Airodump-ng and iwconfig wierd range problem

[imported_SuspectZero]

ok so here is the situation, i was testing the range on my ap so i started off close, did an iwlist and saw it, moved further and further back until it no longer showed up in my iwlist (yes i have alot of time on my hands :P). so then i kicked up airodump and did a scan and BAM! theres my ap. so am i the only one thats able to pickup aps with airodump but not with iwlist :S if im doing something wrong please let me know and if this is in the wrong forum, im srry i didnt know where exactly it would go. thanks

[Oktain]

This may sound stupid for a simple iwlist but are you running under root? Or issuing a sudo command?

If not - please do so and let me know the results.

PARAMETERS
       scan[ning]
              Give the list of Access Points and Ad-Hoc cells  in  range,  and
              optionally a whole bunch of information about them (ESSID, Qual‐
              ity, Frequency,  Mode...).  The  type  of  information  returned
              depends on what the card supports.
              Triggering  scanning  is  a privileged operation (root only) and
              normal users can only read left-over scan results.  By  default,
              the way scanning is done (the scope of the scan) is dependant on
              the card and card settings.
              This command take optional arguments, however most drivers  will
              ignore  those.  The  option essid is used to specify a scan on a
              specific ESSID. The option last do not trigger a scan  and  read
              left-over scan results.

[imported_blackfoot]

iwlist has a number of options

to make an enquiry about a specific element of an interface or to scan for APs for example

Try

iwlist iface scan

It may be that your second program scanned whereas your use of iwconfig or iwlist simply failed to connect and so temporarily dissociated.

man iwlist