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iPad WiFi Scanner and Site Survey Tool

Zaib Kaleem — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:40:27 +0000

iPad WiFi Scanner and Site Survey Tool

Why I like the iPad as a platform for WiFi tools such as a WiFi scanner or WiFi site survey tool:

Display – Nice big display compared to the iPhone. Anyone that has conducted WiFi site surveys for millions of square feet knows that having a big laptop screen is useful. The 9.7-inch (diagonal) multi-touch display isn’t huge but should work well for WiFi site surveys.

Size and Weight – The bigger the screen the better..but with size comes weight. While having a 16 inch screen is ideal..an 8 pound laptop for site surveys feels like a 1000 pounds after a few hours of surveying. For me, the perfect screen size for a WiFi Scanner/Site Survey laptop is around 13 inches. The iPad’s 9.7 inch diagonal screen may end up being a little small but for most scanning and surveying it should work well. At around 9.56 inches by 7.47 inches and 1.6 pounds for the WiFi + 3G model the iPad is perfect for carrying around all day long.

Battery and Power – Per Apple’s website the iPad “has up to 10 hours of surfing the web on W-Fi”. Even if the battery life is closer to 7 hours…that is enough for a full day of WiFI scanning and surveying. When scanning a wireless card isn’t transmitting so hopefully the iPad’s battery life is closer to 10 hours when used as a scanner.

Processor and Performance – For large survey projects it helps to have a powerful processor that is responsive when clicking/tapping the screen and also can handle the larger number access points and WiFi devices that sometimes need to get tracked during scanning and surveying. The 1GHz Apple A4 processor is unknown since it is so new so hopefully it is a powerful as marketed by Apple.

Wireless Features – The iPad supports 802.11 a/b/g/n so it has all the capabilities needed for the major WiFi types deployed by organizations today. The iPad will connect at the full speeds to any type of network for any speed testing or active surveying.

iPad Is Value Priced and Feature Rich

At $499 ($523.95 after tax) the iPad with Wi-Fi only and 16GB of storage is a great platform for WiFi tools. We hope to port our very popular (and free) WiFi Scanner app for Snow Leopard to iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch and add/enhance the tool for wireless site surveys.

iPad/iPhone OS SDK for WiFi Tools

Currently there is is no way to access the information we need from the iPhone/iPad OS without using a private framework. This isn’t a big deal in terms of creating the application but if we want the app available in the App Store then we have play by Apple’s rules which means waiting for a updated OS and SDK to be released. Apple usually realeases major iPhone/iPad OS updates once a year around this time so hopefully the next major release will provide a documented way to access to 802.11/WiFi information that meets our needs for porting our WiFi Scanner to the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch platform.

iPad/iPhone WiFi Scanner/Site Survey Tool Features Requests

If you have any feature requests for a WiFi Scanner and Site Survey Tool on the iPad let us know. Check out our WiFi Scanner for Mac OS X for what is possible.

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OUI Lookup Tool – MAC Address Lookup Tool

Zaib Kaleem — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:44:10 +0000

OUI Lookup Tool – MAC Address Lookup Tool

We have just released a new OUI lookup tool / MAC address lookup tool. The tool is currently in Beta but is very stable and very feature rich.

This OUI lookup tool provides a way to look up OUIs, MAC address prefixes, and full MAC addresses.
If a full MAC address is searched an option to geolocate the BSSID is provided.

Results can be emailed from the page without the need for an email account.

Searches can be conducted using OUIs, MAC address prefixes, and full MAC addresses. OUIs and MAC addresses may be colon-, hyphen-, or period-separated.

Sample search and results below.

00:06:25:FD:32:EB 000018 08:00:22 sitara

Search Multiple Types of Data

Get Lat/Long of Full MAC Address

A full MAC address can be used to geolocate the BSSID by clicking Get Lat/Long.

Email Search Results

Locally Administered MAC Address Locally Administered MAC Address The Locally Administered MAC Address...
Free IP Address Management (IPAM) Software IP Address Management (IPAM) As the number of networking...
iPad WiFi Scanner and Site Survey Tool iPad WiFi Scanner and Site Survey Tool Why I like...

WiFi Scanner v1.1 For Mac OS X

Zaib Kaleem — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:49:19 +0000

WiFi Scanner v1.1 For Mac OS X Snow Leopard

WiFi Scanner is a free 802.11 wireless scanner and connection manager for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later. This will detect access points and clients in ad-hoc mode if the SSID is being broadcasted. It can be used for wireless site surveys, wireless discovery, and to connect to wifi networks. The tool reports signal strength in dBm and shows access point BSSID/MAC addresses.

WiFi Scanner v1.1 Installer Package Download

New Features In WiFi Scanner v1.1 for Snow Leopard

v1.1 of our very popular (and free) WiFi Scanner application for Snow Leopard has following new features.

Change Column Positions
Sort Results
Resolve Vendor OUI
Noise and Signal/Noise Info
Autoscan/Refresh
Latitude/Longitude of Discovered Access Points
Show Access Point in Google Maps
Show Access Point in Google Earth
Access Point Finder Using Audio Alert

See below for screenshots of the application and information regarding the various buttons and options.

Interface Tab

The tab entitled “Interface Info” contains information describing the static and dynamic state of the currently selected interface. Additionally, it allows the user to toggle interface power, disconnect from the current network, and change channels.

You will notice that you will not be able to change channels while connected to a network–this is by design. Attempting to do this would return a error. Furthermore, you will notice that when the interface is powered OFF, all the dynamic status information is cleared.

Scan Tab

The tab entitled “Scan” allows the user to scan for networks using the current interface. The scan results are shown in the table view and are can be organized by any column by clicking the column header. For each network, there is several pieces of information displayed in the table row that describe that particular network.

There is a button in the checkbox left corner of the Scan tab which sets/unsets the parameter to merge the scan result with the same SSID.

There is a Auto check box and drop down to select the auto refresh rate.

The Resolve Vendor OUI option to show the IEEE Organization Unit Identifier for the MAC address.

The Show Lat/Long will show the latitude longitude of the BSSID if available via WiFi databases.

And, there is a button in the bottom right corner of the Scan tab which allows the user to join the currently selected network in the table. A sheet will be presented upon clicking the Join button that will allow the user to provide the appropriate credentials for the given network.

Interface Popup Button

The app supports a multiple interface scenario, whereby the machine could have several IEEE 802.11 wireless interfaces. The popup button on the top left corner of the app allows the user to select which interface should be set as the current interface. By default, the popup button will select the primary WLAN interface for the system.

Refresh Button

In the top right corner of the app, there is a push button entitled “Refresh”. This button provides different functionality depending on which tab is currently selected. If the Interface Info or Configuration tabs are selected, the button will refresh the information display in the currently selected tab. If the Scan tab is selected, the button will start a broadcast scan and block until the scan has completed.

Double click a row of results to access the monitor screen.

Monitor Screen

From the monitor screen you will be able to display the BSSID in Google Maps or in Google Earth.

If the Auto refresh option is checked the monitor screen will refresh the RSSI value every refresh interval.

If audio is enabled a beep sound increase in frequency as the RSSI values increases (aka approaches zero). This is typically called the “Geiger Counter” feature in most WiFi scanning applications.

BSSID Search Tab

This tab will allow you to search any MAC address and have it

BSSID In Google Maps

BSSID In Google Earth

Green domes show estimated coverage area based on free space loss.

WiFi Scanner Email List

[contact-form]

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iPad WiFi Scanner and Site Survey Tool iPad WiFi Scanner and Site Survey Tool Why I like...

iPhone WiFi Scanner Apps Banned By Apple

Zaib Kaleem — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:27:33 +0000

iPhone WiFi Scanner Apps Banned By Apple

Apple has just banned iPhone WiFi Scanner apps from the iTunes store that use a “private framework” to scan for WiFi networks.

Below are some of the apps that have been removed from app store.

WiFi-Where
WiFiTrack
WiFiFoForum
yFy Network Finder
WiFi Get
eWifi
WiFi Analyzer

An email to one developer from Apple stated that because “…There are no published APIs that provide the ability to manipulate the wireless connection or the show level of information regarding the wireless connection as demonstrated in the application….” their app was removed from the app store.

While this is not good news for existing app developers, I think Apple may be cleaning up things in preparation for providing standard methods to access WiFI information in the SDK for the iPhone and iPad.

They already provide standard methods of scanning for WiFi devices in Mac OS X. We currently use these methods for our WiFi Scanner app that works in Snow Leopard.

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Free Rogue Access Point Detector Updated

Zaib Kaleem — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:08:36 +0000

Free Rogue Access Point Detector Updated

Rogue Wireless Access Point Scanner is an online rogue wireless acces point scanner scans for wireless devices and then outputs a list of MAC addresses that belong to the wireless device that is plugged into the network.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 with IE or Firefox works best. XP is partially supported and the program doesn’t support Mac OS X at this time.

The utility has been updated with features below.

Vendor OUI Display
Lat/Long Coordinates of Access Points
Display Access Points on Google Maps
Display Access Points in Googe Earth
Access Point/Rogue AP Tracking
Display Access Point Details Such as SSID, RSSI

Vendor OUI Display

Double click on results in wireless devices window to access scanner monitor window. From this window you will be able to access lat/long info, display access point on Google Maps, display access point in Google Earth, and track the access point using an audible alert.

Lat/Long Coordinates of Access Points

Display Access Points on Google Maps

Display Access Points in Googe Earth

Access Point/Rogue AP Tracking Using Audible Alert

Clicking the Audio On/Off button for a “beep” sound that will increase/decrease in frequency based on the RSSI value. As the RSSI approaches -50 dBm the audible alert will increase in frequency.

Try iWIDS

iWIDS – Wireless Intrusion Detection System

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BridgeChecker v1.3 Beta Available for Download

Zaib Kaleem — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:18:56 +0000

BridgeChecker v1.3 Beta Available for Download

BridgeChecker is a windows utility that can automatically disable/enable wireless interfaces. Whenever your computer is connected to an Ethernet port and the link state is good, the utility can automatically turns off the IEEE 802.11 wireless network interface. This conserves IP address allocation, reduces security risks, resolves dual interface routing issues, and prolongs battery life.

Please read the BridgeChecker User Guide before installing and using BridgeChecker v1.3 beta.

BridgeChecker v1.3 has several new features that are summarized below.

BridgeChecker v1.3 Adds Location Awareness

BridgeChecker v1.2 has two modes, BridgeChecker Mode and OneNIC Mode. BridgeChecker v1.3 adds a Location Mode for enabling and disabling adapters based on the client location being “Work” or “Remote”.

To determine if the client’s location is work or remote the administrator can use a ping test, URL test, or gateway IP check. Based on the results of the test the adapters selected for Work or Remote location will be enabled and all other non whitelisted adapters will be disabled. The test will be rechecked every 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 minutes with 5 minutes being the default check interval.

Location Ping Check

Location URL Check

Location Gateway IP Check

BridgeChecker v1.3 Adds Service Startup Delay

v1.3 adds the ability to delay the start of the BridgeChecker service during the boot cycle. This feature is accessed via Manage Settings screen and can be set to 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 minutes. The default setting is zero minutes delay.

BridgeChecker Service In “Starting” Status During Delay Period

BridgeChecker Service In “Started” Status After Delay Period Ends

BridgeChecker v1.3 Adds Support for x64 Bit Operating Systems

BridgeChecker now supports x64 Windows Vista and Windows 7. If you previously experienced the error message below, BridgeChecker v1.3 solves this issue.

System.InvalidOperationException: The ‘Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0′ provider is not registered on the local machine.
at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbServicesWrapper.GetDataSource(OleDbConnectionString constr, DataSourceWrapper& datasrcWrapper)
at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnectionInternal..ctor(OleDbConnectionString constr, OleDbConnection connection)

The program runs in 32 bit mode and installs in the Program Files (x86) directory. Make sure to install by running setup.exe as administrator.

BridgeChecker v1.3 Beta Download

BridgeChecker v1.3 Beta Download. (offsite)

BridgeChecker v1.3 Beta Bug Report and Feedback

Please use comment form below to send in bug reports or feedback regarding BridgeChecker v1.3 Beta.

BridgeChecker Mailing List

[contact-form]

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Locally Administered MAC Address

Zaib Kaleem — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:05:31 +0000

Locally Administered MAC Address

The Locally Administered MAC Address is used to override the “burned-in” address of network interface cards (NICs). The Locally Administered MAC Address is a user-defined MAC address that is used in place of the MAC address originally assigned to the network adapter. Every adapter in the network must have its own unique MAC address. This locally administered address consists of a 12-digit hexadecimal number.

The appropriate assigned ranges and exceptions for the locally administered address include the following:

The range is 00:00:00:00:00:01 to FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FD.
Do not use a multicast address (least significant bit of the high byte = 1).
Do not use all 0s or all F’s.

Creating An Access Point With A Locally Administered MAC Address

Using airbase-ng we can create an Access Point with a locally administered MAC address.

root@bt:~# airbase-ng -e “SSID” -a 00:00:00:00:00:01 wlan0
For information, no action required: Using gettimeofday() instead of /dev/rtc
16:37:27 Created tap interface at0
16:37:27 Trying to set MTU on at0 to 1500
16:37:27 Access Point with BSSID 00:00:00:00:00:01 started.

Tools Used To Create Virtual Access Point

BackTrack 4 beta VM Image
Netgear WG111US Wireless G Usb Adapter

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Mac OS X Wireless Signal Strength in Snow Leopard

Zaib Kaleem — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:47:46 +0000

Mac OS X Wireless Signal Strength in Snow Leopard

The AirPort item in the menu bar now includes signal strength for all available wireless networks, so you can see which access point has the best signal before selecting it. Four signal bars appear in the AirPort status icon in the menu bar. The more bars that are black, the higher the signal quality. The bars do not indicate the connection rate, as this will vary according to your environment. [source]

While I like the simplicity of the four levels of signal strength above I sometimes need signal strength in dBm. dBm is a more granular way of describing the wireless signal strength.

dBm (sometimes dBmW) is an abbreviation for the power ratio in decibels (dB) of the measured power referenced to one milliwatt (mW). It is used in radio, microwave and fiber optic networks as a convenient measure of absolute power because of its capability to express both very large and very small values in a short form. Compare dBW, which is referenced to one watt (1000 mW). In the more granular information about the signal strength. [wikipedia]

Wireless Signal Strength Using the Snow Leopard Menu Bar

Clicking the option key and the signal strength menu icon will display detailed information about the currently connected wireless network.

PHY Mode – is the type of 802.11 WiFi network (802.11 a/b/g/n)
BSSID – is the MAC address of the access point
Channel – current 802.11 channel
Security – authentication and encryption type
RSSI – received signal strength indicator, aka the signal signal strength in dBm. The closer the number to 0 the stronger the signal.
Transmit Rate – the data rate of the current connection

Airport Signal Strength in dBm Using “About This Mac”

Wireless signal strength is also available using the About This Mac menu bar option and navigating to Network > Airport section.

RSSI Signal Strength Airport Command Line Utility

The airport utility is located at location below.

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

Wireless Signal Strength Using Graphical Tools

WiFi Scanner is a free 802.11 wireless scanner and connection manager for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later. It leverages the the newest CoreWLAN API in Snow Leopard. This will detect access points and clients in ad-hoc mode if the SSID is being broadcasted. It can be used for wireless site surveys, wireless discovery, and to connect to wifi networks. The tool reports signal strength in dBm and shows access point BSSID/MAC addresses.

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Rogue Access Point Detection Using iWIDS

Zaib Kaleem — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:17:56 +0000

Rogue Access Point Detection Using iWIDS

iWIDS is an online wireless instrusion detection system (WIDS) that leverages the wireless scanning capabilities of a Windows XP/Vista/7 PC to discover rogue access points and determine if they are plugged into the wired network.

Rogue Router Access Points (AP)

The most common type of rogue access point is a consumer grade access point router. These devices usually cost less than $75 and can be purchased from almost any electronic store.

The ease in setting up these devices to provide wireless connectivity is also why they tend to be the most common rogue access point found in enterprise networks.

Detecting Rogue Router APs

Rogue router APs are part access point, part router, and part multi-port switch.

They can be connected to a wired network using the LAN (trusted) port or the WAN (untruested port). Between the LAN and WAN port NAT is enabled so that that the single IP provided by the ISP can be shared by multiple users connected wirelessly or via teh wired switch.

In almost every case, the last octect of the LAN, WAN, and wireless interface MAC addresses are adjacent to each other. This means that the MAC addresses are +/- a few values from each other.

Leveraging this common MAC address characteristic of router APs, a combination of wired and wireless analysis can be used by iWIDS rogue wireless access point scanner to correctly determine if the router access point is plugged into your wired network.

iWIDS In Action

Below are results of a scan on our test network that has multiple access points and one consumer grade router access point plugged into the wired network. Using a Windows 7 PC that is wirelessly connected to the network via we scanned to see if the application could correctly determine which device was the rogue router AP.

The application correctly detected the rogue access point router (MAC adddress ending in :43 with blue highlight) and the two other access points.

System Requirements and Usage

Latest version of Java recommended (tested using version 1.6 update 16)
Windows Vista or Windows 7 PC with wireless network card enabled (not fully compatible with Windows XP at this time). Ethernet card can be plugged in to wired network and/or wireless connected wirelessly to wired network to be scanned :-)
Wired Ethernet interface or wireless interface should have an IP address (DHCP or static) that is valid for network being scanned
Wireless interface can be disconnected from wireless network
After loading, software will automatically search for all IP addresses on wired network and compare to discovered wireless devices
Detection results will be displayed in “Wireless Devices On Subnet” window.
Results can be emailed by configuring applet with SMTP information. Enter text that should be included in email before and after results in pretext and posttext areas.

Test drive iWIDS on your home or work network. Please share your results by leaving a comment.

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Free Mac OS X Wifi Scanner for Snow Leopard

Zaib Kaleem — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:39:55 +0000

Download updated WiFi Scanner v1.1

Free Mac OS X Wifi Scanner for Snow Leopard

WiFi Scanner v1.0 Screenshots

WiFi Scanner v1.0 has the two main screens shown below.

WiFi Scanner User Guide

Interface Popup Button

Refresh Button

Interface Info Tab

Scan Tab

The tab entitled “Scan” allows the user to scan for networks using the current interface. The scan results are shown in the table view and are automatically ordered by network name. For each network, there is several pieces of information displayed in the table row that describe that particular network.

There is a button in the checkbox left corner of the Scan tab which sets/unsets the parameter to merge the scan result with the same SSID.

WiFi Scanner Download

Click here to download WiFi Scanner v1.0 dmg install file.

Click here to download WiFi Scanner v1.0 zipped install file.

After the download completes, the application will uncompress the .dmg file and present the installer screen below. Drag the application to the Applications folder or click the WiFi Scanner.app file to launch the application directly from the folder.

WiFi Scanner Email List

[contact-form]

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BridgeChecker v1.2 Available for Download

Zaib Kaleem — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:02:33 +0000

BridgeChecker v1.2 Available for Download

BridgeChecker v1.2 and previous versions are available for download from the BridgeChecker Download page.

BridgeChecker User Guide

This version has several new features that make the program much more flexible. Please see the BridgeChecker User Guide for instructions on how to take advantage of the new features.

New Features in BridgeChecker v1.2

Custom NIC selection for automatic enable/disable feature (BridgeChecker Mode)
Manual interface enable/disable adapter mode (OneNIC Mode)
Interface detection based on Windows hardware device name
Hide notification area icon (sometimes referred to as system tray icon)
Software will run as a service to bypass Windows Vista UAC issues
Admin selectable modes of operation, BridgeChecker mode and OneNIC mode
Flexible licensing options (personal/non-commercial and company/commercial)
Supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7
Admin password to change config
Option to whitelist adapters (e.g., virtual adapters, VPN adapters)

BridgeChecker v1.2 Requirements

Program tested on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems
Requires .NET Framework 2.0 or above
.NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 (Full Package) direct download from Microsoft
Windows Vista/Windows 7 users must run installer setup.exe as an Administrator

Recommended Usage Scenarios

The program can be used in the following scenarios.

disable wireless when connected to LAN
disable wireless when docked
disable wireless when Ethernet detected
disable wireless when wired
disable wireless when on LAN
disable wireless when cable connected
disable wireless when in docking station
disable wireless when Ethernet plugged in
disable WLAN when LAN connected
enable only one network adapter at a time

Comments, Bugs, and Feature Requests

Please use comment feature below to let us know if the BridgeChecker program met your requirements. When commenting please let us know your Windows operating system version and wireless card brand and model if possible. Comments about bugs and feature requests are welcome and encouraged.

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BridgeChecker Update

Zaib Kaleem — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:36:28 +0000

BridgeChecker

BridgeChecker was released on May 22, 2009 and has been well received by Windows users searching for a way to automatically enable/disable wireless interfaces when the LAN interface is connected.

BridgeChecker Update

Since the initial release we have been working on new features and improving the user interface. An updated version is almost ready for release and will some of the most requested features listed below.

Whitelist adapters
Admin password to change config
Hide notification area icon (sometimes referred to as system tray icon)
Custom NIC selection for automatic enable/disable feature
Software will run as a service to bypass Windows Vista UAC issues
Two modes of operation, BridgeChecker mode and OneNIC mode

BridgeChecker Mode and OneNIC Mode

The biggest change since the first release will be the ability to run the program in two modes, BridgeChecker mode and OneNIC mode.

BridgeChecker Mode - will operate just like the previous version but will allow the adapters to be selected from a drop down list and also allow adapters to be whitelisted.

OneNIC mode – will allow the user to select one network interface and all other interfaces will be disabled. The goal of this feature was to give users the ability to use any type of interface (EVDO, dialup, wireless, wired, etc) but only “OneNIC” will be enabled at a time. The user is free to change which interface they would like enabled at any time.

OneNIC mode adapter selection with no whitelisted adapters.

OneNIC mode adapter selection after whitelisting VMWare and 1394 adapters.

BridgeChecker Administration Enhancements

The program will include a password protected admin interface to control which interfaces are whiltelisted, which mode to operate in, and to hide/remove the system tray icon.

BridgeChecker License and Support

The first version of BridgeChecker will continue to be available as a free download for personal and commercial use. No official support or warranty will be provided other than the comment/feedback feature of this blog.

The new/updated version will also be a no cost download and free for personal use. For commercial users we will be updating the software license to allow for a limited number of installs at no cost and no support.

For large deployments a fee based licensing model that includes support for organizations that require it before they can install software on production systems will be made available.

BridgeChecker Release Date

Please sign up to receive blog posts via email, RSS or sign up for the BridgeChecker mailing list to be notifed when updated versions are released.

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Free IP Address Management (IPAM) Software

Zaib Kaleem — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 03:33:59 +0000

IP Address Management (IPAM)

As the number of networking devices increases, it becomes more important to assign and track IP addresses with more than just spreadsheets or via email requests. The old way of pinging an IP address, checking a spreadsheet, or looking at the DHCP server leases is not longer reliable and scalable.

A good way to avoid the older and more manual ways of managing IP addresses is to implement an IP address management solution.

Internet Protocol (IP) address management (IPAM) is a means of planning, tracking, and managing the Internet Protocol address space used in a network. Most commonly, tools such as DNS and DHCP are used in tandem to perform this task, though true IPAM will glue these services together so that each is aware of changes in the other (for instance DNS knowing of the IP address taken by a client via DHCP, and updating itself accordingly). Additional functionality, such as controlling reservations in DHCP as well as other data aggregation and reporting capability, is also common. IPAM tools are increasingly important as new IPv6 networks are deployed with larger address pools, different subnetting techniques, and more complex 128-bit hexadecimal numbers which are not as easily human-readable as IPv4 addresses. IPv6 networking, mobile computing, and multihoming require more dynamic address management and are causing technical obsolescence of the early generations of IP address management (IPAM) software and spreadsheets used for address manageme. [source]

Free IP Address Management (IPAM) Software

Instead of installing IPAM software from scratch (allocate hardware, operating system, software, etc) to track the ever increasing number of IP addresses in your network. I recommend downloading a free IPAM virtual machine offered by a company named Infoblox to test to see if an IPAM solution is right for you.

Infoblox’s free IPAM software solution has the following features:

On demand and scheduled network discovery of devices
Unified repository of IP address and asset information
On demand and scheduled network discovery of devices
Ability to assign values to the standard IPAM attributes e.g. device type, operating system etc.
Graphical representation of IPs (IPMap)
Graphical representation of networks (NetMap)
Ability to organize IP addresses in smart folders
Wizard for creating new networks
Wizard for assigning new IP address

Download Free IPAM Software

The virtual machine be downloaded from here.

I’m running the IPAM virtual machine on a VMWare ESX server and had to convert if from a VMWare workstation virtual machine to a VMWare ESX server virtual machine.

IPAM Virtual Machine Requirements

If you plan to run the software on VMWare Player (free) the requirements are below.

Operating System:
Windows 2000, Windows XP SP2,
Window Vista
Disk Space:
1GB
RAM:
Minimum 512MB

Getting Started with Free IPAM Software

My notes below are on what I did after getting virtual machine running.

Changing IP address configuration of a static address
Add my subnet
Configured discovery process for my subnet
Started discovery process
Reviewed list of discovered IP addresses
Made any comments about discovered IP addresses

Discovered Devices by IPAM Software

Device Address List

Free IPAM Software License

This software is intended for trial purposes per language below from download license agreement.

LIMITED TRIAL LICENSE. Subject to the terms of this Agreement, Infoblox grants you a nonexclusive, non-transferable limited license to internally reproduce, install and use the Software only in
object code form to evaluate the Software. This limited trial license does not permit you use to the
Software to manage more than 500 IP addresses.

Locally Administered MAC Address Locally Administered MAC Address The Locally Administered MAC Address...
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NetStumbler for Mac OS X

Zaib Kaleem — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:57:20 +0000

NetStumbler for Mac OS X?

If you are looking for a NetStumbler like program for Mac OS X you have several options. My personal favorite is KisMAC. I also use the built in airport utility to scan for wireless access points.

KisMAC

KisMAC is an opensource and free stumbler/scanner application for Mac OS X. It has an advantage over MacStumbler/iStumbler/NetStumbler in that it uses monitor mode and passive scanning.

KisMAC supports several third party PCMCIA cards – Orinoco, PrismII, Cisco Aironet, Atheros and PrismGT. USB Prism2 is supported as well, and USB Ralink support is in development. All of the internal AirPort hardware is supported as well.

MacStumbler

MacStumbler is a utility to display information about nearby 802.11b and 802.11g wireless access points. It is mainly designed to be a tool to help find access points while traveling, or to diagnose wireless network problems. Additionally, MacStumbler can be used for “wardriving”, which involves co-ordinating with a GPS unit while traveling around to help produce a map of all access points in a given area.

MacStumbler requires an Apple Airport Card and MacOS 10.1 or greater. MacStumbler doesn’t currently support any kind of PCMCIA or USB wireless device.

MacStumbler works like NetStumbler and relies on responses to probe requests to discover access points. This implementation also prevents MacStumbler from detecting wireless stations or hidden networks because they don’t respond to probe requests.

iStumbler

iStumbler is the leading wireless discovery tool for Mac OS X, providing plugins for finding AirPort networks, Bluetooth devices, and Bonjour services with your Mac.

Airport Utility

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.

Typing “airport -s” will scan for broadcasting wifi devices.

See my previous post for more information about the airport utility for additional information.

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Mac OS X WiFi Wireless Scanner

Zaib Kaleem — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:34:43 +0000

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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NetStumbler for Windows 7

Zaib Kaleem — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:19:51 +0000

NetStumbler for Windows 7

The latest version of NetStumbler is 0.4.0 and was release over 5 years ago on April 21, 2004. The officially supported operating systems do not include Windows 7 or Windows Vista for obvious reasons.

Some users have reported being able to use NetStumbler version 0.4.0 on Windows Vista by running NetStumbler in Windows Vista Compatibility Mode. Instructions for configuring Windows Vista compatibility mode for NetStumbler are below and should be the same for Win7.

Configuring Windows Vista or Windows 7 for Compatibility

To configure the compatibility mode for an application, just locate the installation directory (C:\Program Files\Network Stumbler\) and right click on the .exe (NetStumbler.exe), selecting Properties from the menu.

Select the Compatibility tab as shown in image below.

This didn’t work for me. I didn’t spend too much time researching why, but the reason is most likely because NetStumbler itself doesn’t work with all wireless cards even when using Windows XP or Windows 2000.

Other Options Instead of NetStumbler

Thankfully Windows 7 is intended to be an incremental upgrade to the Windows line, with the goal of being compatible with applications and hardware with which Windows Vista is already compatible.

This means that all of the other options that we know about already for Windows Vista should work with Windows 7.

1) Use netsh command.

netsh show BSSID results with SSID

2) Use alternative programs. I recommend inSSIDer or Vistumbler

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Disable Wireless When Connected to LAN in XP and Vista

Zaib Kaleem — Sat, 23 May 2009 02:52:20 +0000

Note: Visit BridgeChecker page for most up to date version and documentation.

Disable Wireless When Connected to LAN in XP and Vista

We are releasing a Windows XP and Vista program called BridgeChecker that extends the “Disable Upon Wired Connect” capability that is available for Broadcom wireless cards to any brand wireleless card when the ethernet interface is connected.

BridgeChecker

BridgeChecker Settings

The settings screen can be accessed by right clicking on the WLAN Book “globe” icon in the task bar.

Task Bar Menu Options

Program Settings

BridgeChecker Requirements

– Program tested on Windows XP and Vista operating systems
– Requires .NET Framework 2.0 or above
– .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 (Full Package) direct download from Microsoft
– Windows Vista users that have UAC enabled are required to manually allow RunCMD.exe to run as Administrator. See screen shots below.

Running BridgeChecker Program as an Administrator in Windows Vista

In Windows Vista the “RunCMD.exe” file is located in the C:\Program Files\WLAN Book\BridgeChecker\ folder.

Recommended Usage Scenarios

The program can be used in the following scenarios.

disable wireless when connected to lan
disable wireless when docked
disable wireless when ethernet detected
disable wireless when wired
disable wireless when on LAN
disable wireless when cable connected
disable wireless when in docking station
disable wireless when ethernet plugged in
disable wlan when lan connected

Known Issues with BridgeChecker v1.0.4.22

– Detects enabled VMware virtual interfaces as enabled physical interfaces causing program to disable wireless card. Work around is to disable VMware interface when not in use.
– If computer has more than one wireless card, the program may not enable/disable correct card or may enable/disable both cards.

Comments, Bugs, and Feature Requests

Please use post comment feature below to let use know if the BridgeChecker program met your requirements. When commenting pelase let us know your Windows operating system version and wireless card brand and model if possible.

Comments about bugs and feature requests are welcome and encouraged. We may be able to enhance this program or recommend other products.

BridgeChecker Download

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Windows Vista Netstumbler

Zaib Kaleem — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:26:27 +0000

Windows Vista and Netstumbler

Netstumbler isn’t officially supported on Windows Vista but several alternatives exist that provide similar or better information about wireless networks.

The quickest and simplest way to discover access points is by using the “netsh” command available by default in Windows Vista. The command returns text results for discovered wireless networks. Free tools that take the netsh results and display them in a graphical format are also available.

Netsh Windows Vista Shortcut

The easiest way to use the command is to create a desktop shortcut and run it as needed.

Right click on Windows Vista Desktop and select New -> Shortcut
Type following in field and click Next
cmd.exe /k netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid
The “cmd.exe /k” portion of command will keep results window open until closed.
Save shortcut by clicking Finish
Run command by double clicking desktop shortcut

Netsh cmd vs Windows Vista Graphical Networking View

The netsh shows SSID, signal strength, channel, supported data rates, and access point MAC address (BSSID). Compare this to Windows Vista graphical information which only shows SSID and signal bars.

Netsh

Windows Vista

netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid help

The help information for the command is below.

C:\Users\admin>netsh wlan show networks ?
Usage: show networks [[interface=]] [[mode=]ssid/bssid] Parameters: Tag Value interface - Name of the interface which has this profile configured. mode - Get detailed bssid information. Remarks: Shows the networks available to the system. Parameter interface and bssid are both optional. If interface name is given, only the networks on the given interface will be listed. Otherwise, all networks visible to the system will be listed. If mode=bssid is given then the visible bssids for each ssid will also be listed. Otherwise only ssids will be listed. Examples:
show networks interface="Wireless Network Connection" show networks mode=Bssid show networks

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Outdoor Wireless Planning Tool

Zaib Kaleem — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:18:02 +0000

Outdoor Wireless Planning Tool

This online tool can be used to plan and visualize outdoor wireless networks by plotting device locations and radio frequency (RF) propagation coverage on mapping tools. Radio frequency propagation visualization can be viewed as contours on Google Maps or 3D RF models in Google Earth.

The tool is currently beta software and is available at address below. Feedback and feature requests are welcome.

http://www.wlanbook.com/outdoor-wireless-planner/

How to Use Outdoor Wireless Planning Tool

I plan to add detailed instructions later but for now start by following a three step process – 1) find your location, 2) click on map to plot markers, and 3) view results in Google Earth.

Radio Frequency Propagation Visualization on Google Maps

Currently the radio frequency propagation visualization in Google Earth and Google Map view is the same for all plotted points. This feature will be enhanced so that results are based on user entered data like radio power, frequency, antenna gain, distance, and most importantly terrain data that can be determined from mapping software.

Radio Frequency Propagation Visualization in Google Earth

The Google Earth portion of tool isn’t complete but when done will have the ability to view results with custom pan, tilt, range, and altitude values for location. See below for what the 3D view will look like and download a demo file to view results in Google Earth.

Feedback, Bug Reports, and Features Requests

Please comment in post below or send me a message via my contact form with feedback, bug reports, and feature requests. This software was tested on a Windows Vista PC, Internet Explorer 7, and 1280×800 screen resolution. I’m sure it will behave differently on other systems so when sending bug reports please let me know your operating system, browser version, and screen resolution.

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RFMON – Radio Frequency Monitoring, Monitor Mode

Zaib Kaleem — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 05:05:38 +0000

RFMON

RFMON is short for radio frequency monitoring mode and is sometimes also described as monitor mode or raw monitoring mode. In this mode an 802.11 wireless card is in listening mode (“sniffer” mode).

The wireless card does not have to associate to an access point or ad-hoc network but can passively listen to all traffic on the channel it is monitoring. Also, the wireless card does not require the frames to pass CRC checks and forwards all frames (corrupted or not with 802.11 headers) to upper level protocols for processing. This can come in handy when troubleshooting protocol issues and bad hardware.

RFMON/Monitor Mode vs. Promiscuous Mode

Promiscuous mode in wired and wireless networks instructs a wired or wireless card to process any traffic regardless of the destination mac address. In wireless networks promiscuous mode requires that the wireless card be associated to an access point or ad-hoc network. While in promiscuous mode a wireless card can transmit and receive but will only captures traffic for the network (SSID) to which it is associated.

RFMON mode is only possible for wireless cards and does not require the wireless card to be associated to a wireless network. While in monitor mode the wireless card can passively monitor traffic of all networks and devices within listening range (SSIDs, stations, access points). In most cases the wireless card is not able to transmit and does not follow the typical 802.11 protocol when receiving traffic (i.e. transmit an 802.11 ACK for received packet).

Both modes have to be supported by the driver of the wired or wireless card.

RFMON and WLAN Discovery Tools

Kismet is probably the most widely used open source WLAN discovery tool. In addition to passively detecting access points and stations Kismet has many advance features like revealing hidden/cloaked SSIDs.

Before jumping into using Kismet you should feel comfortable with Linux and confirm that the hardware you plan to use has drivers that support monitor mode.

If you are not Linux savvy and only have basic wireless LAN discovery requirements, you may be able to get by using tools that don’t require RFMON like Netstumbler. Also, review the limitations of active scanning tools like Netstumbler and alternative tools.

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