With a brand new Mac out of the box, you can easily see a short list of wireless networks within range by clicking on the Airport icon. Case in point:
Easy enough, but this method doesn’t give you any information about the various networks found aside from their names. In order to find out which ones are open and allow connections, you’d have to click through each one until you choose a network that doesn’t ask for a password.
iStumbler is a great program that scans for nearby wireless networks and shows you a list full of detailed information about each one. Included is the network name, whether the network is open or closed, the MAC address of the router, frequency, samples and more.
iStumbler can detect other wireless devices besides WiFi networks. Included are two other modules; the Bluetooth module is able to detect nearby Bluetooth enabled devices, and the Bonjour module lets you browse hosts on your local network. Download iStumbler from iStumbler.net.
[tags]mac,os x,wifi,airport,wireless,istumbler[/tags]
