Hi I have just flashed my WRT54G V5 finally with open WRT and installed net stumbler expecting it to work, it doest seem to know the WRT is there, I have set it to Client mode.
Will this actually work or is there a different program that will?
Thanks
WRT
Use Putty or some other consol and the command
iwlist {interface name} scanning
mine is iwlist eht1 scanning
cougar
kismet
Netstumbler will scan using the wireless devices attached to your system. The WRT device is a different system - it connects to an access point on behalf of you and then routes the data over your wired network, you would need to install netstumbler on to the wrt54g, which is not possible at this time. There is a similar program that will install called Kismet.
If you want to (passively) scan with your wrt and display the results graphically, you can install a kismet server on the wrt54g and run a kismet client on your computer. If there is not enough space for the kismet server, you could run a kismet drone on the wrt54 and run the server/client on your computer. There are ipkgs available in the openwrt packages for kismet server, client and drone.
Kismet is good for showing what is out there, but for aligning to a specific AP you should use the active scan cougar mentioned, make sure it is in client (managed) mode and just keep repeating the command while aligning. If physically possible a "better" way to align an antenna is to plug the antenna direct into your laptop with a wireless card that has external antenna connectors, scan with netstumbler until the best signal is achieved, lock down the antenna then swap the antenna connection back to the wrt54.
client mode is problematic on WRTs
I have a WRT54G V3.1 and I could not get it to work as a client, at all. I do not know if there is the same problem on other WRT54G's.
However if you are using your WRT as an access point and you can not see it with Netstumbler or similar, I would suggest pluging a peecee into the wired side, and get your web browser to the WRT and see how its configured.
Which version of OpenWRT have you installed?