Wireless diagnostic operations

Diagnostic tools in wireless networks are generally concerned with finding areas of low signal strength and interference – things that cause problems for the folks using your wireless network.

There are a few excellent wireless tools that are Linux-based, but we'll discuss Kismet, Wavemon, and LinSSID. All three tools are free, and all can be installed with the standard apt-get install <package name> command. If you expand your tool search to include attack-type tools or commercial products, that list obviously grows much bigger.

Kismet is one of the older wireless tools available for Linux. My first exposure to it was as an information security tool, highlighting that "hidden" wireless SSIDs were in fact not hidden at all!

To run the tool, use the following command:

$ sudo kismet –c <wireless interface name>

Or, if you have a fully working configuration and don't need the actual server window...