TechIdiots Forum

Hey guys/gals,

So I just installed Vistumbler on my machine and learning my way around it. I'm actually using it for an uni assignment where im having to compare two different wireless scanners.

Are there any tutorials out there that I can view to get a fully understanding of what I can do with the software?

Thanks in advance

Faisal

Unfortunately I've never been much of a documentation person, so there aren't many guides for vistumbler. I will be happy to answer any questions though.

The basic feature, scanning, is started by clicking the "Scan APs" button. Basically this will record signal history for all open APs, and mark the AP dead when it goes out of range. With only AP data you are basically limited to viewing the signal strength, exporting/importing, Setting Filters (to only display what you want to see).

If you want to use the cooler features of vistumbler you really need a GPS. The GPS gives vistumbler location information, which allows the access points to be mapped in google earth. Exporting to KML gives you options to show all APs found, the route you took (track), Signal Strength, and range (based on first detection and last detection).

Vistumbler also includes some functions that work with pferlands WiFiDB. Vistumbler has the option to upload wireless data to the WiFiDB. It also has an experimental feature to get your GPS locations from the access points around you. http://www.vistumbler.net/wifidb/

Our very little documentation includes

Wardriving 100: Introduction and Ethics (http://forum.techidiots.net/forum/viewt ... f=50&t=442)
AutoKML setting information (http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/v ... le=AutoKML)

like i said, not much at all

Thank you for the info Andrew!

In terms of a wireless networking tool, would you recommend Vistumbler to an network administrator and would a network administrator be able to use this software to counter act a possible wireless network intrusion?

Vistumbler doesn't have an ability to actually connect to a wireless network, it just shows the output of NetSH in windows.
I guess you could use it to see how far your signal is getting as to tell were people might be getting on from. But for more in-depth poking and prodding you would be better off using airsnort or something along those lines. Or backtrack for something more technical.

hope that helps out a little

-Phil

I would say Vistumbler is a useful tool for the network administrator.

It would be good for
quickly checking the channels other access points around you are using so you can put yours in an unsaturated channel.
checking signal strength.
verifying your security settings
the kml signal mapping could be useful, but it is affected by gps quality


Vistumbler wouldn't be useful for intrusion detection since, like phil said, Vistumbler only collects wireless data from netsh and combines it with GPS data.

Thank you for the reply guys, much appreciated!!

I'll have a look at backtrack also and see what kind of comparisons I can make. Vistumbler is working great for me, I had a play about with changing the channel on my router and it worked a treat.

Faisal

I'm also a newbie to Vistumbler. As we know, Vistumbler is great at picking up those APs that "shield' their SSIDs. Since most OEM internal wireless cards cannot connect to those APs that hide their SSID, how does one connect to those APs that 'shield' their SSIDs?

We don't recommend connecting to a network that you do not own. If it has a hidden SSID that's a good clue someone really doesn't want you on their network.

However, to connect to an AP that has a hidden SSID you need to set the connection up manually (see: http://www.7tutorials.com/how-connect-h ... s-networks )

ACalcutt,

There was an error in my question. It should have read... Though most OEM internal wireless cards cannot connect to those APs that hide their SSID, how does one prevent others from connecting to those APs that 'shield' their SSIDs?

I don't know why you would think that an OEM Wireless card is different from a retail one. I have never seen a wireless card that cannot connect to a hidden SSID AP.
As for the other part, I would recommend adding MAC filtering if you are worried about people connecting to a hidden or Secured AP.

pferland,

I don't. I just wanted to be as precise with my question as possible. Obviously, it's not the card but the "out of the box" OS (or app being used to show wireless APs) that is more likely to determine if APs with hidden SSIDs will be seen. Thanks for the MAC address suggestion.

Okay, I was under the impression that this program gave the availability to see hotspots/networks (further away) for the sole purpose of connecting/joining.
Now I just finished reading this is just an administrative type program to "watch"! Say what?
I did a google search for info to add an adapter/antenna to my laptop Vstumber came up saying it offered connections to networks at a distance; all this work I did just to get all the details up and now I'm reading this! Ugh!

I guess I'll go to Amazon and buy that antenna now

Nope, Vistumbler doesn't show access points unless you find them first or you import an existing scan. Vistumbler can map access points in google earth, but it needs gps location provided by a NMEA compatible gps device (This feature is called "AutoKML" (https://github.com/RIEI/Vistumbler/wiki/AutoKML)).

We also have a related project called WifiDB (https://live.wifidb.net/), which is an index of uploaded Vistumbler files. With this you can download KML files for google earth and see what access points people have uploaded.