inSSIDer

Get the best open-source Wi-Fi scanning software – for Free!

  

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Geeks everywhere should know about MetaGeek’s free Wi-Fi scanner software that works with all current Windows operating systems. Whether you’re a professional or casual user, you and your friends need the best Wi-Fi tools to troubleshoot WLAN networks.

Get inSSIDer for free and

If you find inSSIDer valuable, consider donating to help cover the download bandwidth costs. inSSIDer has been downloaded over 1.5 million times.
 
 
YOU CAN
– Inspect your Wi-Fi and surrounding networks
– Scan and filter hundreds of nearby access points
– Troubleshoot competing access points and clogged Wi-Fi channels
– Highlight access points for areas with high Wi-Fi concentration
– Track the strength of received signals in dBm over time
– Sort results by MAC Address, SSID, Channel, RSSI, Time Last Seen
– Export Wi-Fi and GPS data to a KML file in Google Earth

TECHNICAL
– Uses your current wireless card and connection software
– Works with Windows XP, Vista, and 7 (32 and 64 bit)
– Compatible with most GPS devices (NMEA v2.3 +)

  inSSIDer scans networks within reach of your computer’s Wi-Fi antenna, tracks signal strength over time, and determines their security settings (including whether or not they’re password-protected). Previously mentioned NetStumbler has long been a favorite for this sort of functionality, but it doesn’t work well with Vista or 64-bit XP. inSSIDer, on the other hand, works like a charm on both Vista and XP, and it’s open-source to boot.
- LifeHacker

I really like inSSIDer, which is open source and available to download from MetaGeek. It’s a simple tool that graphically displays all the networks visible in your area, along with their relative signal strength. It also records signal strength over a five-minute period, which is particularly useful in an office environment as laptops pop on and off the network, and intelligent access points adjust their transmission power to match.

I’ve fired up a copy of inSSIDer in several different home and SME environments where the owners were complaining of poor wireless speeds and frequent drops, only to find their wireless router working on exactly the same channel as several of their neighbors, and so all of them were competing for a time-slice of the same frequency.

It’s so easy to spot problems with a tool like this, and with a quick change of channel the wireless network suddenly starts working properly again.
- PC Pro

 
ABOUT OUR OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
inSSIDer is open-source software and FREE to download.
It’s licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

Source code is freely available from our public repository at http://github.com/metageek-llc/inSSIDer-2. We encourage all serious network geeks to contribute their ideas and code to make inSSIDer even better.

If you would like to contribute changes to InSSIDer please contact support@metageek.net.

THIS PROJECT WAS INSPIRED BY
Charles Putney’s Wi-Fi scanner. Norman Rasmussen modified the project to use the the ManagedWifi C# wrapper for the Windows Native WLAN API. The ManagedWifi Library is licensed under the Lesser GNU Public License, Version 2.1. Source for this library, as modified for use in inSSIDer, is included in the public repository described above.

MANY GEEK THANKS TO
Charles and Norman, as well as the ManagedWifi team for getting this project off the ground. Finally, Tyler Adkisson, the primary driver behind many of the new features in inSSIDer such as the filters, GPS, KML export, and bug fixes.

OLDER AVAILABLE VERSIONS
inSSIDer 2.0 (Windows)
inSSIDer for Linux (alpha)

 

Screen Shot of inSSIDer

version 2.1 improvements:

Filter Row which includes:
- Include or exclude SSID or Vendor Search Field
- Channels Search Field
- Network Type Search Field
- Security Search Field

- active network is now bold
- improved color pallet for discovered networks

 

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