iwlist Commands

Note: replace [interface] with your interface name as required (e.g. eth1, wlan0, ath0 etc.) iwlist is used to display some large chunk of information from a wireless network interface that is not displayed by iwconfig.

• iwlist [interface] scan (Give the list of Access Points and Ad-Hoc cells in range (ESSID, Quality, Frequency, Mode etc.) Note: In tests only worked with Atheros cards).
• iwlist [interface] channel (Give the list of available frequencies in the device and the number of channels).
• iwlist [interface] rate (List the bit-rates supported by the device).
• iwlist [interface] key (List the encryption key sizes supported and display all the encryption keys available in the device).
• iwlist [interface] power (List the various Power Management attributes and modes of the device).
• iwlist [interface] txpower (List the various Transmit Power available on the device).
• iwlist [interface] retry (List the transmit retry limits and retry lifetime on the device).
• iwlist [interface] ap (Give the list of Access Points in range, and optionally the quality of link to them.  Deprecated in favour of scan)
• iwlist [interface] peers (Give the list of Peers associated/registered with this card).
• iwlist [interface] event (List the wireless events supported by this card).

Madwifi-ng Commands

MADWiFi supports virtual access points (VAPS), which means you can create more than one wireless device per wireless card (the host wireless card = wifi0).

By default, a sta mode VAP is created by, which is MadWifi talk for a ‘managed mode wireless interface’.

Note: replace athx with your interface name as required (e.g. ath0, ath1)

• wlanconfig athx destroy (Destroy VAP, athx)
• wlanconfig athx create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode sta (Create a managed mode VAP, athx)
• wlanconfig athx create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap (Create an Access Point VAP, athx)
• wlanconfig athx create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode adhoc (Create an Ad-Hoc VAP, athx)
• wlanconfig athx create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode monitor (Create a Monitor mode VAP, athx)
• Changing modes:
  • ifconfig athx down (Take the VAP down)
  • wlanconfig athx destroy (Destroy the VAP, athx)
  • wlanconfig athx create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode [sta|adhoc|ap|monitor] (Create a new sta, adhoc, ap or monitor VAP)
• Scan for Access Points (requires both steps):
  • modprobe wlan_scan_sta (To insert the scanning module)
  • wlanconfig athx list scan (To list the APs)