Monitor mode

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monitor mode, or RFMON mode, allows a computer with a wireless network interface card to monitor all traffic received from the wireless network. Monitor mode is similar to promiscuous mode used for packet sniffing wired networks. It is also used for passive stumbling, which is a wardriving technique for determining the presence of base stations without active probing.

Software such as KisMAC or Kismet in combination with protocol analyzers such as Wireshark or tcpdump provide a user interface for wireless network monitoring.

Usually the wireless card is unable to transmit in monitor mode and is restricted to a single wireless channel. Monitor mode may be used in malicious ways, such as collecting traffic for WEP cracking.