HowTo Geolocate kismet Data

Kismet Prerequisites

Supported Wireless Card(s)

As a general rule of thumb, most WIFI adapters based on a Aetheros or Intel chip set should work "out of the box" when setting up Kismet on a NST system. To get an idea of the chip set used by your WIFI adapter, you can use the lspci command. The example output shown below is from running lspci on a ASUS Eeee PC and tells us that the system is using a Aetheros based chip set:

[root@cayenne trunk]# lspci
... Removed output for non-WIFI related hardware ...
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
[root@cayenne trunk]# 

Kismet requires one or more WIFI adapters. The lspci command is useful at displaying what WIFI hardware is present on your system. However, the lspci output does not tell you whether the necessary drivers for the hardware are installed on the system. The iwconfig command will tell you what WIFI adapters are supported by the system. For example, the following shows that my system has one WIFI adapter (wlan0):

[root@cayenne trunk]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"WRT610N-SHOP0"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 68:7F:74:03:3F:00   
          Bit Rate=65 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=50/70  Signal level=-60 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

[root@cayenne trunk]# 

If your WIFI adapter is not recognized by the system, you may want to refer the Kismet site for more information and links. You might find information on how to download and install the necessary drivers for your your hardware.

GPS Device and gpsd Service

If you would like to be able to display the information collected by Kismet in Google Earth, you will need to connect a compatible GPS to your NST system and run the gpsd service. Refer to: "HowTo Setup The NST System With A GPS (gpsd)" for details on connecting a GPS to your NST system.

Locating the Kismet NST WUI Page

Locating the kismet service in the NST WUI

Kismet Setup and Configuration

Setting up the NST system to run kismet using the NST WUI

Results from setting up kismet using the NST WUI

Editing the kismet configuration file using the NST WUI

Editing the kismet source interface(s) using the NST WUI

Editing the kismet GPS configuration using the NST WUI

Starting The Kismet Service

Starting the kismet service using the NST WUI

Results from starting the kismet service in the NST WUI

Kismet Results

Stopping The Kismet Service

Stopping the kismet service using the NST WUI

Results from stopping the kismet service in the NST WUI

The Kismet Results Table

Results produced by the kismet service

MAC Addresses

00:02:2D:28:73:6F
00:8A:29:BF:7D:10
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10
D0:B0:3C:BF:7D:10
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10
00:66:00:00:00:00
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10
0B:1C:6B:3A:38:11
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10
00:02:2D:2A:60:6F
98:02:2D:28:73:6F
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10
32:C6:2C:BF:32:9D
00:02:2D:BF:7D:10

HTML Table

The summary area at the top of the HTML report generated from kismet data

The details for a particular network and its clients from the HTML report generated from kismet data

KMZ (Google Earth)

Results produced by the kismet service displayed using Google Earth

Displaying only the open WIFI networks in Google Earth

Detailed results for the PANERA network produced by the kismet service displayed using Google Earth