NAME

       iwspy - Get wireless statistics from specific nodes

SYNOPSIS

       iwspy [interface]
       iwspy interface [+] DNSNAME | IPADDR | HWADDR [...]
       iwspy interface off
       iwspy interface setthr low high
       iwspy interface getthr

DESCRIPTION

       Iwspy  is  used  to  set  a list of addresses to monitor in a wireless network interface and to read back
       quality of link information for each of those. This information is the  same  as  the  one  available  in
       /proc/net/wireless : quality of the link, signal strength and noise level.

       This  information  is  updated  each time a new packet is received, so each address of the list adds some
       overhead in the driver.

       Note that this functionality works only for nodes part of the current wireless cell, you can not  monitor
       Access  Points  you  are not associated with (you can use Scanning for that) and nodes in other cells. In
       Managed mode, in most case packets are relayed by the Access Point, in this case you will get the  signal
       strength  of the Access Point. For those reasons this functionality is mostly useful in Ad-Hoc and Master
       mode.

PARAMETERS

       You may set any number of addresses up to 8.

       DNSNAME | IPADDR
              Set an IP address, or in some cases a DNS name (using the name resolver). As  the  hardware  works
              with  hardware  addresses,  iwspy  will translate this IP address through ARP.  In some case, this
              address might not be in  the  ARP  cache  and  iwspy  will  fail.  In  those  case,  ping(8)  this
              name/address and retry.

       HWADDR Set  a  hardware  (MAC)  address  (this  address is not translated & checked like the IP one). The
              address must contain a colon (:) to be recognised as a hardware address.

       +      Add the new set of addresses at the end of the current list instead of replacing it.  The  address
              list is unique for each device, so each user should use this option to avoid conflicts.

       off    Remove the current list of addresses and disable the spy functionality

       setthr Set the low and high signal strength threshold for the iwspy event (for drivers that support it).
              Every time the signal strength for any of the address monitored with iwspy goes lower than the low
              threshold or goes higher than the high threshold, a Wireless Event will be generated.
              This can be used to monitor link outages without having to run iwspy periodically.

       getthr Retrieve the current low and high signal strength threshold for the iwspy event.

FILES

       /proc/net/wireless

SEE ALSO

       iwconfig(8), iwlist(8), iwevent(8), iwpriv(8), wireless(7).

net-tools                                        31 October 1996                                        IWSPY(8)