Author Profile - Tony Fortunato is a Senior Network Specialist with experience in design, implementation, and troubleshooting of LAN/WAN/Wireless networks, desktops and servers since 1989. His background in financial networks includes design and implementation of trading floor networks. Tony has taught at local high schools, Colleges/Universities, Networld/Interop and many onsite private classroom settings to thousands of analysts. Tony is an authorized and certified Fluke Networks and Wireshark Instructor. His Pine Mountain Group CNA Level I and II certification demonstrates his vendor neutral approach to network design, support and implementations. Tony has architected, installed and supported various types of Residential Wireless High Speed as well as hundreds of WIFI hotspots. Tony uses a variety of technologies from Powerline, Wireless and wired technologies to find the most cost-efficient and reliable solution for his customers. Tony combines custom programs, open source and commercial software to ensure a simple support infrastructure.
Since moving to Windows 7, I am slowly running into trusted older apps that will not work well, or at all, in Windows 7. NetStumbler was one of those neat little tools that no longer worked with my 64-bit Windows 7 platform. I eargerly scanned, googled, and even prayed (a little) for a fix or workaround to get netstumbler to run on my new spanking new PC.
After hours of tinkering in the registry and compatability mode, I gave up. Thats when I learned about the netsh commands to give me some WIFI info from my laptop (http://tinyurl.com/32unrzr) and resorted to using my WIFI-enabled Blackberry Curve (http://tinyurl.com/38abxyy). I even tried setting up a virtual PC, to no avail.
As I ranted about my Netstumbler woes in one of my clases, my student recommended a tool called inSSIDer (http://tinyurl.com/5e3jk5)
Today I finally got around to checking it out and found it to be very simple and useful. Metageek even sells 'car kits' and a usb adapter to give you more details like Noise.
This is what the main screen looks like. I have labeled the three panels that are referenced in the Edit and View menus.
I like the fact you can connect a GPS to it and create a Google KML file, which I intend to do, next week with a WIFI residential roll out.
Does it replace Netstumbler - in my case yes, because I have no choice, but to be fair, I haven't used this as much as Netstumbler.
Overall a great FREE tool. I like the premise of getting the software free and providinge add-ons to enhance the tool - as an option, not a requirement.
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