What's a good Vista-supported alternative to Network Stumbler?

July 7, 2007 11:50 AM

What's a good alternative to Network Stumbler that supports Vista?

I really enjoy Network Stumbler (especially the audio alerts), but sadly it doesn't work on my Vista machine, either due to OS incompatibility (Vista is officially unsupported, but it works for some people) or an unsupported network card -- mine is a Broadcom. Under Vista, NS gives the error, "No wireless adapter found."

The NS user forums are useless, because all Vista-based questions are swiftly closed because it's unsupported, officially.

What's a good alternative piece of software that works with Vista? Or, in the off chance that someone has been able to get Vista + a Broadcom adapter to work with NS, how'd you do it?

The nitty gritty of my setup:

-Dell 640m (e1405)
-Vista Home Basic
-Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller; 802.11g Network Adapter

posted by nitsuj to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Chuckle - a bootable Linux CD/DVD? CoLinux?
posted by jkaczor at 12:45 PM on July 7, 2007

I'm not sure how suggesting I use an entirely different OS can be considered a valid, helpful answer to my question.

To reiterate, my questions are:

1) What's a good alternative piece of software that works with Vista?
2) Or, in the off chance that someone has been able to get Vista + a Broadcom adapter to work with NS, how'd you do it?

Thanks.
posted by nitsuj at 12:51 PM on July 7, 2007

I would say that a linux live CD would be your best option (kismet > netstumbler), except broadcom cards are not supported well in linux.
You could try to find a supported wireless for cheap.

A quick google search turned this up. Kind of a primitive netstumber.
posted by rancidchickn at 12:53 PM on July 7, 2007

How about a good alternate OS that works with NetStumbler? Windows XP is a popular choice.
posted by SirStan at 8:49 PM on July 8, 2007

sigh.
posted by nitsuj at 9:25 PM on July 8, 2007

You did see the "chuckle", right? It was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion.

I have been using NetStumbler since it's inception - I would *love* to have it work with Vista - frankly, I will bet that a certain company has changed the driver model again with Vista - which is why NetStumbler does not work. Too bad access via NDIS isn't working either.

I just tested myself - and it does not work with my "Intel" card native & NDIS under Vista either.

Due to the tremendous lag between updates from NetStumbler, it almost feels like time to start an opensource project.
posted by jkaczor at 5:44 PM on July 9, 2007