node-wifi-scanner

#node-wifi-scanner

This module for node.js scans available wifi networks. The main purpose was to enhance my node.js based ZigBee Site Survey Tool with WiFi coexistence charts. This tool claims to be compatible with current versions of Mac OS-X, Windows and Linux so I'll fix bugs as fast as possible. Feature extensions on the other hand are not planned.

The module was inspired from Maurice Sways "node-wifiscanner". I didn't use node-wifiscanner because I had to handle much more complex network environments and also wanted to be independent of the operating system language. The adaptions needed would have been too comprehensive for a pull request so I decided to write an own module.

Operating Systems

It was tested with the following operating systems:

Mac OS-X
Windows 10
Ubuntu 14.04
Raspbian "Jessie"

Installation

npm i node-wifi-scanner

Usage

Command Line

Run the script scan in the bin folder.

Code

const scanner = require('node-wifi-scanner');

scanner.scan((err, networks) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }
  console.log(networks);
});

The tool returns an array with objects, each object representing a network with the following properties:

channel: WiFi channel
ssid: SSID of the network (if available)
mac: MAC Address of the network access point (if available, otherwise empty string)
rssi: signal strength

In contrary to other wifi scanners no information about security is returned. This is due to the very different implementation of the command line tools which do not allow a flawless detection.

Technical background

The module uses command line tools for gathering the network information:

airport on Mac OS-X: airport -s
netsh on Windows: netsh wlan show networks mode=Bssid
iwlist on Linux: iwlist scan

Unfortunately, Mac OS-X and Windows use the system language for the output which requires a quite generic way of parsing the data. If you experience any troubles, please create a GitHub issue and supply the output of the tool.

Limits of the tool

There is no such thing as perfect software and this is all the more true when the tools used require different access rights depending on the operating system. Please note the following restrictions before using this tool in a productive system.

Linux: iwlist does only return all found networks if run as sudo! Otherwise you'll get only the network you're connected to.

Windows: there are some network cards which do not return the MAC address and other parameters of the found networks. In this case the "found" networks are ignored as there is no valuable data. If you have this effect on your system, please provide as many information about your system (PC manufacturer, network card, OS,...) as available. Thanks

Licence

The MIT License (MIT)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.