AP Scanning

[Eric Anderson]

Anton Nikiforov wrote:

> Dear All,
> thanks to those of you who helped me to start using my WiFi adapter, 
> but now i have a question about using it :)
> I mean it works just fine with Intel's APs and im planning to try to 
> test it with D-Link APs.
> My question is:
> I'm traveling between a few locations with differn APs configuration 
> and differen options to access internet (dhcp, proxys etc).
> In addition some offices have no WiFi APs installed, so i use ethernet 
> cable or ppp over GPRS connection there.
> And i wold like my noteook to swith profiles automaticaly (i want to 
> test radio environment in case no ethernet cable is attached and i 
> know how to do it). And if no ethernet nor radio available - it should 
> connect over ppp (if usb cable is attached).
> I understand that there is a simple way to test the radio invironment 
> by setting up ssid and other parameters and check if the interface 
> become assotiated, but i do not like this idea.
> Maybe there is something that i coud use as a key to start interfase 
> in one of the predefined configurations (like before setting a ssid to 
> read AP's serial or whatever unique location ID)? Maybe even scan an 
> air for APs that i do not know? :)
> And additional questions - is how to change Mozilla/gaim configuration 
> "on the fly" to correspnd to each location. (but this question is not 
> FreeBSD related, so it could be considered as OFFTOPIC, but maye 
> someone solved already this problem?)
> Does someone solved this? Or even know where to read about?

I'm not sure what you mean about gaim/mozilla configuration changing, 
but on the AP scanning, here's a few options:

On -current, I can bring up my wireless interface, and run:
wiconfig ath0 -L
and it will list access points with ssids near me.

Also, on -current, you can now use kismet to scan for AP's, etc.  It's a 
great tool.

Eric


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Eric Anderson     Sr. Systems Administrator    Centaur Technology
Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
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