[Novalug] tool for wireless

Walt Smith waltechmail@yahoo.com
Thu Dec 15 13:11:14 EST 2016


Hi John,

Thanks for your specific reply to  my query.
You have some very good comments and questions.

I spoke briefly to someone else about this, and can address
a couple of thoughts- notice I didn't say solutions..


Off the top of my head, the web interfaces to the boxes
won't do a radio "survey" -- at least not the boxes I have.
Also, I notice that when sold new, most pci wireless cards
( not the standalone boxes ???  ) come with an application
CD for Windows which included software that do/can do 
things other than the setup web interface.  They don't come with
linux software to do the same: note I speak of wireless PCI cards
first, and don't know if the boxes purchased separately do.  This would
mean they could communicate over the wired ethernet  to 
the box LAN connection.

so iw works with the pci wireless cards only.  A curious query was
" why is this so ".  Can't we just redirect the i/o ?

The answer is "maybe" if the developers of iw add it to the code.
Possible ??? Have No clue !!!  Speculation is that the linux kernel has
specific driver modules for the pci wireless card. and so programs like
iw do specific system/peripheral calls to the module to control/obtain
data.   This is not possible with a standalone box at the other
end of an ethernet cable-- unless one know the special interface
that may or may not be there... MAC level ??  Varies by Manufacturer ?
standard ?

If so ( no standard ), this would explain why every blog/tech/Q&A
website I look at with the word "linux" tells how to flash DD-wrt or
Open-WRT, or whatever the new name is, and, taking your 
Other suggestion, ssh to dd-wrt may be possible.
 
Thanks for good reply !!!


Walt.

--------


Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 09:53:37 -0500
From: John Cheng <john.z.cheng@gmail.com>
To: novalug <novalug@firemountain.net>
Subject: Re: [Novalug] tool for wireless
Message-ID:
    <CAOAphJJe1UioRhyeeYpE28CAAYcUoc9Qfa=S-_ck4P9nEcRH6w@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

I'm assuming you don't see that information on the router box's web
interface.

If so, then there's no easy way from your PC to get that information. Your
wireless router may support a protocol to provide some of that data. The
old "management" protocol for that has the acronym SNMP (simple network
management protocol). Despite the name, it is not that "simple". I cannot
recall the name of the newer protocol(s). With either though, you would
need specialized software on your PC that can talk the protocol and then
present the information for a human.

If you can ssh to your router, and if it runs a Linux-based image like
DD-RT or OpenWRT, then you may be able to use the "iw" commands on it just
like your PC.



On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 7:27 AM, Walt Smith via Novalug <
novalug@firemountain.net> wrote:

>
>
> What tool is used for wireless to
> issue commands and collect status/data ?
>
> initially it seems "iw" works for a PCI wireless
> card I have ( the radio is crap but I can get at data )
> It's called wlan3.
>
> However, I have a separate wireless router box
> on an ethernet cable.  The interface is on eth0
> 192.168.1.10 in the PC, on the route LAN side
> which is easily accessable via  a web browser: 192.168.1.1.


----
 The government is lawless, not the press (people).
 ( [Supreme Court] Justice Douglas re: The Pentagon Papers )



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