1wavemon(1) User Manuals wavemon(1)
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6 wavemon - a wireless network monitor
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9 wavemon [-h] [-i ifname ] [-g] [-v]
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12 wavemon is a ncurses-based monitoring application for wireless network
13 devices. It plots levels in real-time as well as showing wireless and
14 network related device information.
15 The wavemon interface splits into different "screens". Each screen
17 presents information in a specific manner. For example, the "info"
18 screen shows current levels as bargraphs, whereas the "level" screen
19 represents the same levels as a moving histogram.
20 On startup, you'll see (depending on configuration) one of the differ‐
22 ent monitor screens. At the bottom, you'll find a menu-bar listing the
23 screens and their activating keys. Each screen is activated by either
24 the corresponding function key (F1..10), its numeric shortcut (1..0),
25 or the underlined shortcut letter of the screen name. The following
26 screens can be selected:
27 Info (F1 or 'i')
29 This is the most comprehensive screen. It displays a condensed
30 overview of wireless-specific parameters and network statistics,
31 as well as bar graphs. The layout is arranged into several sub-
32 sections.
33 The Interface section at the top shows information about the
35 monitoring interface, including interface name, type, ESSID, and
36 available encryption formats.
37 Below, in the Levels section, you can see up to four bargraphs
39 showing (1) relative signal quality and (2) signal level in dBm.
40 If the wireless driver also supports noise level information,
41 additionally (3) noise level in dBm and (4) Signal-Noise-Ratio
42 (SNR) in dB are shown. The colour of the signal level bargraph
43 changes from red to yellow and green at fixed levels. If thresh‐
44 olds have been set, two arrows on the signal level graph will
45 show the positions of the current thresholds.
46 The Statistics section displays packet and byte counters and a
48 few other packet-related statistics.
49 The subsequent Info subsection lists the current operational
51 mode and configuration of the wireless interface. What parame‐
52 ters are actually shown depends on the capabilities and selected
53 mode of your network device.
54 Lastly, the Network section shows network-level parameters. The
56 MAC-address is resolved from ethers(5). The IPv4 address is
57 shown in CIDR notation (RFC 4632 address/prefix_len format).
58 Since often those two values also determine the broadcast
59 address (last 32 - prefix_len bits set to 1), that address is
60 shown only if it does not derive from the interface address and
61 prefix length. Likewise, the interface MTU is shown only if it
62 differs from the default Ethernet MTU of 1500 bytes.
63 Level histogram (F2 or 'l')
65 This is a full-screen histogram plot showing the evolution of
66 levels with time. The screen is partitioned into a grid, with
67 dBm levels shown in green at the right hand side (depending on
68 configuration). At the very minimum, the evolution of the sig‐
69 nal-level is shown. If the wireless driver also supports noise-
70 level information, additionally a noise graph and associated SNR
71 graph appear.
72 Scan window (F3 or 's')
74 A periodically updated network scan, showing access points and
75 other wireless clients. It is sorted depending on sort_order and
76 sort_ascending, see wavemonrc(5). Each entry starts with the
77 ESSID, followed by the colour-coded MAC address and the sig‐
78 nal/channel information. A green/red MAC address indicates an
79 (un-)encrypted access point, the colour changes to yellow for
80 non-access points (in this case the mode is shown at the end of
81 the line). The uncoloured information following the MAC address
82 lists relative and absolute signal strengths, channel, fre‐
83 quency, and station-specific information. The station-specific
84 information includes the station type (ESS for Access Point,
85 IBSS for Ad-Hoc network), station count and channel utilisation.
86 A status line at the bottom informs about the current sort order
88 and a few statistics, such as most (least) crowded channels
89 (least crowded channels are listed when sorting by descending
90 channel).
91 The sort_order can also directly be changed via these keyboard
93 shortcuts: ascending, descending; by essid, signal, channel (C
94 also with signal), mac address, or by open access (O also with
95 signal).
96 Please note that sorting order changes at the time new data
98 comes in, not when the setting is activated.
99 You can filter the bands via these keyboard shortcuts: 2 (2.4GHz
101 only), 5 (5GHz only), and b (both bands). Hidden ESSIDs can be
102 excluded from display via the h shortcut.
103 Preferences (F7 or 'p')
106 This screen allows you to change all program options such as
107 interface and level scale parameters, and to save the new set‐
108 tings to the configuration file. Select a parameter with <up>
109 and <down>, then change the value with <left> and <right>.
110 Please refer to wavemonrc(5) for an in-depth description of
111 applicable settings.
112 Help (F8 or 'h')
114 This page might show an online-help.
115 About (F9 or 'a')
117 Release information and contact URLs.
118 Quit (F10 or 'q')
120 Exit wavemon.
121
123 -i interface
124 override autodetection and use the specified interface.
125 -g check screen geometry: a minimum size is required for proper
127 display; this flag adds a check to ensure it is sufficiently
128 large. Enable this if window does not display properly.
129 -h print help and exit.
131 -v print version information and exit.
133
135 · wavemon will exit with 'no supported wireless interfaces found'
136 if no usable wireless interfaces were detected. Check if your
137 wireless interfaces is otherwise usable, using e.g. iw(8). If
138 the interface does not appear, causes can be a missing (or not
139 loaded) kernel module, or missing firmware, which some cards
140 need to operate.
141 · Some operations, such as displaying encryption information or
144 performing scans, require CAP_NET_ADMIN privileges (see capabil‐
145 ities(7)). For non-root users, these can be enabled by
146 installing wavemon setuid-root.
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150 $HOME/.wavemonrc
151 The local per-user configuration file.
152
154 Written by Jan Morgenstern <jan@jm-music.de>.
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157 Open an issue on https://github.com/uoaerg/wavemon/issues.
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160 wavemonrc(5), iw(8), ethers(5), capabilities(7)
161Linux November 2020 wavemon(1)