the only card that supported leap) and then couldnt use netstumbler. I will be loading up the new version tonight and giving it a spin.

Re:New chipsets supported

[MBCook]

Yep! My 802.11g PCMCIA card from Linksys works now too. I don't think that it worked before, but it works now. I've got to run this on my little sister's PC. Her card wasn't supported before, but because of her PC's location she can 4 networks that Windows XP thinks it can associate with, I wonder how many others it can see.

Re:New chipsets supported

[g-to-the-o-to-the-g]

The open source kismet is a powerful alternative to NetStumbler. For those of us who don't use Windows, this is nice ;) There is also airsnort, once again for the non-windows crowd.

Re:New chipsets supported

[wolrahnaes]

I agree. My Broadcom 802.11g system would immediately crash NS 0.3.30. 0.4 works like a charm.

Still scans slower than my old ORiNOCO based laptop.

Re:New chipsets supported

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

Me Too!!1!
I have the cheapest card I could find in 2002 (TRENDnet TEW022 or somesuch) and I found that NetStumbler now supports it, reporting it as a simple NDIS 5.1

Makes me really glad I happened to check on netstumbler.net about 6 hours ago, BEFORE the front-page story here.

Time to send some donation $$ along.

--

Re:New chipsets supported

[chrispl]

I belive kismet is a passive scanner, what I prefer is an active scanning program.

my regular client software can do most of this

[gelfling]

My D-link 530DWL client software on XP as well as the XP client manager for the Intel Pro wireless built into my Thinkpad can find all the LANs near my house and they will allow me to logon if they are not encrypted. It reports the LAN name and channel.

Re:my regular client software can do most of this

[SteakandcheeseUm]

Right, but can it log them w/ their GPS information in an easy to read format?

Re:my regular client software can do most of this

[macemoneta]

The Palm Tungsten C handheld also has the same functionality, built-in to the WiFi Setup utility.

Re:my regular client software can do most of this

[wolf-]

Can you link that Dlink beast to a map to show where you are in real time - 2 seconds or so?

Re:my regular client software can do most of this

[ForestGrump]

But can your "regular" lan client track with a GPS and provide a comprehensive list over time?

That is the power of NS. A regular client just shows "I see this near me right now" You tell it to rescan and it updates the list, and loses all the old "finds"

NS logs them with a time and (if a GPS is avial) location you found the AP at.

-Grump

Re:my regular client software can do most of this

[ted_nugent]

Let me get this straight - your nic configuration utility shows you the beacons that are being broadcast in the vicinity? That's fucking amazing.

Re:my regular client software can do most of this

[spoco2]

Now see... the posters above you replied in a useful manner, saying what this does different... you're just being rude. No need for that.

Re:my regular client software can do most of this

[Anonymous Coward]

He was much more funny though. Also, he made the parent stfu. Cool.

No G?

[wpiman]

Well- I guess I know which one I should install. My security for wifi- shut the WAP off when not home. X10 actually works well for this. Simply have the alarm system turn off the wap if no one is home.

Palm

[Pirogoeth]

Is there a tool like this available for Palm-based PDAs with wireless cards?

Re:Palm

[wolrahnaes]

NetChaser is available for the Tungsten|C.

I haven't seen anything for Sony systems or the rare (forgot which brand) PalmOS handhelds with a CF slot.

Maybe there will be more when (if?) the SDIO 802.11 drivers get released for palms /me sits and waits quietly..

Re:Proof open source works

[DAldredge]

First let me say that I know this is a troll, yet I can't help myself. :->

Netstumbler isn't opensource for some strange reason.

Is Netstumbler detectable?

[bender647]

I recall reading in the Kismet documentation (my choice for my Zaurus) that Netstumbler use could be detected by NIDS tools... I wonder if this is still true.

Re:Is Netstumbler detectable?

[josh3736]

NetStumbler is active, not passive.

That means that instead of just listening to packets as they fly by, it actually sends out 802.11 frames to request info about any APs that will respond. So whereas you will get wireless nets that otherwise have no traffic at the moment, you won't get any that don't broadcast their SSID.

So to answer your question, yes, a NIDS tool could detect that you are sending out 802.11 frames at the rate of once a second. :)

Re:Is Netstumbler detectable?

[wolrahnaes]

you won't get any that don't broadcast their SSID.

umm....my $50 Netgear MR814v2 802.11b AP/router can disable beacons. Any AP should have this option.

With beacons off, it is invisible to Windows Zero Config and Netstumbler-like tools. Kismet and any other tool using RFMON mode (Airopeek is the only one on Win32 AFAIK) can still see it.

Re:Is Netstumbler detectable?

[Anonymous Coward]

Beacons and response to probe requests are two different things. Even if you have the 100ms beaconing disabled, the AP may still respond to an NS probe.

Re:Is Netstumbler detectable?

[fatboy]

With beacons off, it is invisible to Windows Zero Config and Netstumbler-like tools. Kismet and any other tool using RFMON mode (Airopeek is the only one on Win32 AFAIK) can still see it.

Here is an example of one that netstumbler would miss. It does not transmit it's ESSID on every beacon.

Re:Is Netstumbler detectable?

[ion_]

So whereas you will get wireless nets that otherwise have no traffic at the moment, you won't get any that don't broadcast their SSID.

Security Alert

Your Access Point Is Currently Broadcasting An Internet SSID Identification. With this Identification, Someone Can Immediately Begin Attacking Your Network!

[ OK ]

Re:Is Netstumbler detectable?

[Anonymous Coward]

Active, passive....what does it matter? Aren't you sending bits when you leech bandwidth anyway? /posting from someone else's connection

Re:Is Netstumbler detectable?

[AK Marc]

AirMagnet (expensive tool) will read the beacon tag from packets. If an AP is transmitting WEP with beacons turned off and not responding to probes, AirMagnet will still pick it up and label the SSID (as well as gather the MAC so you can identify the brand, if not model AP, and other information about the wireless network).

Re:Proof open source works

[lurking]

You are right! Netstumbler sucks compared to AieSnort! Stumbler wont even use my old Linksys Prism2 card. Wardriving with Airsnort is a lot more productive.

Re:Proof open source works

[LostCluster]

This is proof that open source works. We can all imagine what would happen if M$ released a product like this. Wireless is insecure enough without M$ INsecurity initiatives to make it worse.

Sorry, GNU/troll. This doesn't prove much of anything about open source.

Due to NDA restrictions on some of the underlying code, the author of Netstumbler can't publish the source code under GPL or any other license or without one. He has the right to publish the software as a complied binary, but we're never going to see the source of NetStumbler.

Good ol' Netstumbler

[Hex4def6]

I've been using Netstumbler for a while; Windows ZeroConfig wifi intergration removed some of its perks, but I still find it useful for marking GPS locations of hotspots.

On a side note - has anyone figured out a reasonably easy way to bond to two AP's using two wifi cards? Linux / Windows solutions both welcome :)

Donationware

[hrbrmstr]

Hey folks, since we are /.'ing him and no doubt downloading NetStumbler and MiniStumbler in droves, it might be a good idea if someone could setup a torrent for it (I'm @ school @ the moment, otherwise I would) and/or click on his donation links.

While it's no Kismet, it is a solid tool and the new MiniStumbler actually does a great job on my HP iPaq with integrated WLAN.

(I'm also glad I got them yesterday [grin])

Wow. I actually read this using the neighbor's AP

[fliplap]

I'm on my neighbors AP right now.

Btw, SSID: Bartell_LTD
WEP is actually a lot more effective than people on slashdot will tell you.

Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[antdude]

The last time I checked, these programs didn't support my built-in wireless cards (Airport) due to close drivers. Does this new version support them yet? I would love to fiddle with this for kicks. I have the G4 1 Ghz 15" model.

Re:Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[Rude Turnip]

I downloaded KisMac the same day I installed the Airport card in my iBook. There is also iStumbler.

Re:Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhm, this software doesn't support your built in wireless cards (Airport) because it's a windows program.

Thinking different is fine, as long as you're *THINKING*

Re:Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[krisp]

Kismet also supports the Airport card with the vhia drivers (that come with Kismac). It is a real pain to get working properly, though.

Re:Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[wolrahnaes]

Airport 802.11b is supported through the viha drivers. I believe it is really an ORiNOCO card.

Airport Extreme 802.11g is not yet supported. I've heard that these are Broadcom based (no open source drivers yet)

If you have the AE, I feel you pain. I have a Broadcom .11g chip integrated in to my laptop and I don't like using ndiswrapper.

Re:Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[YOU LIKEWISE FAIL IT]

My advice would be to splash out some cash for a PCMCIA Orinoco or PRISM-II card, and jam it into the sideslot. Working this way, and with something like KisMac, you can use the Orinoco to scan in passive mode, and then use the Airport or Airport Extreme card for "active" usage, such as performing a packet reinjection flood to generate more traffic on the network.

I believe Kismac does support the old Airport standard card in monitor mode ( maybe! ), but not the new APX. It can be used in active mode ( which sucks ) however.

Re:Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[c4Ff3In3 4ddiC]

If you have the AE, I feel you pain.

Yes, 11Mbps didn't hurt as much as 54Mbps...

Re:Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[antdude]

Sorry, I got confused with another program. I thought I used NetStumbler. :)

Re:Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[grocer]

Yes, KisMAC supports Airport in passive (moniter) mode.

The newest version also supports various chipsets and has USB support for the Prism chipset.

No Airport Extreme support because of the Broadcom chipset and closed drivers.

KisMAC main page
KisMAC Compatibility List (buy a card supported in passive)

Re:Apple PowerBook G4 support?

[wolrahnaes]

My AP is a .11b system, so I'm still stuck to 11Mbits. What I was saying is that using the Windows driver thru ndiswrapper does not provide the flexibility that I had using HostAP with the Orinoco in my old laptop.

Since this is the same situation experienced b those who went from Airport to Airport Extreme, I thought it was relevant.

Already Complaining about Options...

[Ieshan]

My internet connection IS my Neighbor's WiFi, you insensitive clod!

Re:Already Complaining about Options...

[Exocet]

Funny, but in my friend's case, quite true. The Personal Telco Project in Portland, OR runs several hundred nodes in the metro area. Perhaps 20-25 are high-profile nodes, in businesses.

However, many are in residential neighborhoods. My friend couldn't get DSL at his house, but four block away his PTP-friendly neighbor already had it. With the aid of a Linksys WET-11 and WAP-11 plus a bit of a boost to the WET-11's antenna (I think) via a half-moon reflector, he manages to get access to the internet - FOUR blocks away. 802.11b + good equipment = distance, baby.

Running a similar node in a secure (!) fashion is not necessarily that difficult. You can check out my notes on the node-on-a-laptop I did here: http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/Node172

No more 98SE support

[seinman]

That's a big mistake, in my opinion at least. I've been waiting for 0.4 for months, because the Prism2 chipset was only working on the XP/2k version of 0.3, and I can't upgrade my laptop beyond 98SE. Now that 0.4 is finally out, they change the requirements to XP/2k. Just my luck.

Re:No more 98SE support

[Zerbey]

I can't upgrade my laptop beyond 98SE

Why not? I'm curious. Linux advocacy aside (Linux will run on just about anything) if it can run 98SE it should be capable of Windows 2000 or even XP.

I've run XP on a P200 with 128Mb of RAM, it was slow but it worked.

Re:No more 98SE support

[zonker]

i have an older win98se hp laptop that doesn't support win2k or xp due to its lack of support for the newer acpi power management and hp doesn't have drivers that work with it either... oh well.

Re:No more 98SE support

[seinman]

I did upgrade to 2k once, and the machine runs fine overall, but insists on using 32 bit PCMICA drivers, when my slots are all 16 bit. So I had to downgrade back to 98SE to get my cards working. It's a 150 mhz P1 with only 48 megs of RAM, so XP is out of the question. Tried Linux too (Redhat 7.2 was the only distro out of the 4 or 5 that I tried that would work well with it) but I couldn't get my wireless card working with that setup either.

Re:No more 98SE support

[Zerbey]

I've never tried 2K with anything that has 16-bit PCMCIA slots. 98SE in 48Mb is quite slow, 2K would be just evil I imagine!

Linux wireless support is, sadly, not very complete yet. The main reason for this is the fact that most of the chipset manufacturers are either unwilling to make Linux drivers, or unwilling to release their hardware specs. Have a look at this website though, the software here provides a wrapper for NDIS2 drivers:

Re:No more 98SE support

[silicon not in the v]

It could possibly be due to hard drive space or lack of memory. I had Win98SE working very well on an AMD K6/2 300MHz with 192M RAM. All I had for HD space was a 1GB drive, though. That was fine for Win98, which took only about 4-500MB. As an experiment, I tried XP on that, and it did complete installation, but it popped up a warning about low hard drive space as soon as it got to the desktop.

I got a bigger HD for $10, so I've tried a few Linux distros on it, but they run really slowly. Is it KDE that's being such a hog? Is it the 300MHZ or the 192MB of RAM that's slowing it down? I'm want to try IceWM to see if that speeds things up; I just have to figure out how to do that.

Thank goodness

[Oriumpor]

The support for Wifi has been fixed, ethereal hasn't worked in winblows since I installed the old netstumbler. A quick glance shows it's working much better now.

Taking a quick look at the survey explains why my connection is intermittent... there are 6 B networks in the area. Damnit... if only 2WIRE didn't have such a saturation.

The S/N ratio is showing all the crappy interference. No wonder, anyone know if G has the possibility to interfere as harshly as B? I know A is much better with crosstalk but I'm not about to put 3 APs in my apartment just to go through a measley wall or two.

Re:Thank goodness

[Anonymous Coward]

Change the channel on your AP to 1 or 11, as most AP's use channel 6 by default. My guess is that you are on channel 6 along with everyone else and that is the reason for your poor performance. Change the channel and your problems are over.

Re:Thank goodness

[Anonymous Coward]

I figured it out, there were two 11G interfaces in mixed mode which tend to cause a lot of noise... I was operating at 1 and one of the stronger signals nearby was near 11, but with 2 G's in mixed mode it was causing horrendous noise... looks a lot better now. Good advice tho.

also..

[CoolMoDee]

for those that want passive mode (like kismet) there is Kismac. http://www.binaervarianz.de/projekte/programmieren /kismac/

Reason for not being OSS

[sglane81]

I find it interesting that it isn't opensource.

Q: Can I see the NetStumbler source code? Is it open source? Etc...
A: NetStumbler is not open source. Indeed it contains a lot of code that was developed under Non-Disclosure Agreements, and the source cannot be released to the general public - if I do so then several teams of lawyers will show up on my doorstep.

Cut the guy some slack. He writes award winning software.

Re:Reason for not being OSS

[jrockway]

> He writes award winning software.

Sure. And he would never spy on us. I completely trust his unseen code. Look in to the light and everything will be okay. Don't ask questions, it's for your own good.

Lots of OSS drivers were written under NDAs BTW.

And have you ever heard of reverse engineering? I guess that doesn't win you awards *psh*

Re:Reason for not being OSS

[cheekyboy]

What a complete looser.

1. the portions that are (C) NDA, place them in .obj object files for win/linux/mac.

2. the rest , open the source.

Why would the 'secret' code portions be in jepordy this way? Talking directly to hardware? bull shit!

All we need is some smarter hackers to reverse engineer it, and convert slowly most of it back into C.

Re:Reason for not being OSS

[BamaSlam]

Sorry to feed the troll but you do realize that you DON'T have to run it if you don't want to.

Re:Reason for not being OSS

[SubtleNuance]

Could the Source be released MINUS the NDA covered parts -- with descriptoins of the missing software in 'pseudo code' or atleast a funtional description so that they can be replaced?

I can image a tool like this would be very usefull for hacking....

Re:Reason for not being OSS

[jrockway]

I know. But "he won awards" isn't a substitute for being open source. I can't run it anyway, I don't have windows (or a laptop, or WiFi :)

complete clueless question

[EngMedic]

i'm about to ask a question that demonstrates my cluelessness, so please bear with me.
How does one determine what chipset is in use in a given card? I have the intel pro wireless (centrino default) integrated wifi card in my laptop, but i don't know what chipset it uses... and more importantly, i don't know where to look. Help, anybody?

Re:complete clueless question

[wolrahnaes]

Centrino systems use the Intel PRO/Wireless 2xxx series. Earlier ones are the 2100, newer ones use the 2200. AFAIK, the 2200 is 802.11g, whereas the 2100 is only .11b

Re:complete clueless question

[CRC'99]

Hammer, Screwdriver.

When you gather the pieces again, try to re-arrange the chip into something that resembles its original form, and read what it says on the front.

Re:complete clueless question

[yuri benjamin]

Try the output of lspci.

Not another one...

[c0d3m4n]

Damnit... I hate these things. Everytime someone in my neighborhood finds a new app like this my commection slows to a crawl. Why can't I just get off my ass and set up WEP?

and yet another version that doesnt even support

[Anonymous Coward]

prism2 cards.
imean come on, most apps support prism cards.

i was all excited for this version, until i found out that although the readme SAYS they work, it sure as shit doesnt detect it,.

side sotry: netstumbler meets tech support person.

[r.future]

I've been working as a tech for belkin for awhile now (I know I should hate my self for that but it pays the bills) and a while ago a guy called saying that he had set up his router to...
1. NOT broadcast SSID and,
2. use a 128 bit wep key


But he was pissed off because his network was still "showing up as an available network!" After talking to the guy for a long time I figured out that he was using netstumbler (V3) and that SSID was showing up there, but no place other than that.

Because every one that I work with uses netstumbler, and war drives I asked them if there was any way to make iso stumberl coul dnot see the WAP. When I told this to the guy on my phone he freaked out hard core, and told us that we needed to take some sort of leagle action aginst the guy who invented netstumbler.

Anyway, my point is that WiFi networks + Americans who are afarid of everything + Netstumbler = one pissed off fear filled sue happy american.

sweet irony

[rtfm]

i just used my neighbor's wireless/dsl connection to download the new version :)

Kismet Netstumbler

[Anonymous Coward]

Netstumbler really blows. You should try Kismet and see the better features

Kismet >>>>> Netstumbler

In Kismet you can actually view if there are Netstumbler users nearby and they won't even have a clue you are in the area Plus you can see cloaked networks in Kismet and its totally silent/undetectable.

Go on...load up some intrusion detection ware and watch what happens when someone busts out Netstumbler on you.

With Kismet it won't be noticed at all

DSTUMBLER for those on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD

[linuxbaby]

Should mention the incredible (and similar) dstumbler here - for those on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD.

dstumbler is a wardriving/netstumbling/lanjacking utility for bsd operating systems that attempts to provide features similar to netstumbler in a fast and easy to use curses based application. it is part of the bsd-airtools package released by Dachb0den Labs, which provides a complete bsd based tool set for 802.11b penetration testing.

current features of dstumbler include:

• color s/n graphs
• detection of weped networks
• detects the beacon interval for aps
• detects the maximum supported rate for aps (with prism2 cards in scan mode)
• reports if the ssid of a network is default
• export/import to wi-scan'esque log format
• support for prism2 cards (without wep detection)
• interactive display of ap statistics
• intuitive navigation hotkeys
• nmea gps support
• monitor mode support for prism2 cards
• /dev/speaker audio support for reporting detected aps and nodes
• realtime logging to file (for wi-scan'esque compatibility)
• detection of weped and adhoc networks
• detection of nodes on bss networks
• detects if a bss network uses shared or keyed authentication
• detects the maximum supported rate of aps and nodes
• detects the beacon interval for aps
• detects if bss nodes are set to connect to any network or a specified one
• partial detection of 40-bit or 104-bit encryption

Download at http://www.dachb0den.com/projects/dstumbler.html (or just install it from ports!)

Pocket PC support

[Fiz Ocelot]

There doesn't seem to be any support for my axim x3i yet is there? I'd love to have mini-stumbler working on it.

Re:Pocket PC support

[Anonymous Coward]

:(

I also have an X3i. A

nyone got any stories or suggesstions relating to the above.

Just In Time For The Next Sweeps

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the tv affiliates are running out of ideas. It's become a standard story to drive around neighborhoods, stumble across unprotected routers (geek handy in the back seat coaching), walk up to the door with camera + reporter, explaining what's just happened.

The local CompUSA has had loops of these stories running nonstop during business hours.

(The new version is only going to make them go back and recheck all of those neighborhoods. - May sweeps are less than two weeks away)

Re:Wow. I actually read this using the neighbor's

[freeweed]

I'm on my neighbors AP right now.

WEP is actually a lot more effective than people on slashdot will tell you.

Um.... :)

Re:side sotry: netstumbler meets tech support pers

[Anonymous Coward]

It will only show up if he's associated to the AP. I use Belkin AP's at work and they don't show up if I have the broadcast turned off and the card isn't set to use the SSID of the corresponding AP.

-Randy

K vs N

[MrEcho.net]

yes kismet is great and alot better then netstumbler.
but you have to think about getting your damm wifi card to even work in *nix.
Ive spent weeks trying to get my 2 working in linux, no luck yet.

NetStumbler is the only real way to go in Winblows.
(yes im a linux guy, made the switch 2 months ago)

Re:K vs N

[Alter Relationship]

If you're stuck with an orinoco card (I was) this web page is a good start:
http://airsnort.shmoo.com/orinocoinfo.html
Follow the instructions and be careful because most probably you'll have to recompile the kernel exactly as they say there (with pcmcia support but not built-in).
If you use one of the heavily-modified kernels from redhat, fedora, mandrake etc. expect troubles. Actually I installed slackware in a small (below 1Gb) partition and had it working there.

MAC Address Filter

[Pyro226]

I've got a very simple yet effective security setup on my Access Point. I've got it set up to only accept connections from MAC Addresses on my filter list. Both Netstumbler and Windows can see my access point clearly, but Windows just fails to connect with no explaination when the MAC isn't on the list.

I don't have any WEP set up, so kismet users can see my packets, but by my logic, anyone knowledgeable enough to be using a linux WiFi tool is smart enough to crack WEP.

Re:MAC Address Filter

[Anonymous Coward]

It is actually pretty easy to sniff a valid mac address and use your access point using that mac address.

Re:MAC Address Filter

[Anonymous Coward]

"anyone knowledgeable enough to be using a linux WiFi tool is smart enough to crack WEP."

. . . and to spoof a MAC address and associate w/ your AP. You have *no* security at all.

Re:MAC Address Filter

[dremspider]

Very easy way around this. Use Kismet, capture one of the mac addys. Then what you want to do is wait til they leave. The next step is to change your Mac address with ifconfig hw . Easy enough. Walla you can now get on. FEEL SAFE NOW?

The thing is if someone wants to go through all the problems of a)breaking wep, b)changing their mac addy, c) hacking through Iptables on linux, I say let them. They obviously know of some really important data on my machine that I do not know about, maybe they can show it to me. If I were setting up a network for a client that security is an issue, I would not at all reccomend Wireless, but for home users including myself, it is convenient. I have WEP set up, the MAc address filtering set up and firewall on all my machines. More than enough, because no one would have the need to break in.

Anyway. I used to have a cool little program that gets loaded on a windows DHCP server that would load a virus to any other windows machine that would come on the network that didn't have the "antidote", cool idea, but my friend was pissed when he came over to my house to play some games on the LAN :-).

Re:MAC Address Filter

[EnglishDude]

My 2 year old Linksys cable/DSL router even has a MAC address spoofing feature built in so I assume MAC address security are easily bypassed. http://www.networklab.co.uk/cmodem/linksys.html Do a "Find" on that page for "MAC Cloning". Although I'd guess it's best to have as much security enabled on your WAP as possible - MAC filters, WEP, and disable SSID broadcasting, and to go even further, use a VPN tunnel through the WAP.

Centrino support?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does netstumbler work with centrino?

Very cool indeed.

[gringo_john]

A buddy of mine recently moved into a new highrise condo in a densely populated area (Yaletown) of downtown Vancouver, Canada. He asked for my opinion of what type of broadband internet access he should get, in Vancouver, we basically have two to choose from cable from Shaw or DSL from Telus.

He didn't have very heavy requirements for his internet access so I suggested just trying to use a wireless 802.11 card in his computer to see what open access points he can pick up.

Sure enough, there were about 6-7 open access points available at decent signal strength from his living room.

I suggested that as long as he doesn't do his banking & other information sensitive transactions, he should be okay "borrowing" someone elses connection.

As far as Netstumbler is concerned, I'm sure the area that he lives in yields 100s of hits. It won't take long to "stumble" onto a lot of ports.

Re:Very cool indeed.

[kisielk]

Hm.. looks like it's time to take a drive through Yaletown ;)

Re:Very cool indeed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, banking and other security sensitive applications are the ones you should not be afraid to use over a "borrowed" uplink. These connections are usually secured by strong cryptography (authentication and encryption), whereas your personal email, general webbrowsing and instant messaging is usually in the clear.

Re:Very cool indeed.

[Anonymous Coward]

A friend of mine stayed at a downtown Vancouver high rise hotel last summer with his WiFi laptop. He looked around and used some dingy Internet Cafes, but when he turned it on on the xxth floor there were several strong Shaw cable signals apparently from highrise apartments a block away.

Needless to say he did not use the dingy Internet Cafes anymore during his very pleasant Vancouver stay.

pocket PC (mini stumbler)

[monkeyboy87]

If you have a pocket PC but have an incompatible card (like netgear MFA701) you might want to look at pocket warrior.

Pocket Warrior

open source and GPL ta boot.

Re:pocket PC (mini stumbler)

[isthisorigional]

unless you're using the built in adapter on an ipaq and are running ppc 2003. then your best bet is either pocket winc or a new AWESOME piece of software: wififofum -- donate to this dude, he rocks

Howcome it doesnt work...

[Anonymous Coward]

...with my ethernet card?

For those of you with a NetGear WG511 card

[beatnitup]

The new version is still uncompatible, you can beat this by installing the very first set of drivers that came out with card. Happy war driving

This might seem crazy but bear with me here

[Anonymous Coward]

Netstumbler: A heavy nylon net-based capture and subdual system for drunken sorority chicks as they are booted from the bars at last call.

Feasible??? Work with me here people

iStumbler

[mccalli]

You need to use iStumbler, available here.

Cheers,
Ian

GNU+NDA Don't mix.

[Agent Green]

Actually, Marius has stated before that one of the reasons the project can't go the GNU route is because there are elements in the software that are under NDA.

From the Feb. 1 Q&A in Marius' blog: "NetStumbler is not open source. Indeed it contains a lot of code that was developed under Non-Disclosure Agreements, and the source cannot be released to the general public - if I do so then several teams of lawyers will show up on my doorstep."

Personally, I'm thrilled that Atheros is now supported since stubling 802.11a with NDIS drivers leaves a lot to be desired.

Legal eavesdropping

[Anonymous Coward]

anyone notice the bottom 6 channels of wireless run on amateur freqs ?

so unless its encrypted arent all people transmitting on those freqs voiding the protections provided in the

ECPA

http://www.eff.org/Legislation/ecpa.law

portion of the law regarding transmissions on HAM freqs

(g) It shall not be unlawful under this chapter or chapter 121 of this title for any person--

(i) to intercept or access an electronic communication made through an electronic communication system that is configured so that such electronic communication is readily accessible to the general public;

(ii) to intercept any radio communication which is transmitted--

(I) by any station for the use of the general public, or that relates to ships, aircraft, vehicles, or persons in distress;

(II) by any governmental, law enforcement, civil defense, private land mobile, or public safety communications system, including police and fire, readily accessible to the general public;

(III) by a station operating on an authorized frequency within the bands allocated to the amateur, citizens band, or general mobile radio services; or

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/wiretap 25 10_2522.htm

Re:Legal eavesdropping

[rfmobile]

Actually there are two openings under legal eavesdropping. There is the "readily accessible to the general public" clause you already mentioned. The 802.11X standards are certainly "readily accessible".

The second opening is another clause that deals with interference.

(iv) to intercept any wire or electronic communication the transmission of which is causing harmful interference to any lawfully operating station or consumer electronic equipment, to the extent necessary to identify the source of such interference;

Regardless of whether the eavesdropping is legal, common sense says to encrypt any sensitive data.

-rick

Re:share with your neighbor why not :)

[Alter Relationship]

it'd be cheaper to just use one broadband account
It's not that simple. I've got a screaming dsl connection (8Mbit downstream/2Mbit up) but all my neighbors have asshat teenage kids runing kazaa/DC/ED2k 24/7. Plus spyware,viruses and worms. I could throttle them down, yes, but I would be hold accounbtable for any illegal stuff they do - so I've given up the idea altogether.

Re:Wow. I actually read this using the neighbor's

[Anonymous Coward]

If you use it, that is. Anyway, recent WEP implementations allegedly avoid sending weak packets. If you can guarantee that there are no legacy WEP implementations on your net, is there a way to find the key, except brute-forcing it? (This wouldn't solve the other WEP problems, like shared secrets being a pain to maintain in a multi-user scenario, but it would be nice if WEP were secure in its niche.)

Kismet detects NetStumbler

[Anonymous Coward]

"stumbling" or "wardriving" or "airboxing*" or whatever you want to call it isn't cool if you broadcast so-called "jackass packets" all the while, and NetStumbler does.

Cool kids use stealthy silent scanning tools like Kismet and the like. Kismet actually does detect NetStumbler users scanning, even.

(*airboxing is a special term for people who dislike pete shipley (supposed inventor of network scanning, and also stupid terms like "wardriving").)

Re:Wow. I actually read this using the neighbor's

[jrumney]

WEP is very effective when there are 5 other wireless networks in your immediate vicinity, 4 of which are completely open with default SSIDs and passwords, providing all you are trying to protect against is unauthorized use of your bandwidth (not trying to hide sensitive information).

Re:side sotry: netstumbler meets tech support pers

[jrumney]

It will only show up if he's associated to the AP.

To back that up, the Netstumbler docs state that quite clearly.

Why would I care?

[DerPflanz]

What is this? Are we going to post every release of every network/security related software package? Why would I care about a Windows tool that is closed-source. I am sorry, but I really do not see the relevance of this according the 'news for nerds, stuff that matters'.

Re:Why would I care?

[Anonymous Coward]

SFW???

I thought the point of this site was "News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters", not "Stuff that's not Windows or Closed Source".

Seems to me like the people have decided going by the responses in here.

I've just set up a LAN and am working my way through getting radius and PSK working. I'm interested, so buzz off...

Mike Bakke - A coward, but no longer anonymous

Re:Why would I care?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't use linux (although admittedly I do some Solaris) but Windows, and I couldn't care less if software is open source or not. Guess that doesn't make me a nerd then. Glad to know...

Re:Why would I care?

[DerPflanz]

That is not my point. My point is that releases of software, unless maybe major releases of big packages (think Linux Kernel, but also major Windows releases) should not be announced on the frontpage of slashdot. We have freshmeat for that.

From what I found on the web (yes I did search it to get to know what it was), it is just another network tool. There are hundreds of those, do we need a release announcement of all of them? I think not.

(This is also a reply to the other sibling post)

buffalo wireless cards

[zonker]

anyone had any luck with it on a buffalo wireless card? i haven't gotten the chance to try it yet, but .33 ran (didn't crash like some folks have reported), but never saw the card... here's hoping .4 will do the trick.

they don't need to move to texas

[Anonymous Coward]

they'll just put ESR in charge.

STFW

[notaknob]

The Linux WLAN(tm) organization has a pretty good list.

You'll also find good comparison data on the Seattle Wireless website.

You'll need to know your product ID, but that shouldn't be to difficult to discover.
nk

Quick question - getting it to work (Pocket Ipaq)

[Samuel Nitzberg]

I have a quick question...

[last night] I tried to install the new MiniStumbler on my HP Ipaq 5450 handheld PC (built-in wireless)...

I downloaded the .exe, but the Pocket PC responded that it wasn't a pocket PC program.

Any insights? Thank you...

Sam

welcome slashdot shoppers!

[whovian]

Gotta love this guy taking it in stride:

Welcome, Slashdot readers
Posted in General by mariusm #
Wow. Slashdot increased my traffic by a factor of 16.
Thanks to netstumbler.com, fastbone.com, and Hosted Zone Web Hosting for taking some extra bandwidth!

World Wide Wardrive

[drewzhrodague]

Get ready for the World Wide Wardrive, in June. This is a coordinated effort to wardrive everywhere, and collect statistics. Be sure to upload your scans, and check your results at WiFiMaps.com.

Kismet Vs NEtstumbler

[Anonymous Coward]

i hear alot of people complaining about setting up kismet in linux if you dont want to deal with the setup and you have a supported card go get knoppix-std (www.knoppix-std.org) if you hava a moderatly old laptop it works wonders out of the box

Download Mirrors

[adamjone]

Does anyone know of a working mirror?
stumbler.net, fastbone.com, netstumbler.com, and Hosted Zone all seem to be out of bandwidth.

Re:K vs N: Kismet runs under windows

[mxf8bv]

Use cygwin to run kismet under windows:

Re:side sotry: netstumbler meets tech support pers

[Anonymous Coward]

Because only Americans are afraid of everything and sue-happy. .. Right?

No

[CaptainSuperBoy]

It works with my WG511 using the latest drivers.

Re:No

[beatnitup]

try using it where there is more than one AP and both of them are on the same channel ;)

Why?

[Ayanami Rei]

Passive works just as well as active... no I take that back. You can simulate an "active scan" just by attempting to associate with a blank SSID on cards that support the linux wifi API. Or if you don't intend to associate, wireless-tools' "iwlist scan" command is what you want.

You could take the source to kismit and have it periodically run that command and have it pretend it "discovered" those APs at that time in order to deal with APs that don't send beacons but also reply to any request.

Now an AP that doesn't send beacons but also has a set SSID, well then you need to brute force, or listen to other clients. In which case Netstumbler wouldn't help (but kismet could pick up the other clients...)

MiniStumbler Still Not Compatible

[SlashdotOgre]

For those curious, MiniStumbler still does not work with the popular line of Socket CF Wifi cards. Symbol basically uses the same card (in fact I use Symbol drivers on my Socket card), so I doubt it will work with that either. On a side note, the Symbol WM2003 driver includes a utility with similar features to MiniStumbler.

Re:Kismet Netstumbler

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the source is available, howcome no build for windoze has been done?

Not good

[lorcha]

Dude, you can change your mac address through windows. Don't remember how and don't have access to a windoze box to tell you, but you should be able to find it quick. Just use kimset to find a mac addr.

Where do you live? I need some free internet.

what kinda card?

[lorcha]

My orinoco and d-link cards both worked in linux with zero tweaking. That's more than I can say for fscking windoze, tho. Tinkered a while with my dad's winxp laptop trying to get the d-link card to work. Gave up and gave him the orinoco card, which worked.