I am looking for a tool on Linux that will help me distinguish between a signal from router that provides Wi-Fi G and one that provides Wi-Fi N, preferably one that works in command line mode. I've looked over man page for iwconfig and others and not found the info.

One way that I can of sort of do it is to plug in my older G only USB then scan for Wi-Fi. Then put in my G/N USB and rescan.

I suppose that looking at available bit rates using scan from iwlist will help if I do it with the G/N USB stick. If the highest rates are available, the device must be capable of Wi-Fi N.

I have related question concerning Wi-Fi standards. Can a single device connect to both Wi-Fi N and G clients if it only has one MAC/ESSID address? Or, does any device that allows the use of both G and N have to have two separate MAC/ESSID addresses, One for N and one for G?

That is it in a nutshell.

The 'iw' command is your friend here

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Wifi#iw_command

To get the card capabilities
or to get basic summarised capabilities
From a scan using
the bit rate and frequency details provide information about the capability of the AP. If HT (high throughput) output is present, then that would signify 802.11n capability.

These threads go into further detail...
https://superuser.com/questions/6797...r-capabilities
https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...e-access-point

Yes, if the AP is configured to allow both standards, then a client with wireless G will just connect using that standard. Another wireless N device can still connect at the higher N standard concurrently.

Thanks ferrari, that is what was needed to push me in the right direction. I think it was back in the 2.6.XX days of Linux when I really looked into the Wi-Fi command man pages. I was unaware of the command "iw" which at first glance seams to supersede the capabilities of the "iwlist" command that I have been using up to know.

If I have further questions after I have fully explored iw I will post them on this thread.

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