NetStumbler!

Let's face it-- there's SOOO much Wi-Fi everywhere these days, the built-in Wi-Fi tools and free utilities that used to help us understand the Wi-Fi environment just can't keep up anymore. Those tools don't help you see how many access points are in the same network, nor how many SSIDs a specific radio is broadcasting.

NetSpot is a simple and accessible wireless survey tool, which allows collecting, visualizing and analyzing Wi-Fi data.

Vistumbler is a wireless network scanner for Windows Vista and Windows 7.

KisMAC is an open-source 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.

Kismet is an 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports raw monitoring (rfmon) mode, and (with appropriate hardware) can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, and 802.11n traffic. Kismet also supports plugins which allow sniffing other media such as DECT.

WiFi Explorer is a tool to scan, find, and troubleshoot wireless networks. It can be used to quickly identify channel conflicts, overlapping and other factors (e.g. configuration issues) that may be affecting the connectivity and/or performance of your wireless network in homes, offices and other sites. It can also be used to find open, ad-hoc and even rogue access points. Additionally, it detects 802.11a/b/g/n/ac wireless networks and supports 2.4 and 5 GHz channel bands, as well as 20, 40, 80 and 160 MHz channels. It can also monitor signal strength of each network over time and export metrics (average, maximum signal strength, etc.) and network details to CSV file format. »

How strong is your WiFi signal?

NetworkMiner is a Network Forensic Analysis Tool (NFAT) for Windows. NetworkMiner can be used as a passive network sniffer/packet capturing tool in order to detect operating systems, sessions, hostnames, open ports etc. without putting any traffic on the network. NetworkMiner can also parse PCAP files for off-line analysis and to regenerate/reassemble transmitted files and certificates from PCAP files.

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.

With Homedale you can search for Wi-Fi / WLAN Access Points and monitor their signal strength. Use the detected access points with Google Geolocation and Mozilla Location Service to locate yourself.

Connect to WiFi passwords for FREE internet access all over the world!

Scans wireless networks in your area and displays extensive information, including: SSID, MAC Address, PHY Type (802.11g or 802.11n), RSSI, Signal Quality, Frequency, Channel Number, and more...

iwScanner is a wireless scanner for linux with an easy to use graphic interface.

NetSurveyor is a diagnostic tool that falls under the category of WiFi Scanners or 802.11 Network Discovery Tools. The best known in this category is NetStumbler . A discovery tool reports the Service Set Identifier (SSID) for each wireless network it detects, along with the channel used by the access point (AP) servicing that network. The way this works is that roughly every 100 mSec an AP sends an “I’m here” beacon – and the discovery tool (running on your laptop and using its 802.11 wireless adapter, also known as a station or STA) picks-up that beacon and adds the SSID to its list of known wireless networks. In addition, the discovery tool reports the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) for each AP, which is roughly an indication of how close the AP is to your current location (i.e. how close it is to the client STA). Just to be clear, the RSSI reflects the strength of the beacon as received by the STA – it is not an indication of performance. »