Wavemon and NMCLI - Tools for Wifi Analysis in the Shell

Get Wavemon

Wavemon is a simple utility made in nCurses (a para-GUI written for the terminal window).  Other such tools are nMon, cTop, etc.

You can find the wavemon project on github at https://github.com/uoaerg/wavemon

To install Wavemon on a Debian / Ubuntu based system, use the command:

sudo apt install wavemon

Running Wavemon

As it pertains to the use of the networking interfaces to scan and provide data about various networks, wavemon does require sudo privileges in order to run.

In a terminal window simply enter the command:

sudo wavemon

to start the application.  By default the application will begin on the view of your currently connected interface and network.  This view can be very useful for troubleshooting issues related to your network connectivity.

Using the F2 hotkey, you can move to the graph and histogram views of your connected network activity for a different visual on your current network connectivity.

F3 hotkey will take you to the scanning view, where Wavemon will scan all the networks in your immediate area, and provide detailed information about those netwroks such as Channel, Signal Strength, Type of Encryption being used, SSID, and more.

F7 will take you to the Settings view of Wavemon.  Using the arrow keys to navigate up and down through the list of settings, an the right left arrow keys to change options on each setting.  You can configure Wavemon to your needs.  When complete arrow down to the "Save Configuration" option, and press enter.  There's no real indicator that it saved, but using any of the previously mentioned F# hotkeys, you can check the other views for changes.

NMCLI

the NMCLI command it Network Monitor Coomand Line Interface.  This is generally built into most Linux desktops these days, but you may have to install it for your distro if it's not pre-installed.  

Thistool can provide a list of wireless networks around you, the signal strength, SSID, encryption type, channel, and more.  It's a quick view of information that could be quite useful to troubleshooting connectivity and interference issues as well.

To use teh NMCLI tool, just type:

nmcli wifi d

into the terminal window.

To rescan information, use the

nmcli rescan

then repeat the first command.

If the list is longer than your terminal window height, you can use the arrow keys to move up and down through the list.  

Use q to quit out of both Wavemon and NMCLI back to the normal terminal command prompt.

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