Question

Wireless Packet Sniffing

Asked by: masnrock

What wireless cards do you all like to use for packet sniffing these days? I was going to try out some new ones for research and experimentation, but hadn't gotten a chance to really check the market yet.

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Asked On
2006-04-06 at 03:16:31ID21803785
Tags

packet

Topic

Miscellaneous Security

Participating Experts
5
Points
500
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: csgeekpyroPosted on 2006-04-06 at 08:15:13ID: 16392563

I use my D-Link DWL-650 (I think, don't hold me to the model number) which has an Atheros chipset, with my Gentoo linux laptop.  I use airodump to capture the packets and the program 802ether to get them into packets that ethereal can understand.  Then I use ethereal to look at them, maybe dsniff to parse usernames/passwords/interesting things, you get the idea.

The same procedure works with my integrated Intel 2200BG card, but the range is crap compared to my D-Link card.

 

by: richrumblePosted on 2006-04-08 at 05:15:19ID: 16406873

Just about any will do... http://wardriving.com/aps.php That site should have all you need.
-rich

 

by: masnrockPosted on 2006-04-08 at 05:45:15ID: 16406950

Just to provide some additional info on my asking this question, I'm doing an experiment for the purposes of demostrating weaknesses in different forms of wireless security (namely WEP and WPA-PSK, MAC filtering is too blatantly obvious), but purely for research and educational purposes. The only brand I had the intention of dodging was Intel (big surprise).

I have tools lying around I hadn't used in a while and started updated versions of things like Ethereal and aircrack, as well some tools I just hadn't used previously like coWPAtty.

@csgeek - The DWL-G630 perhaps? That's the G version of the model you have me that you didn't want me to hold you to.

@rich - I'll check out the site later on in the day while I'm assembling some of the other things together.

Would either of you by chance know what chipset the ZyXel G-100 or G-102 utilize? I've seen an article or two talking about using the Prism54 driver, but haven't seen anything to confirm or disprove such a statement.

Hopefully will get some additional responses, so I've upped the points, but I appreciate what you guys have posted up to this point. And you've each already guaranteed yourself at least part of whatever the final value of this question is.

 

by: tim_holmanPosted on 2006-04-09 at 07:54:56ID: 16411717

Download the Auditor or BackTrack CD from www.remote-exploit.org - these have all the tools and all the drivers necessary to crack wireless networks.  Don't bother trying this from Windows - it rarely works, and when it does, it's dog slow.  The standard Cisco wireless card is by far the most supported as far as monitoring software goes, but these days, you'll find that almost any WIC will work.

 

by: pgm554Posted on 2006-04-09 at 10:07:36ID: 16412114

SMC2336A-AG
Does A,B&G .Can be picked up for as little as $29.00.
I use WildPackets AeroPeek(they write their own promiscuous drivers).
There seems to be a lot of issues with things like firmware with the cheaper, mainstream cards.
I hear the Cisco cards are quite good,but are also quite expensive($200)

 

by: tim_holmanPosted on 2006-04-09 at 12:33:25ID: 16412642

Cisco cards - £20 from eBay ;)

 

by: NightofthecowPosted on 2006-04-13 at 07:32:12ID: 16446089

Run a google search for "Netstumbler."

These guys have tons of ideas. I don't know exactly what I have in my laptop, it's internal, but it works great for home use. I've tested it thoroughly and I don't have any issues with it. I've also used a cisco card in it and I had the same results.

By the way, I've run it using both Windows XP and Windows 2003 Enterprise server on my laptop and it has never run slow, had any hiccups, or given me ANY problems. Some of the tools you can find that work very well for this can be found by looking up the software list for the "Certified Ethical Hacking" course. Linux is the preferred OS for anything of this nature, but much of the software is available for Windows and it WILL work without any problems if you have your system set up right.

 

by: masnrockPosted on 2006-04-13 at 12:13:15ID: 16448645

I know I've been mysteriously absent.... I intend to close this question soon and award points based on what's already here. Lots of good information though. So let me say thank you to all who have answered up to this point.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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