Scan Wireless Networks with NetSpot

Understanding the Information Provided by NetSpot

NetSpot is a comprehensive WiFi network scanner that can provide a wealth of useful information to help you learn more about nearby WiFi networks and troubleshoot various problems. If you’re new to network scanning, you might have trouble making sense of all the information provided by NetSpot, which is why we’ve decided to create this brief summary of the most important information you will come across when using NetSpot.

Network Name (SSID)

Service Set Identifier (SSID) is broadcast by wireless routers to announce the presence of a network. An SSID is for all intents and purposes the name assigned to a WiFi network. It can be zero to 32 bytes long, and it’s typically human-readable, such as the name of the internet provider followed by the surname of the customer. Many people like to give creative and funny names to their WiFi networks, like “It Hurts When IP” or “FreeViruses.”

Not all WiFi networks broadcast their SSIDs for a variety of reasons, with security usually being among them. A WiFi network that doesn’t have any SSID is called a “hidden network.” NetSpot automatically reveals the presence of hidden networks, giving a complete picture of all WiFi activity around you.

MAC Address (BSSID)

A single WiFi network can consist of many different access points. While this arrangement is less common when it comes to home networks, businesses and organizations couldn’t function without it. The presence of multiple access points creates the need for identifying the access point from which a data packet has originated. This is where an identifier called a basic service set identifier (BSSID) comes in.

The BSSID is the MAC address of the wireless access point (WAP), and it combines the 24-bit Organization Unique Identifier (the manufacturer's identity) and the manufacturer's assigned 24-bit identifier for the radio chipset in the WAP. The BSSID can help you determine the legitimacy of a WiFi network and avoid evil twin attacks, in which an attacker creates a fraudulent wireless access point that appears to be legitimate but is set up to eavesdrop on wireless communications.

Encryption

To prevent unauthorized access, it has become a common practice to encrypt WiFi networks using several available WiFi encryption standards, including Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). WEP is the older of the two standards, and it’s now considered to be obsolete because WEP-protected WiFi networks can be cracked in the matter of minutes with tools that are readily available for download online.

WPA is far more secure than WEP, especially when it comes to its last two versions, WPA2 and WPA3. WPA2 is by far the most commonly used WiFi encryption standard today, but WPA3 is expected to overtake it in the near future. As a rule of thumb, you should always use the strongest WiFi encryption standard your router supports.

Router Vendor

Emitted together with data packets is information about the vendor of the WiFi router from which the packets originate, such as Cisco, Netgear, Linksys, D-Link, or Asus. Since router vendors tend to use certain default router admin login names and passwords, this information can be used to gain access to a router’s admin interface.