Update: Free graphical Mac OS X WiFi Scanner for Snow Leopard with the same information as the text based airport scan below.

Mac OS X WiFi Wireless Scanner

If you are looking for a basic WiFi scanner for Mac OS X then the command line airport utility may fit your needs.

The utility is located at:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport

Typing the above command path can be avoided by creating a symbolic link to the command in /user/sbin/ by copying and pasting below into a terminal window.

sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/sbin/airport

This will allow you to simply type “airport” in the terminal window to execute the command.

Display Current Status of Wireless

airport -I

Will provide information about the current wireless connection.

$ airport -I
     agrCtlRSSI: -64
     agrExtRSSI: 0
    agrCtlNoise: -91
    agrExtNoise: 0
          state: running
        op mode: station
     lastTxRate: 48
        maxRate: 54
lastAssocStatus: 0
    802.11 auth: open
      link auth: wpa-psk
          BSSID: 0:b:55:6:6f:2f
           SSID: SSID
            MCS: -1
        channel: 1

Display All Nearby Access Points

airport -s

Will perform a wireless broadcast scan of nearby wireless devices.

$ airport -s
SSID BSSID RSSI CHANNEL SECURITY (auth/unicast/group)
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:75:99 -76  11      NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:71:59 -62  11      NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:75:79 -81  1       NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:75:29 -69  1       NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:74:c9 -54  1       NONE

Poor Man’s Mac OS X Wireless Site Survey Software

~$ airport -s -r 99

Will repeat the scan 99 times and is a quick way to scan for nearby access points without having to retype the command while walking.

$ airport -s -r 99
SSID BSSID RSSI CHANNEL SECURITY (auth/unicast/group)
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:75:99 -76  11      NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:71:59 -62  11      NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:75:79 -81  1       NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:75:29 -69  1       NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:74:c9 -54  1       NONE

SSID BSSID RSSI CHANNEL SECURITY (auth/unicast/group)
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:75:99 -75  11      NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:71:59 -62  11      NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:75:79 -78  1       NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:75:29 -70  1       NONE
Fairfield_Inn 00:22:7f:0c:74:c9 -62  1       NONE

Disassociate From A Wireless Network

airport -z

Will disassociate (disconnect) from the wireless network without having to disable AirPort using the “Turn AirPort Off” feature via the MAC OS X graphical interface.

How To Spoof A MAC Address On Mac OS X

1) use airport -z to disconnect from the wireless network (required to change the MAC address)
2) sudo ifconfig en1 lladdr 00:00:00:00:00:00:01 (will require root password)

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