MAC address of wireless access point

Jul 15, 2004 5 Replies

I am in a setting where there are multiple wireless access points but they are L2 bridged and are on the same IP subnet.



How do I find out which access point, i.e. the MAC address of that AP, that I am going through? Will the 'arp' command do it?



For example, there are 2 APs at two corners of a floor. As I walk thru the floor from one corner to another, I want to keep doing 'arp -a' or whatever and find out which AP I am associated with. (I understand that it may not be exact, but that's okay. The idea is that it should change if I, say, leave the building and associate with a whole other access point - though still on the same IP subnet.)



thanks in advance, John



Most of the scanning software that's out there will display the MAC addresses of every AP that it detects. Also Scantool can display them for you. It's a free download from Lucent. AG

Is there a command-line utility to scan for the nearest access points? Does the utility run under Windows? I can't find Scantool on Lucent's web site (did extensive googling). Any other hints please?

cheers, John

Orinoco was sold by Lucent to Proxim. scantool is part of the AP-2000 software package. No clue if it works with other access points.

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don't think it will run on clients.

It also works with our AP-600, since that's what I'm using right now. AG

Although Windows XP's Wireless Zero Configuration does not display the MAC address of the AP to which you are associated, many vendor drivers do. Also, NetStumbler will show you the AP's MAC address, but it's a GUI, not TUI.

Ron Bandes, CCNP, CTT+, etc.

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