NetStumbler And MiniStumbler

NetStumbler, also known as Network Stumbler, is a free wireless software that runs on a Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It allows you to detect WiFi networks (802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g).

This WLAN software can help you in many ways with your wireless networks:

There is a trimmed version called MiniStumbler which is available for handheld devices running on Windows CE.

The biggest problem with Network Stumbler is it hasn't been updated for a long time. This is the reason why it doesn’t work on Vista and Windows 7. The author of this software Marius Milner, is working on an updated version that will work on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

This software can show you the correct noise and the level of signal strength. The versions of Netstumbler support most of the WiFi cards. The cards which are not fully supported won't be reliable for noise and strength readings and they could cause instability in software itself.

This software has a problem with windows wireless zero configuration service. There are versions of the software which includes a feature called "auto reconfigure". You can enable it by clicking the "two gears" icon on the toolbar or through the view menu. When this option of auto reconfigure is enabled, the software will stop the wireless zero configuration service on starting of the application and restore it on when the application is closed.

You can also take control of the situation by enabling and disabling wireless zero configuration by yourself (control panel, administrative tools, services, wireless zero configuration). Also there is a problem with some wireless cards that won't see all available access points unless their SSID is set to blank.

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