Wireless networking.

Hi guys,

I work a lot with wireless networks, actually I’m a network architect. I often have to measure dbi on networks, signal strength, packet loss, high and low gains etc etc. I was wondering how comprehensive the standard OS X wireless networking software is. Also, does anyone know of any 3rd pary software that allows for more technical real-time scanning, and signal strength measurements?

I've also heard that you can totally bypass a wepkey with a mac, to my best knowledge this is simply imposable.. but someone insisted it was true none the less...


Regards,

John.

I've got a little widget sat in my dashboard that displays signal strenght, whether or not its encrypted, its SSID, the channel its on and the first part of the mac code of the ap so you can grab the vendor.

Look for air traffic control on the offical dashboard bit on the apple website

d-funct said:

I've got a little widget sat in my dashboard that displays signal strenght, whether or not its encrypted, its SSID, the channel its on and the first part of the mac code of the ap so you can grab the vendor.

Look for air traffic control on the offical dashboard bit on the apple website

Click to expand...

I just looked at it on the apple website, dang it's nice! How real time is it.. if I move from floor to floor in a hotel do you figure it will show in real time me moving from one access point to another?

I would think it would because it updates the signal strength every couple of secs ... I would test it for you but the Powermac is not really that portable plus living in a pretty rural area there is a lack of AP's

Yes iStumbler is the best of the bunch for OS X. The default signal strength meter is not worth too much.

neom said:

I've also heard that you can totally bypass a wepkey with a mac, to my best knowledge this is simply imposable.. but someone insisted it was true none the less...

Click to expand...

No, bypassing WEP is not possible, though it is fairly trivial to crack.