Hotspot testing

[bojovan]

I used to have a software program on my notebook that test for hotspot areas. It was very useful but I lost it when I had to do a re-install on my PC. Does anyone know of a program like this.

[104456]

Do you mean something like Netstumbler for which you`ll need an orinoco class wireless device?
You could pick up more info on a dedicated wireless forum such as here
There are also dedicated handheld devices to test for signal strength for about £30 or so.
For Linux try Kismet

Kismet is an 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports raw monitoring (rfmon) mode, and can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g traffic.



Kismet identifies networks by passively collecting packets and detecting standard named networks, detecting (and given time, decloaking) hidden networks, and infering the presence of nonbeaconing networks via data traffic.