Due to popular demand, NetStumbler has been ported to the Linux platform, and will soon be available as a self-contained bootable mini-distro.
Kanotix based mini distro, incorporating the UnionFS, allowing you to save to the hard disk, even when running from a CD.
Due to the open nature of Linux, NetStumbler 0.4.1.AF 2005 supports all the facilities of the popular drivers for WiFi cards, including wlan-ng, hostap, MadWiFi, and of course the ORiNOCO drivers.
By utilising the already existant feature set of the drivers, NetStumbler
0.4.1.AF.2005 will be able to operate in passive mode, as well as
the
active mode known from the Windows platform version of NetStumbler.
Optional patches included for the new advanced WiFi-control functinoality of
NetStumbler. These optional patches will enable the supported cards to increase
power output to 200 mW, in effect emulating such cards as the Senao SL2511, as
well as enhance the perceived receiver sensitivity, by implementing MIMO
multipath reflection algorithms in software. An added benefit of this is the
increased accuracy of triangulated GPS positions.
The ability to use GPSD for the GPS input, and direct integration with GPSdrive as well as Jiggle. GPSDrive compatibility is insured by using the same interface as Kismet, in effect emulating a Kismet Server, enabling GPSDrive to map, display and store detected AP's in a MySQL database. Used together with the optional MIMO driver patches, the mapped positions of AP's will reflect their actual location, instead of the location of the laptop while it detected the AP. Furthermore, using the similar techniques, the accuracy of your GPS location will improve dramatically.
Plug-in architecture enables the usage of scripts like in the Windows version.Plug-ins can be in the form of standard Linux shell scripts, executable binaries, or special plug-ins written to the new fully described NSFLAPI (NetStumbler For Linux Application Programming Interface), which can extend the program with new features. This means an easier upgrade path. Tools are provided to allow existing Windows scripts to run unmodified.
NetStumbler 0.4.1.AF.2005 includes another first, by the way of the new Plug-in architecture. These plug-ins are available with this release: