What tools are available in Mac OS X Yosemite to find networks with hidden SSIDs? The Scan panel in the built in Wireless Diagnostic tool sometimes shows them but not always (even ones I know are active). iStumbler and WiFiExplorer don't either.
Don't want to uncover hidden names; just to identify signal strengths and channel usage.
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), Mac OS X (10.4)
Lee,
The developer of WiFi Explorer here. I know this is an old question/post but wanted to share that the new WiFi Explorer Pro offers full support for hidden networks when using passive scan mode. Passive scans do not make use of CoreWLAN and are performed by putting the interface in monitor mode and listening for beacons while iterating over the list of supported channels. It works very well and results are consistent as you would expect.
CoreWLAN continues to give inconsistent results, so I've updated the FAQ entry to reflect that as you pointed it out in this thread.
Thanks,
Adrian
For detecting Wi-Fi networks with hidden SSIDs, one application that you may want to consider is NetSpot PRO.
According to the page you linked for Netspot Pro, "In order to scan a hidden network, you must already know that it is there and be able to manually connect to it." I'm trying to spot networks that I don't already know are there.
Yes, I mentioned the Wireless Diagnostic tool in my first post; it doesn't work reliably. Scans taken just a few seconds apart are inconsistent; sometimes hidden networks will show up but rescanning a second later won't show them. This includes a mix of networks I own (and I know are broadcasting) and some I don't.
You may also want to check out inSSIDer ...
Metageek's version comparison page says inSIDDer4 doesn't detected hidden SSIDs on Mac.
Argh. Sorry about that. Maybe run Windows in Parallels or BootCamp and use the Windows version of inSSIDer 4?
The only other things I can think of is to try something like KisMAC.However, it has not been supported for a while (latest version is 0.3.3 in 2008) and I couldn't get it to run on my Yosemite Mac. The other is what wardrivers do. Basically capturing network traffic so they can analyze it. They run additional software to cause network clients to disassociate and re-associate to discover hidden SSIDs. Not recommended.
As so many Mac apps seem to say this is NOT supported, I'm wondering if there's something specific in the wifi chipset that Apple uses which makes it difficult.
The guy who wrote WiFi Explorer makes a point of saying he doesn't support it. But intermittently some <hidden> SSIDs will show up in his scans just like that do in Apple's built-in WiFi tool. I asked him why and he admitted he didn't know - that he had asked Apple's developer support and never got back a satisfactory answer.
I guess I could load up virtual box or some other emulator - even BootCamp - and see what happens. But if there's an inherent limitation in the chipset ... 😟
You bring up a very good point. The ability for any application to scan for hidden networks will definitely be dependent on the wireless card / chipset on the computer that you are using. Thanks for bringing it up.
The FAQ page for WiFi Explorer (which I really like) sheds some light:
Can WiFi Explorer detect hidden networks?
No. Unfortunately, Apple's official framework for wi-fi scanning, CoreWLAN, does not provide any information on hidden networks. However, WiFi Explorer will find and display the information of a hidden network if your Mac computer is associated (connected) to it.
Also, note that in order to get the name (SSID) of a hidden network, control traffic from a connected client needs to be seen (like a probe or an association request). If there happen to be no clients connected or attempting to connect to the network, a device can detect that the network is there via the beacon frames but would not be able to display the name because those frames will not contain the SSID.
Aye, but it's puzzling. Sometimes, Apple's tool and WiFi Explorer can spot them, just not reliably. That sounds more like software than hardware.
If I were to take a wild guess... CoreWLAN might apply some time limits when it enumerates these, and it might take a longer to collect the information on a hidden network. So sometimes the call completes in time and sometimes it doesn't. ...
Actually, WiFi Explorer's FAQ is mistaken. WiFi Explorer WILL detect hidden SSIDs and show information on them, just not reliably. Ditto on Apple's WiFi diagnostic scan. So the comment "CoreWLAN, does not provide any information on hidden networks" is simply wrong.
WiFi Explorer WILL detect hidden SSIDs and show information on them, just not reliably.
I would guess that it all depends on whether it is seeing client traffic (like probes) that contains the SSIDs as mentioned above. There really is no "reliable" way to display the SSIDs of hidden networks, but their existence and things like the BSSID, channel, signal strength, etc. could be displayed.
I don't have any hidden networks in radio range but maybe I'll configure one and see what I can figure out.
jjkraw - No offense meant, but I think you misunderstood the original post andor some of the ensuing discussion I'm not looking for SSIDs/network names -- I'm specifically looking for those "other details" (existence, channel, signal strength). And none of the tools available for the Mac, at least none of those already discussed in this thread, seem to do that reliably.
But if you do set up a hidden networlk for testing - I'd be interested in what you find.
How to find hidden wifi network?
