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 or the key corresponding to the first
25 character of the screen name. The following screens can be selected:
26 Info (F1 or 'i')
28 This is the most comprehensive screen. It displays a condensed
29 overview of wireless-specific parameters and network statistics,
30 as well as bar graphs. The layout is arranged into several sub-
31 sections.
32 The Interface section at the top shows information about the
34 monitoring interface, including interface name, type, ESSID, and
35 available encryption formats.
36 Below, in the Levels section, you can see up to four bargraphs
38 showing (1) relative signal quality and (2) signal level in dBm.
39 If the wireless driver also supports noise level information,
40 additionally (3) noise level in dBm and (4) Signal-Noise-Ratio
41 (SNR) in dB are shown. The colour of the signal level bargraph
42 changes from red to yellow and green at fixed levels. If thresh‐
43 olds have been set, two arrows on the signal level graph will
44 show the positions of the current thresholds.
45 The Statistics section displays packet and byte counters and a
47 few other packet-related statistics.
48 The subsequent Info subsection lists the current operational
50 mode and configuration of the wireless interface. What parame‐
51 ters are actually shown depends on the capabilities and selected
52 mode of your network device.
53 Lastly, the Network section shows network-level parameters. The
55 MAC-address is resolved from ethers(5). The IPv4 address is
56 shown in CIDR notation (RFC 4632 address/prefix_len format).
57 Since often those two values also determine the broadcast
58 address (last 32 - prefix_len bits set to 1), that address is
59 shown only if it does not derive from the interface address and
60 prefix length. Likewise, the interface MTU is shown only if it
61 differs from the default Ethernet MTU of 1500 bytes.
62 Level histogram (F2 or 'l')
64 This is a full-screen histogram plot showing the evolution of
65 levels with time. The screen is partitioned into a grid, with
66 dBm levels shown in green at the right hand side (depending on
67 configuration). At the very minimum, the evolution of the sig‐
68 nal-level is shown. If the wireless driver also supports noise-
69 level information, additionally a noise graph and associated SNR
70 graph appear.
71 Scan window (F3 or 's')
73 A periodically updated network scan, showing access points and
74 other wireless clients. It is sorted depending on sort_order and
75 sort_ascending, see wavemonrc(5). Each entry starts with the
76 ESSID, followed by the colour-coded MAC address and the sig‐
77 nal/channel information. A green/red MAC address indicates an
78 (un-)encrypted access point, the colour changes to yellow for
79 non-access points (in this case the mode is shown at the end of
80 the line). The uncoloured information following the MAC address
81 lists relative and absolute signal strengths, channel, fre‐
82 quency, and station-specific information. The station-specific
83 information includes the station type (ESS for Access Point,
84 IBSS for Ad-Hoc network), station count and channel utilisation.
85 A status line at the bottom informs about the current sort order
87 and a few statistics, such as most (least) crowded channels
88 (least crowded channels are listed when sorting by descending
89 channel).
90 The sort_order can also directly be changed via these keyboard
92 shortcuts: ascending, descending; by essid, signal, channel (C
93 also with signal), mac address, or by open access (O also with
94 signal).
95 Preferences (F7 or 'p')
98 This screen allows you to change all program options such as
99 interface and level scale parameters, and to save the new set‐
100 tings to the configuration file. Select a parameter with <up>
101 and <down>, then change the value with <left> and <right>.
102 Please refer to wavemonrc(5) for an in-depth description of
103 applicable settings.
104 Help (F8 or 'h')
106 This page might show an online-help.
107 About (F9 or 'a')
109 Release information and contact URLs.
110 Quit (F10 or 'q')
112 Exit wavemon.
113 Note: some operations, such as displaying encryption information or
115 performing scans, require CAP_NET_ADMIN privileges (see capabili‐
116 ties(7)). For non-root users, these can be enabled by installing wave‐
117 mon setuid-root.
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120 -i interface
121 override autodetection and use the specified interface.
122 -g check screen geometry: a minimum size is required for proper
124 display; this flag adds a check to ensure it is sufficiently
125 large. Enable this if window does not display properly.
126 -h print help and exit.
128 -v print version information and exit.
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132 wavemon will exit with 'no supported wireless interfaces found' if no
133 usable wireless interfaces were detected. Check if your wireless inter‐
134 faces is otherwise usable, using e.g. iw, iwconfig, or similar tools.
135 The interface should appear in /proc/net/dev and, if wireless exten‐
136 sions are supported, also in /proc/net/wireless. If the interface does
137 not appear, causes can be a missing (or not loaded) kernel module, or
138 missing firmware, which some cards need to operate.
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142 LC_NUMERIC
143 Influences the grouping of numbers if set. See also locale(1).
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146 $HOME/.wavemonrc
147 The local per-user configuration file.
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150 Written by Jan Morgenstern <jan@jm-music.de>.
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153 Open an issue on https://github.com/uoaerg/wavemon/issues.
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156 This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. See file COPYING for
157 details.
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160 wavemonrc(5), wireless(7), ethers(5), locale(1), capabilities(7)
161Linux September 2016 wavemon(1)