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

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

nitsuj — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 11:50:22 -0800

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

By: jkaczor

jkaczor — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 12:45:35 -0800

Chuckle - a bootable Linux CD/DVD? CoLinux?

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 12:51:46 -0800

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.

By: rancidchickn

rancidchickn — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 12:53:24 -0800

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.

By: SirStan

SirStan — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 20:49:39 -0800

How about a good alternate OS that works with NetStumbler? Windows XP is a popular choice.

By: nitsuj

nitsuj — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:25:57 -0800

sigh.

By: jkaczor

jkaczor — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:44:25 -0800

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.