Re: How to show ALL nearby Wi-Fi AP's BSSID every time

Paul wrote:
>> Marian wrote:
>>> It found about a score of APs, but with different amounts in each scan.
>> 
>> I added a better output summary. I tried to get a RSSI histogram, but it was just too cumbersome; so I backed off & just added counts.
>> 
>> It's a bummer that Windows isn't reliable in outputting all the access points nearby in a single command, but this works reasonably.
>> 
> 
> It this is the case, you could craft a similar
> test from Linux, and see if there is a disparity in behavior
> or performance.

Hi Paul,

Thank you for understanding the problem set.

My goal was to find a native Windows scan that reliably found APs.
Windows only reports subsets of that scan unless you force it.
Even then, you can never know if it's the complete scan, or not.

Sigh.
It's a shame Windows isn't reliably reporting cached scans.

However, I agree with you that another operating system's Wi-Fi adapter
drivers might report the full scan instead of just what's lately been
cached. 

Also I'm sure there are freeware programs that will report APs reliably.

But my goal here is/was to find a *native* way to get Windows to reliably
report all access points it can see at any given moment in time.

> And for the purposes of blasting Windows like that, you
> should also use a desktop with a Wifi on it as your
> test client. Make sure it is not set to "turn off to save power"
> in the Device Manager properties.
> Give it every best chance to perform.

Yes. Understood. I'm on an old 2009 desktop with a USB stick acting as the
Wi-Fi card, for example. It's doing all it can, most likely, to scan as
little as possible. Thank you again for understanding the problem set.

> The behavior is just a bit unbounded, so it can't
> really be perfect. There are passive and active techniques,
> and the active case, a packet can be lost on a collision.

Well, I'm pretty sure there are programs out there that will give us a
reliable scan of the access point environment, and of course, my Ubiquiti
radios will do it for the frequencies they're set on (2.4GHz or 5GHz).

So certainly it "can" be done.

I was just hoping to do it with native Windows tools so that EVERYONE
could do it, but I agree with you that Windows is economizing on power.