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Free
Wi-Fi Stumbling and Surveying Tools
By Eric Geier (NoWiresSecurity Founder
& CEO) - originally published on
NetworkWorld
Even if you have an enterprise-level
Wi-Fi spectrum analyzer, like Wi-Spy or AirMagnet, free Wi-Fi tools
can also come in handy. You might use them during the planning or
installation stages of your wireless LAN, while troubleshooting, or
when performing maintenance. They could even serve as your primarily
tools in smaller and less-complex environments.
Here are several free programs you can use to do Wi-Fi stumbling and
surveying on all the popular platforms—Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
You'll be able see all the nearby wireless access points and their
details, including channels, signal levels, and MAC address. (Watch
a slideshow version of this story.)
1. NetStumbler
NetStumbler is one of the oldest and most known Wi-Fi stumblers and
runs on Windows and Windows CE/Mobile. It lists nearby access points
and displays their basic details: SSID, channel, speed, MAC address,
vendor, and encryption. Unlike most other stumblers, it also shows
the signal, noise, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels.
Additionally, it has GPS support to record access point locations
when wardriving.
Keep in mind, NetStumbler hasn't been updated since 2004. It may not
run well on Windows Vista or 7, or even 64-bit Windows XP.
Additionally, it doesn't show the real encryption methods of access
points. If an access point has encryption enabled it's always marked
as WEP, regardless if it's WEP, WPA, or WPA2.
NetStumbler can be useful when doing basic signal reading or
wardriving, but the limitations I mentioned prevent it from being a
go-to tool for other situations, such as when doing a security audit
to look for misconfigured or rogue access points.
2. Vistumbler
Vistumbler is a newer open source stumbler first released in 2007
and updated as lately as 2010. It displays the basic access point
details, including the exact authentication and encryption methods,
and can even speak the SSID and RSSI of access points.
Similar to NetStumbler, you can view a list of all access points or
drill down to those categorized by authentication, encryption,
channel, network type, and SSID. You can also view graphs of the
access point signals in addition to viewing text readouts. It's
highly customizable and offers flexible configuration options. For
example, you can define and save access point names to better
distinguish them in the future. In addition to basic GPS support to
record access point locations, it supports live tracking within the
application using Google Earth.
However unlike NetStumbler, Vistumbler only gives you the signal
levels and doesn't include the noise levels. Thus it doesn't report
the signal-noise-ratio (SNR) values, which is usually more helpful
than just the plain signal levels.
3. inSSIDer
InSSIDer is a relatively new open source Wi-Fi stumbler developed by
MetaGeek, the maker of the Wi-Spy spectrum analyzer. It shows the
usual list of access point details, but doesn't show the exact
authentication method. You can see the encryption method used but
can't distinguish, for example, between WPA-PSK and WPA-Enterprise
networks. Like most other stumblers, inSSIDer doesn't include the
noise or signal-to-noise (SNR) values; just gives you the RSSI
values.
However, it features very intuitive graphs. The time graph shows the
signal levels (in dB values) of each access point for the past 5
minutes. Then there's a graph for each 2.4GHz and 5GHz channel,
showing the current signal levels and channel width usage of each
access point. Another useful feature: the filters enable you to
filter out access points based upon the access point's band,
channel, signal, security, and age status — great if you have a
large amount of access points to deal with. It also features GPS
support and lets you export to Google Earth.
4. NetSurveyor
NetSurveyor is a free but closed source Wi-Fi stumbler and basic
analyzer developed by Nuts About Nets, last updated in 2009. It
displays the basic access point details, but doesn't specify the
exact authentication or encryption method. It just indicates Yes or
No for encryption. Additionally, it doesn't offer any customization,
such as saving access point names.
Though NetSurveyor doesn't report noise levels, it does offer more
graphs than most other free stumblers, including access point
Timecourse, access point Differential, Channel Usage, Channel
Timecourse, Channel Heatmap, and Channel Spectrogram.
It can also record data for extended periods and played-back in the
future. You can also create useful reports in Adobe PDF format,
which includes a snaptshot of the access point details and all the
graphs.
NetSurveyor is a subset of what the company offers in its paid
product, NetSurveyor Professional, which runs for $34.95 after a
10-time-use free trial. NetSurveyor Pro adds the ability to view and
record actual performance stats of access points you're connected to
instead of using just its broadcast beacons. They even offer more
tools, such as a spectrum analyzer, for $395.
Secrets of the best Wi-Fi networks revealed
5. Kismet
Kismet is a free and open Wi-Fi stumbler, packet sniffer, and
intrusion detection system for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and BSD. It
shows the access point details, including the SSID of "hidden"
networks. Plus it reports the noise levels and gives you the
signal-to-noise (SNR) values. It can also capture the raw wireless
packets to a PC access point file, so you can import into Wireshark,
TCPdump, and other tools.
Kismet, however, in Windows only works with CACE AirPcap wireless
adapters due to the limitation of Windows drivers. It does, however,
support a variety of wireless adapters in Mac OS X and Linux.
6. Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector
Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector is a free but closed source Wi-Fi stumbler
and basic analyzer. Along with displaying all the usual access point
details, it shows a radar view and 8-minute signal history graph. It
also displays the signal and address info for any current
connections. Additionally, it offers a simple tool to test
connectivity of the main network components, and shortcuts to
web-based speed and connection quality tests. Its export feature
lets you save a snapshot of the access point details to a CSV file.
Though it doesn't let you save access point names, it lets you
customize some settings, such as the signal unit type (dBm or
percentage), RSSI method, and polling interval.
7. Meraki WiFi Stumbler
This is a simple web-based stumbler, freely available on the Meraki
website. It runs in most browsers on Macs and PCs, and even works
when offline. It displays most of the basic wireless details (with
signal levels in percentages) and offers a bar graph of access
points per channel.
It doesn't allow any customization and doesn't offer any additional
functionality beyond displaying the network basics and letting you
perform searches of the data. However, this stumbler is still useful
if you want to check wireless signals from a computer that doesn't
already have a stumbler installed.
8. KisMAC
If you're a Mac user, you might consider using the KisMAC stumbler
and security tool, similar to Kismet. It also reveals "hidden" SSIDs.
Along with the other basic details, it can show the access point's
clients (with MAC Addresses, IP addresses and signal strengths).
Plus it reports the noise levels and gives you the signal-to-noise (SNR)
values. It also supports GPS and mapping, and PC access point import
and export. It even includes tools to attack Wi-Fi networks for
penetration testing. |
