Wireless Access Point Scanning Software

Wireless access point scanning software can mean one or two Things. first it could mean that you are trying to find wireless access points on a LAN to find their IP address. This can be used when you start a new job and you want to get a quick handle on if any one has wireless access points on the LAN and to find their IP addresses. You can down load wireless access point scanning software from the wireless AP's manufacture or generic versions off the internet. As a wireless administrator you really want to have you wireless access points with static IP addresses so you can find them when you need them.

The second kind of wireless access point scanning software is for discovering the actual wireless signal radiating from the AP. Now this is often referred to as war driving software.

Examples of Wireless access point scanning software are:

Netstumbler: Netstumbler will scan for radio beacons from wireless access points and tell you their names, MAC address, SSID and if they are locked or not. This type of software is very easy to use. All this software will do is tell you the above information and signal strength

Kismet and Airsnort - These fall into the wireless "sniffers" category, which are used to collect packets from wireless transmissions. If enough packets are colleted then a hacker can eventually crack the encryption key. The collection of packets is a very time consuming process, which could take days or even months. After all the packets are collected then encryption cracking software will take over and start the cracking process.

Wireless access point scanning software falls into those two categories LAN and wireless discovery. If you wish for your wireless network to be protected you can also use these same programs as an IDS ( Intrusion Detection System). The most secure wireless network is the one nobody knows about.