Wireless Network Recognition Software
 

Anyone know of a good program for linux for finding local wireless networks that are available nearby? I'd like to be able to take my wireless laptop to places that have internet access and be able to connect without necessarily knowing the name of the wireless network. So far I've had issues when going to places like cafes with internet. The only place I've had success with is my home.

Are you're talking about using someone else's internet connection that they've paid for, without asking? If you are, that's called stealing...

If you're not stealing someone else's property, you can just ask them and they'll tell you their essid.

Try

iwlist "your wireless device without quotes" scan

at bash. It will list all the networks in the vicinity.

First off, relax and quit jumping to conclusions. There are several places that offer free wireless internet. Yes you can ask some of the employees there but I find that most of them know next to nothing about that subject so often a scan can solve that problem.

Maybe he is going to just log onto someone else's wireless network but we don't know that so we shouldn't automatically assume anything. He did specifically mention internet cafes so give the poster the benefit of the doubt unless you know for certain otherwise.

I too would love some software like this. I'm not very comfortable with Linux so some software like this would be of great help. There's a little place I go to for lunch sometimes or just to have a coffee and a bagel that offers free wireless access but the employees are less than helpful. There are a few places when I travel that offer free access as well so it would be very convenient to imply scan for it. In Windows it's no problem but I'm trying to make myself use Linux a bit more on my laptop.

Wifi-Radar seems to be what he's looking for... I just got it working myself, but have not had the opportunity to test it much. Do a search for wifi-radar and you'll find it easily.

And... it ain't stealing when it's being offered for free! Lighten up, Frances....

Well I'm not going to jump down Chinaman's throat or anything cuz I guess different people might have different experiences. I'm not even sure which country anyone is from and that might have effects on the availability of wireless internet. For myself, I go to a university, so I have the availability of wireless internet in almost any building I walk into. However, there are different network IDs making it very difficult to connect to them. I'd rather not have to walk up to a Windows user everytime I want to use the internet. ;) Also, the university is in the middle of a medium sized city so there are literally THOUSANDS of coffee houses and other places that offer free wireless internet to customers. Once again, you have to know the internet ID cuz I'd rather not have to bug the baristas with internet questions that they really shouldn't have to deal with anyway. So thanks to everyone who offered help with software choices and hopefully this is enough info that Chinaman knows that people who want to connect to networks aren't necessarily doing it to steal bandwidth. :)

BTW, bandwidth is pretty cheap here so I know a few people in apartment complexes and such that have said they set up nice wireless access points as a "community service" of sorts for people nearby that wanted to use their wireless laptops and didn't necessarily have their own wireless networks to connect to. I realize this is the exception and not the rule.

Thanks for the clarification. I never said you were stealing, I asked a question.

You didn't put your location in you profile, not that it matters. I have used wireless in 4 different countries now, and I know that "/sbin/iwlist ath0 scan" has worked in all of them. But I've yet to see anyone offering "Free Wireless LAN Access" without providing the necessary information...usually in the form of a poster for their customers, i.e. at Starbucks.

Free access is definitely the exception and not the rule. And people asking for help wardriving is the rule, not the exception.

Well, I'm in Seattle Washington, NW part of the US. Sorry, I don't put very much info in any online profile if I can help it. I'm rather paranoid about identity fraud, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Seattle is where Starbucks started and so yes there are 1-3 on every block here, but I think we are just coffee shop crazy so there are tons and tons of others. My experience so far is that the vast majority of places that I go on and off campus do NOT have easy information to access their networks. We must go to different places. I actually haven't had need for using wireless outside of my home until now, so I didn't know about the whole iwconfig eth0 scan thing that was mentioned above. From there I was able to find the iwlist thing that you suggested. Sorry for my ignorance of that command. Anyways, sorry if I offered an unnecessary lesson, it just seemed from your response that you hadn't seen much free wireless since I'd mentioned in my post where I would be using the internet.

You might like to try wirelessassistant. It's a small program for KDE and is similar to the wireless configurator in windows. It will list all the ap and managed nodes and will let you connect to one of those.
Very good and neat stuff.
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=21832