inSSIDer is a Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...

 network scanner for Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

. It received a 2008 Infoworld Bossie Award

Infoworld Bossie Awards

Infoworld Bossie Awards are given to the best open source software in various categories. The first of these awards was announced in September 2007, and were given to 36 software applications across 6 categories. The software was adjudged by the Infoworld editors and reviewers.- Open source...

 for "Best of open source software in networking".

History

inSSIDer began as a replacement for the aging NetStumbler

NetStumbler

NetStumbler is a tool for Windows that facilitates detection of Wireless LANs using the 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g WLAN standards. It runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems from Windows 2000 to Windows XP...

, which had not been actively developed for several years. In addition, MetaGeek heard complaints that NetStumbler did not work with modern 64-bit operating systems or even Windows Vista

Windows Vista

Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...

. It was then decided to build an open-source Wi-Fi network scanner designed for the current generation of Windows operating systems that surpassed the capability and overall quality of NetStumbler, which had been the standard Windows Wi-Fi scanner for several years.

Development

This project was inspired by Charles Putney on The Code Project. Norman Rasmussen modified it to use the Managed Wi-Fi C# wrapper for the Native Wi-Fi API.

Features

• Works with internal Wi-Fi radio
• Wi-Fi network information (SSID, MAC
  MAC address
  A Media Access Control address is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the physical network segment. MAC addresses are used for numerous network technologies and most IEEE 802 network technologies, including Ethernet...
  
  , Access point vendor, data rate, signal strength, security, etc.)
• Graph signal strength over time
• Shows how Wifi networks overlap
• Open source (Apache License, Version 2.0)
• GPS Support
• Export to Netstumbler(*.ns1) files
• KML
  KML
  KML or kml may refer to:* Kamileroi Airport , Queensland, Australia* Keyhole Markup Language, an XML geospatial data file format...
  
   Logging

Version 2.0

Version 2.0 is a complete re-write of inSSIDer. Beta 1 was released September 8, 2010.

New Features in 2.0

• A new more stable codebase
• A news tab to replace the ad
• More stable GPX and KML logging
• New Time Graph
  • Stale access points fade out over time
• Graphs are now in tabs
  • Separate graphs for 2.4 and 5 GHz channels
• A filtering system that allows you to only show networks that meet certain criteria
  • Great for hunting down hotspots
• A GPS status tab
  • Shows detailed GPS data(like location, speed, altitude, etc.)
  • Also shows signal levels of satellites in view(up to 12)
• Fullscreen mode
• Mini mode
  • Mini mode is designed for extremely small screens that may otherwise feel cramped with the full interface
  • All points of data are in tabs
  • Default reduced number of columns visible in data grid
  • 5 GHz channel view is broken into 2 graphs for lower(33-64) and upper(100-165) channels
  • Switching between full and mini mode preserves scan data and scan state
    • You can be scanning in Full mode and switch to mini to keep scanning without interruption
• Better paring of 802.11n data
  • Shows actual extended data rate
  • Channel graphs show 40 MHz secondary channel, if any

Windows

• Windows XP SP2, Vista, or Windows 7 (32- or 64-bit)
• Microsoft .Net framework 2.0 or higher
  • inSSIDer 2.0 requires .Net 3.5 or higher
• 1024 x 600 screen resolution minimum recommended
  • If using lower than 1024 x 600 (like 800 x 480), mini mode is recommended