Wireshark-users: Re: [Wireshark-users] Sniffing Wireless with Wireshark?

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2009 13:57:29 -0800

On Nov 1, 2009, at 1:40 PM, Raymond Jender wrote:

I do not have Airpcap. It's a little pricey for me right now. I am in a Wi-Fi learning mode right now in preparation for certifying (CWNA/CWSP). Is there some open source equivalent to Airpcap? Or some freeware software?

Yes. There's a freeware product called "Linux" (well, it usually goes under names such as "Ubuntu" and "Fedora" and...); if you run that on your PC, you'll probably find it much easier to capture on 802.11 networks. Other freeware products that do better have names such as "FreeBSD", "NetBSD", "OpenBSD", "DragonFly BSD", "PC-BSD", etc..

Unfortunately, there's no freeware *for Windows* that will make this work better.

And I could not find where the "802.11 channel" option is in Wireshark?

There isn't one, at present, unless you have AirPcap (not even on UN*Xes such as Linux or *BSD).