19

I want to get the BSSID for a known SSID, how can I do that? Thanks :-)

me.at.coding
  • 461

5 Answers5

16

If I'm not mistaken, it should be the Address shown when issuing

sudo iwlist scanning

E.g.:

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:11:22:33:44:55
                    Channel:5
                    Frequency:2.432 GHz (Channel 5)
                    Quality=70/70  Signal level=-33 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"the_known_ssid"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    ...
htorque
  • 64,798
  • 2
    small addition to htorque: sudo iwlist wlan0 scanning|grep Address will show only the adresses. My post will take more time so htorques' is better ;-) – Rinzwind May 04 '11 at 17:33
10

If using network manager (the default in Ubuntu), you can use nmcli. It also has several options for the output format.

In your case, where you know the SSID and want the BSSID :

nmcli -f SSID,BSSID,ACTIVE dev wifi list | grep $wanted_ssid
mivk
  • 5,312
5

You could also install wifi-radar which will give you a graphical list of all wireless networks your NIC is seeing. Use sudo apt-get install wifi-radar to install it.

htorque
  • 64,798
Michael James
  • 51
2

nm-tool | grep Wireless-Name where you gotta replace "Wireless-Name" for the wireless you are trying to connect to will give you all the info you need

Ulises
  • 21
1

aircrack-ng can do this.

sudo airmon-ng start eth1 6 to use eth1 to monitor channel 6 (the channel is optional) and then you can use sudo airodump-ng eth1 to make it show you the BSSID.

Rinzwind
  • 299,756