1WAVEMON(1) User Manuals WAVEMON(1)
2
6 wavemon - a wireless network monitor application
7
9 wavemon [-h] [-i ifname ] [-l] [-r] [-v]
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12 wavemon is a ncurses-based monitoring application for wireless network
13 devices. It displays continuously updated information about signal lev‐
14 els as well as wireless-specific and general network information. Cur‐
15 rently, wavemon can be used for monitoring devices supported by the
16 wireless extensions by Jean Tourrilhes <jt@hpl.hp.com>, included in
17 kernels version 2.4 and higher.
18 The wavemon interface is separated into several different sections,
20 hereby referred to as "screens". Every screen displays information
21 about distinct parameter types and/or in a special manner. For example,
22 the "info" screen shows the current signal and noise levels as bar‐
23 graphs, while the level histogram shows the exact same values as a
24 level plot, so their development over time can be seen. On startup,
25 you'll see one of the different monitor screens (which of the screens
26 will actually be displayed depends on your configuration). On the bot‐
27 tom, you'll see a bar showing the available screens along with function
28 key strokes.
29 These screens are currently implemented:
31 Info (F1)
33 This is the most "conclusive" of the monitor screens. It dis‐
34 plays a condensed overview of all available wireless-specific
35 parameters and network statistics, as well as bar graphs of the
36 current signal and noise levels. There are several sub-sections
37 to further separate the information.
38 At the Interface section, the name, ESSID and nickname of the
40 current wireless interface are shown.
41 Below, at the Levels section, you can see four bargraphs showing
43 the quality of the link to the next station (if established),
44 the level of the received signal, the current receiver's noise
45 level and the signal-to-noise ration, which gives a good approx‐
46 imation of the overall signal quality. The colour of the signal
47 level bargraph changes from red to yellow and green at fixed
48 levels, while the colour of the noise level graph is adapted to
49 the current signal level (it turns red when the signal-to-noise-
50 ratio gets below 0dB). If the thresholds are associated with any
51 actions, two arrows on the signal level graph will show the
52 positions of the current thresholds. More on this topic later.
53 The Statistics section displays packet and byte counters. The
55 first four values, preceded RX and TX, show the current total
56 number of packets received and transceived since the initializa‐
57 tion of the interface. The following three values display the
58 number of packets that were discarded from the interface because
59 of invalid network ids, wrong encryption keys and other errors.
60 Below, at the Info subsection, various wireless-specific parame‐
62 ters of the interface are displayed. What parameters are actu‐
63 ally shown may vary and depends on the capabilities and the
64 operation mode of your network device. The top line shows the
65 current frequency the interface operates on, the sensitivity
66 threshold of the receiver and the transmission power. Below, the
67 operation mode of the interface (managed, ad-hoc...) and, if
68 appropriate, the MAC address of the current access point are
69 displayed. The third line shows the current data transfer speed
70 in Mbit/s and the retransmission and fragmentation thresholds.
71 Whether or not the details about encryption show up in the next
72 line depends on the permissions of the user. Finally, the last
73 line displays the power management parameters, if this feature
74 is available and active.
75 The last section, titled Network, shows - you guessed it - net‐
77 work parameters, such as the interface name and hardware address
78 as well as the interface, netmask and broadcast IP addresses.
79 These parameters are not wireless-related.
80 Another keyboard shortcut for this screen is 'i'.
82 Level histogram (F2)
84 This is a full-screen histogram plot of the signal/noise levels
85 and the signal-to-noise levels. It shows the level changes with
86 time. Below the plot, the key is shown. If available, the ter‐
87 minfo scanline chars are used in order to enhance the precision
88 of the level plots, i.e. this screen will particularly look
89 nifty in a xterm.
90 Scan window (F3)
92 This screen provides a ranked list of access points and other
93 wireless clients within range. The list is sorted in descending
94 order of signal quality. Entries consist of a coloured header
95 and a line with signal/channel information. A green/red header
96 indicates an (un-)encrypted access point; the colour changes to
97 yellow for non-access points (in this case the mode is shown in
98 the subsequent line). The subsequent information line contains
99 relative and absolute signal strength, channel, frequency and
100 the mode if the entry is not an access point.
101 Scan results are refreshed periodically, depending on the
103 'Dynamic info updates' configuration. Please note that gather‐
104 ing meaningful scan data can take several seconds.
105 Preferences (F7)
107 This screen allows you to change all program options such as
108 interface and level scale parameters, and to save the new set‐
109 tings to the configuration file. Select a parameter with <up>
110 and <down>, then change the value with <left> and <right>.
111 Please refer to the wavemonrc man page for an in-depth descrip‐
112 tion of all available settings.
113 Help (F8)
115 This page will show an online-help in the near future; it is
116 currently not implemented.
117 About (F9)
119 This screen contains information about the current wavemon
120 release.
121 Quit (F10)
123 The associated function key will immediately exit wavemon. An
124 alternative keyboard shortcut for quitting is 'q'.
125
127 -h print a short explanation of the command line arguments and
128 exit.
129 -i interface
131 override autodetection and use the specified interface.
132 -r generate random levels (for testing purposes).
134 -v dump the version number to stdout and exit.
136
139 LC_NUMERIC
140 Influences the grouping of numbers if set. See also locale(1).
141
144 ~/.wavemonrc is the local configuration file for the user. Refer to the
145 wavemonrc man page for an in-depth explanation of available settings.
146
148 While each release has been tested, bugs are sometimes inevitable.
149 Please help to further improve the state of wavemon by sending all bug
150 reports, and any suggestions or comments, to <gerrit@erg.abdn.ac.uk>.
151 Thanks!
152
154 The original author of wavemon is Jan Morgenstern <jan@jm-music.de>
155 The current maintainer is Gerrit Renker <gerrit@erg.abdn.ac.uk>
157
159 wavemon is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
160 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
161 Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any
162 later version.
163 wavemon is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
165 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
166 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
167 for more details.
168 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
170 with wavemon; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software
171 Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
172Linux SEPTEMBER 2010 WAVEMON(1)