Wi-Fi Sniffer Software

[a.hajhamad]

Hi,

Can you guide me to the best Wi-Fi sniffer software?

Thanks in advance

Abd Alqader

[scottmac · Accepted solution]

"Best" might depend on your budget.

AirMagnet is some pretty slick software, but is ~US$5000.00.

AiroPeek is also very nice, and is a little less.

WireShark with the wireless WinPCAP software is generally sufficient for most needs, and it's free (within the GPL limits, I believe).

Personally, since I had to buy my own, I use CommView for wireless. It's good software, can decrypt WEP and WPA (you provide the key), and has a few handy bells & whistles. Cost is ~US$600.00

I think there's a personal version of Air Magnet as well (free / cheap for personal use). I haven't tried it.

Good Luck

Scott

[a.hajhamad]

Thanks.

I'm using CommView now "evaluation version" :'( . I'm using Intel wireless adapter in my laptop Compaq nc6120, and after i installed the commview, the wireless IF disabled since the adapter must be used as monitoring or accessing not both at the same time. But when i need to use it for accessing i need to return the old driver.

Anyway, thank you

Abd Alqader

[jakew]

I am partial to Airopeek myself. AirMagnet analyzer is also very good, but more oriented toward heuristics than pure packet capture.

If you want free, Wireshark is always a good choice. There's also a free version of Airopeek/Etherpeek called Omnipeek Personal that's limited to 1 NIC (http://omnipeek.com) at a time.

[diro]

I'm using omnipeek personal which is a freeware edition from wildpackets:

http://www.wildpackets.com/products/omni/omnipeek_personal/overview

This one you can also use for airspace ap sniffer mode remote capturing but you need to add this:

https://wpdn.wildpackets.com/view_submission.php?id=30

Real cool & great stuff because it's free