Detecting Networks with Kismet

Troubleshoot network problems with one of the most advanced wireless monitoring tools available.

Unlike simple beacon scanners such as NetStumbler [Hack #21] and MacStumbler [Hack #22], Kismet is one of the most advanced diagnostic tools available for wireless networking. It is a completely passive network scanner, capable of detecting traffic from APs and wireless clients alike (including NetStumbler clients). It finds "closed” networks by monitoring the traffic sent from its users, and logs all raw 802.11 frames in standard pcap format for later use with specialized diagnostic and analysis tools—as you’ll see in [Hack #39]. If you have a machine with multiple wireless cards, Kismet even splits the work of network scanning across all of them, making a scanner capable of simultaneously tracking all 802.11 traffic in range. These are just a few of the incredible features of this piece of free software.

Of course, with all of this power comes a fair amount of complexity. For starters, you need an 802.11b card capable of entering RF Monitoring mode. Some of these cards are Prism-based (such as the Senao/EnGenius, Linksys, or D-Link cards), some are Lucent/Orinoco/Proxim/Avaya, and some are Cisco Aironet. Kismet also works with ar5k-based 802.11a cards. I was able to get Kismet running well on an iBook with an internal AirPort card (an Orinoco derivative) under Debian. The following explains what I had to do to make it work.

Installation

Download ...

Get Wireless Hacks now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.