inSSIDer is a replacement for NetStumbler. NetStumbler hasn't been actively developed for 4 years and is showing signs of its age. We have applied our user interface expertise to create an all-new Wi-Fi scanner application. inSSIDer is designed to be a companion to Chanalyzer.
Yes! Not only is inSSIDer free, we are releasing it under the MIT open source license. We don't want inSSIDer to stop being developed if for some reason we were unable to continue work on it. Too many useful utilities are closed source and die a slow death when the creators stop working on them.
There are so many OSS licenses to choose from that it is difficult sometimes to choose the right license. We felt the Apache license was a good fit for inSSIDer for the following reasons:
The Wi-Spy 2.4x reads activity only on the physical layer, and because of that it is able to display all activity such as microwaves, cordless phones, and what Wi-Fi looks like on the spectrum. inSSIDer uses the wireless card to read its information about available wireless networks.
There are too many liabilities involved, and we don't want to encourage unauthorized access to WLANs. This tool was strictly created for troubleshooting wireless networks.