Point my yagi antenna

[evilangel]

Hi all,

I changed my Wifi antenna from an omnidirectional to a directional one.
By conseuquence, i need to measure the strength of the signal of my wifi network to point my antenna in the best direction.

Which tool can help me to point my antenna ?

Thanks

[Hologram]

Under Windows get Netstumbler (hxxp://netstumbler.com/), run it and check value "Signal" while directing antenna. Value is in negative numbers, the more the better (-70 is better than -80).

[evilangel]

Thanks for this info.
I can't find a tool under Linux doing the same ? (Avoiding dual boot on the same PC)

[streaker69]

Under Windows get Netstumbler (hxxp://netstumbler.com/), run it and check value "Signal" while directing antenna. Value is in negative numbers, the more the better (-70 is better than -80).

Good advice, but Netstumbler will only give accurate signal measurements with a fully supported card, meaning an Orinoco Classic Gold card.

[alacrityathome]

airodump-ng is a good choice.

[Hologram]

under linux you can take a look at kismet which is capable to show signal strength or hxxp://swscanner.org/ maybe airodump-ng, but I don't know how much those tools are accurate

or you can make a simple bash script:
mon.sh:

#!/bin/bash
sudo ifconfig ath0 up
sleep 5
watch -n 1 "
        sudo iwlist ath0 scan
"

ath0 is your interface, run it like "sh mon.sh", it refresh info every second
if you are using madwifi you can also use sudo wlanconfig ath0 list ap

another script can be found at hxxp://simandl.cz/stranky/linux/wifimon/wifimon_a.htm but it uses hostap or madwifi drivers

[hhmatt]

I would use airodump like this:

airodump-ng --update 500 --bssid <AP Mac> --channel <channel> ath0

This should update every half second and pinpoint your ap by channel and mac address. Then just watch your PWR and RCQ.

[evilangel]

Thanks for all these infos.
I'll try and let you know.