Wireless Router MAC Address

[Collider]

Hi all,

I'm a noob when it comes to networking realm, so this maybe a simple question for some. I'm looking for an effective way to find out wireless router's MAC address, in order to monitor the MAC of the wireless router currently connected to. Something that would work across diff windows environments.

Thanks!

 

[RadiclDreamer]

arp -a from command prompt

This works if its also your default gateway, otherwise most wireless utilities show this

 

[JackMDS]

Almost a Router provides some sort of a Status page when you log to its Menus with the Browser.

Look at the Router's Manual.

.

 

[Collider]

I'm actually looking to write a simple MAC monitor, so a manual would not fit my purpose

I already have simple code & system tray UI that executes "arp -a" command and parses the output, then compares is to the next parsing in a timely interval.

However that command gives router MAC. How can I explicitly get Wireless Access Point MAC?

 

[JackMDS]

I do not get it.

You want to sniff other people Router's MAC number?

Why?

.

 

[Collider]

No there's wireless scanners that can do that. For example inSSIDer from MetaGeeks (open source)

What I'm trying to accomplish is to constantly monitor the MAC address of the wireless router that only I am connected to, with an intent to prevent any "man in the middle" attacks when I'm at the public WiFi hot spots. So then if somebody poses as "my router" I'll get a warning when MAC address is changed.

But again I'm pretty new to networking stuff, so if anyone sees any holes in that logic - criticism is welcome.

 

[Engineer]

You running an SSH proxy (or VPN) to your router when you are surfing via public WIFI? If so, wouldn't the encryption key kill the possibility that you could get spoofed by someone else?

 

[Collider]

nope dont have a vpn

any other alternatives to "arp -a" out there? or any other command that will target the wireless point instead of the router ?

 

[Emulex]

why don't you just use that popular wifi locating software - its free - it shows mac of AP's signal strength, name, hidden, etc.

 

[Collider]

why don't you just use that popular wifi locating software - its free - it shows mac of AP's signal strength, name, hidden, etc.

It does show all the info I'm looking for, but I'd like something that will run in the background and throw an alert if MAC is changed.

It wasn't much of a hassle to write some code that uses the "arp -a" command, but I'd like to know if anyone sees holes with using that for the purpose.

If anyone's interested I can post the source code and the executable.

 

[MrColin]

If you are away from home the MAC of your router's wireless chip is irrelevant I would think. the MAC of your routers ethernet wan is what you would monitor for some kind of VPN assurance.

Sorry I re read the thread and saw that you aren't using a vpn.
So you mean the MAC of the public wireless AP router. I dunno but if I were staging such an attack one of the first things I would do is to spoof the MAC address of the AP. Also, if the MITM was already up and running when you arrive and connect you might not notice a change of address even if they havent spoofed the AP's MAC.

Still, arp is the most efficient way I can think of, you might benefit from digging up the source code for the linux version of arp (same command) and adapting it to your specific purpose. At the very least it will have better documentation than for windows.

 

[MrColin]

Maybe another approach you could take is to get the mac of all of the aps in range, checking for duplicates between another list of all of the clients MAC on your AP.