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I'm working on a hobby project involving wireless security, and I'm hoping to build a device capable of pulling MAC addresses of devices within range out of the wireless network traffic. I'm not interested in the actual data contained in any of the traffic, just being able to reliably pull out as many MAC addresses in as large of a surrounding area as possible, and possibly the signal strength for each of them. This is going to be used in a type of positioning system for a larger project i'm working on. So what I would like for the device to do is to be able to have a wireless interface that pulls MAC addresses out of the air, and then relays them through a wired interface to another service on the same network. I'm learning as I go, and so far from what I have found I'm thinking of using a platform similar to this:
http://soekris.com/net4511.htm
Right now I'm just using a laptop running linux with both wireless and wired nics for development. In the end I'd like to have an embedded system running linux, and all it will do is collect mac addresses (and hopefully signal strength) and relay them to a central server.
I've looked into using a router and one of the open-source firmwares out there as a starting point, but I think that would be overkill for what I am needing from the device. I'm hoping someone here may be able to offer some words of wisdom, or point me in the right direction (or tell me what i'm doing isn't possible for some reason...). This is all new to me, and I'm completely lost when it comes to the hardware aspect of this, and what I should be looking for when trying to find a platform to build my device on, or if there is already something that can suit my needs out-of-the-box. I appreciate any feedback,
-Ned

my last reply went poof ...

have you looked at wireshark or kismit on the wireless side to capture the traffic and a SQL server to log it ?

This is very similar to how AirMagnet does their Enterprise Monitoring solution. You would need to figure how to use interface the two .,..

i hate getting old, i was getting into the truck today when it struck me .... ARPWATCH....

Google ARPWATCH ... This will do most of what you want ...

Arpwatch looks very close to what I am going to need for the software side of things. Thank you very much for pointing that project out. The part I'm still having trouble finding information on is what would be the best way to go about setting up a lot of these monitoring stations in different locations... I'm able to run Kismet or Wireshark on a laptop and get the information I want, but ideally I would like to put together several very simple hardware devices that just run software similar in functionality to Arpwatch, and then report the findings back to a central server. This may be the wrong forum to discuss the hardware aspect of my project, so let me know if that is the case!

checkout the samsung yellow jacket Tablet, it will help you,

All the best

Wireless monitoring device is really very nice and i need an extra advantage over the versions.kindly guide me which one can i prefer.
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bhuvi

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