iStumbler is a small application for finding, monitoring and joining wireless networks.

The Scan Window

This window displays the tool bar which displays information about the currently selected node and allows you to change the scan speed and join a network. It also displays a list of the access points last seen by iStumbler, their wep status, SSID, MAC address, Signal, Noise and Channel values along with coordinates and a user editable info string.

Scanning for wireless networks is accomplished by asking the driver to send probe packets out and report the responses it received from the network. Currently we only have an interface for Apple's AirPort driver which allows this type of scanning.

The Monitor Window

The monitor window shows the signal strength of the last network iStumbler attempted to join.

The Log Window

This window shows the list of all access-points encountered so far. It has all the same columns as the scan window as well as the location and date of the last encounter and the number of encounters recorded so far.

The Info Panel

This panel displays the complete information about a node and its encounters and allows you to edit its location and info values. Select a node in either the Scan Window or Log Window to view and edit its info.

Preferences

iStumbler provides several options to be configured in its Preferences window.

• Auto Select Networks iStumbler will automatically select and display the signal strength graph of the best network available.
• Auto Join Networks iStumbler will automatically attempt to join the best network available.
• Prefer .public makes networks with an SSID ending in .public the best network to monitor or join.
• Enable GPS allows you to enable GPS support if you have the hardware or disable if you don't want to record location data.
• Remember tells iStumbler how long to remember encounters in RAM, "Ten Minutes" uses in roughly 90M total and "One Hour" about 130M when recording every five seconds.

Save and Open Commands

The save and open log commands in the file menu do more or less what you expect. Files are saved in an XML format.

Abbreviations Used in the Interface

• s = signal level 1-128
• n = noise level 1-128
• ch = ism channel number
• range = range to station (you're getting warner or cooler)
• wep = (Wired Equivalent Protection) is the network encrypted
• ssid = (Select System IDentifier) or network name
• type = ibss (ad-hoc) or bss (base-station)
• mac = (Media Access Controller) unique hardware address

Copyright (c) 02003, Alf Watt (alf@istumbler.net). All rights
reserved. Redistribution and use permitted under BSD License
in license.txt.