# Finding wireless access points

## int2str

Hey guys!

Is there an easy (read dummy user) way to find access points in your area? NO, I don't mean kismet, wepcrack + co. - just a list of (open) access points which broadcast their SSID.

Or in simpler terms, it seems like every windows driver shows you a list of APs and lets you select one. How can this be done on Linux (or Gentoo specifically).

Thanks,

    André

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## UberLord

```
iwlist eth1 scan
```

Change eth1 to your wireless interface.

iwlist is part of the wireless-tools package.

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## int2str

"Operation not permitted"...

It seems like all the wireless drivers I've tried so far don't support scanning. Googling around last night seems like there was a patch for the orinoco_cs driver at some point, but it doesn't cleanly apply to the current kernel anymore...

So no, iwlist scan doesn't work...

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## UberLord

In that case, I can't think of any other easy ways  :Sad: 

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## echo6

 *int2str wrote:*   

> patch for the orinoco_cs driver 

 

I've used the orinoco_cs kernel patch on vanilla sources fine here,  currently using vanilla 2.6.2.   Are you trying it on the gentoo-sources?

I'm aware that the emerge pcmcia-cs drivers applies the patch if you don't wish to use the kernel drivers.   I suspect gentoo-sources have the orinoco_cs drivers patched.

btw iwlist eth0 scan didn't work here for my orinoco based card either even with the patch applied.

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## UberLord

[quote="echo6"] *int2str wrote:*   

> 
> 
> btw iwlist eth0 scan didn't work here for my orinoco based card either even with the patch applied.

 

That's because it's purely a patch for monitoring wireless traffic.

We need another patch that allows AP scanning!

BTW, it will scan and associate with the first AP it finds when you set the ESSID to "any". So the driver can do it - it prolly just needs an interface written to support iwlist

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## echo6

 *UberLord wrote:*   

> We need another patch that allows AP scanning!

 Found some monitor+scanning patches for my orinoco card,  but they won't apply to 2.6.2  :Sad: 

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## latexer

I'll be putting together some stuff for both scanning and monitor mode stuff soon, using the orinoco driver in savannah CVS. It has scanning merged (FINALLY!!!) and pavel has posted some monitor mode patches against this driver to the orinoco-devel mailing list.

Hopefully this will help bring the orinoco driver up to speed with most other drivers. (:

-pete

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## UberLord

That's excellent news  :Smile: 

Any idea when we can see it in an ebuild?

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## Klavs

Me too. I have an atmel at76c503a and orinoco card and I can get neither to scan for APs  :Sad:  - that's crappy because then I can't get a list of available networks - which I sorely need to be able to connect to whatever wireless lan is available (and no I mean really available - not hackable  :Smile: 

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## viperlin

"iwlist eth0" scan needs to be run as root.

and for me it produces:

```

eth0 failed to read scan data : no data availiable

```

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## UberLord

Sometimes the interface needs to be up to scan - other times it needs to be in Ad-Hoc mode and sometimes you need to set some private ioctls.

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## viperlin

i think it's up, i ran /etc/init.d/net.eth0 (your script  :Wink: ) and i tryed in Ad-Hoc

going to look up what private ioctls are.

(because i'm using a strange driver things like airtraf and kismet wont work, airsnort doesn't seem to work either)

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## viperlin

the only things i can use are card reset and force reset. (i used "iwpriv eth0")

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## UberLord

Tried the patch here?

http://www.tzi.de/~plasmahh/

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## viperlin

 *UberLord wrote:*   

> Tried the patch here?
> 
> http://www.tzi.de/~plasmahh/

 

not usign that driver or chipset

it's a realtek 8180 chipset so i have to use linuxant and windows drivers, at least until someone can give me the Suse 8.2 realtek drivers from the realtek site (they took them down, people report they work perfectly)

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## Klavs

When I said that iwlist wlan 0 scan returned "Interface doesn't support scanning" - that was done as root - and I have checked the mailinglist - there is work being done to add the iwpriv interface to the driver - but it has no iwpriv support as of now. So that will not work, until the driver is added to CVS (I don't much care for trying out the branch its being developed in - too bleeding edge  :Wink: 

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## viperlin

ok with an accesspoint nearby "iwlist ap" does list it by mac address, cant look up essid can i? or have it list them? (man page does not say anything about listing essid of found accesspoint.

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## goanuj

On a related note, have people had less problems with the Cisco Aironet series of cards?  Does anyone have recommendations?

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