.TH wavemon 1 "September 2021" Linux "User Manuals" .SH NAME wavemon \- a wireless network monitor .SH SYNOPSIS .B wavemon [-h] [-i .I ifname .B ] [-g] [-v] .SH DESCRIPTION \fIwavemon\fR is a ncurses-based monitoring application for wireless network devices. It plots levels in real-time as well as showing wireless and network related device information. The \fIwavemon\fR interface splits into different "screens". Each screen presents information in a specific manner. For example, the "info" screen shows current levels as bargraphs, whereas the "level" screen represents the same levels as a moving histogram. On startup, you'll see (depending on configuration) one of the different monitor screens. At the bottom, you'll find a \fImenu-bar\fR listing the screens and their activating keys. Each screen is activated by either the corresponding function key (F1..10), its numeric shortcut (1..0), or the underlined shortcut letter of the screen name. The following \fIscreens\fR can be selected: .TP .B Info (F1 or 'i') This is the most comprehensive screen. It displays a condensed overview of wireless-specific parameters and network statistics, as well as bar graphs. The layout is arranged into several sub-sections. The .B Interface section at the top shows information about the monitoring interface, including interface name, type, ESSID, and available encryption formats. Below, in the .B Levels section, you can see up to four bargraphs showing (1) relative signal quality and (2) signal level in dBm. If the wireless driver also supports noise level information, additionally (3) noise level in dBm and (4) Signal-Noise-Ratio (SNR) in dB are shown. The colour of the signal level bargraph changes from red to yellow and green at fixed levels. If thresholds have been set, two arrows on the signal level graph will show the positions of the current thresholds. The .B Statistics section displays packet and byte counters and a few other packet-related statistics. The subsequent .B Info subsection lists the current operational mode and configuration of the wireless interface. What parameters are actually shown depends on the capabilities and selected mode of your network device. Lastly, the .B Network section shows network-level parameters. The MAC-address is resolved from \fBethers\fR(5). The IPv4 address is shown in CIDR notation (RFC\ 4632 \fIaddress\fR\fB/\fR\fIprefix_len\fR format). Since often those two values also determine the broadcast address (last 32 \- \fIprefix_len\fR bits set to 1), that address is shown only if it does not derive from the interface address and prefix length. Likewise, the interface MTU is shown only if it differs from the default Ethernet MTU of 1500 bytes. .TP .B Level histogram (F2 or 'l') This is a full-screen histogram plot showing the evolution of the signal level over time. The screen is partitioned into a grid, with dBm levels shown in green at the right hand side. .TP .B Scan window (F3 or 's') A periodically updated network scan, showing access points and other wireless clients. It is sorted depending on \fIsort_order\fR and \fIsort_ascending\fR, see \fBwavemonrc\fR(5). Each entry starts with the ESSID, followed by the colour-coded MAC address and the signal/channel information. A green/red MAC address indicates an (un-)encrypted access point, the colour changes to yellow for non-access points (in this case the mode is shown at the end of the line). The uncoloured information following the MAC address lists relative and absolute signal strengths, channel, frequency, and station-specific information. The station-specific information includes the station type (ESS for Access Point, IBSS for Ad-Hoc network), station count and channel utilisation. A status line at the bottom informs about the current sort order and a few statistics, such as most (least) crowded channels (least crowded channels are listed when sorting by descending channel). The \fIsort_order\fR can also directly be changed via these keyboard shortcuts: \fIa\fRscending, \fId\fRescending; by \fIe\fRssid, \fIs\fRignal, \fIc\fRhannel (\fIC\fR also with signal), \fIm\fRac address, or by \fIo\fRpen access (\fIO\fR also with signal). Please note that sorting order changes at the time new data comes in, not when the setting is activated. You can \fIfilter\fR the bands via these keyboard shortcuts: \fI2\fR (2.4GHz only), \fI5\fR (5GHz only), and \fIb\fR (both bands). Hidden ESSIDs can be excluded from display via the \fIh\fR shortcut. .TP .B Preferences (F7 or 'p') This screen allows you to change all program options such as interface and level scale parameters, and to save the new settings to the configuration file. Select a parameter with and , then change the value with and . Please refer to \fBwavemonrc\fR(5) for an in-depth description of applicable settings. .TP .B Help (F8 or 'h') This page might show an online-help. .TP .B About (F9 or 'a') Release information and contact URLs. .TP \fBQuit (F10 or 'q') Exit \fIwavemon\fR. .LP .SH "OPTIONS" .IP "\fB\-i \fIinterface\fR\fR" override autodetection and use the specified \fIinterface\fR. .IP "\fB\-g\fR" check screen \fIgeometry\fR: a minimum size is required for proper display; this flag adds a check to ensure it is sufficiently large. Enable this if window does not display properly. .IP "\fB\-h\fR" print help and exit. .IP "\fB\-v\fR" print version information and exit. .SH Troubleshooting .IP \(bu \fIwavemon\fR will exit with \fB'no supported wireless interfaces found'\fR if no usable wireless interfaces were detected. Check if your wireless interface is otherwise usable, using e.g. \fBiw\fR(8). If your interface is not listed, causes can be a missing (or not loaded) kernel module; or missing firmware, which some cards need to operate. .IP \(bu Some operations, such as displaying encryption information or performing scans, require \fBCAP_NET_ADMIN\fR privileges (see \fBcapabilities\fR(7)). For non-root users, these can be enabled by installing \fIwavemon\fR setuid-root. .IP \(bu Running \fIwavemon\fR inside \fBscreen\fR(1) may cause garbled output on certain locales. This can be fixed calling screen like this: .EX $ LC_ALL=C screen .EE .SH FILES .IP $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wavemon/wavemonrc The local per-user configuration file. .SH "AUTHOR" Written by Jan Morgenstern . .SH "REPORTING BUGS" Open an issue on \fIhttps://github.com/uoaerg/wavemon/issues\fR. .SH "SEE ALSO" .BR wavemonrc (5), .BR ethers (5), .BR capabilities (7), .BR iw (8), .BR locale (1)