How do I get the available wifi APs and their signal strength in .net?

LDomagala picture LDomagala · Jan 30, 2009 · Viewed 45.3k times · Source

Is there any way to access all WiFi access points and their respective RSSI values using .NET? It would be really nice if I could do it without using unmanaged code or even better if it worked in mono as well as .NET.

If it is possible i would appriciate a code sample. Thanks


Here are a few similiar stackoverflow questions i found:

-Get SSID of the wireless network I am connected to with C# .Net on Windows Vista

-Managing wireless network connection in C#

-Get BSSID (MAC address) of wireless access point from C#

Answer

Jirapong picture Jirapong · Jan 31, 2009

It is a wrapper project with managed code in c# at http://www.codeplex.com/managedwifi

It supports Windows Vista and XP SP2 (or later version).

sample code:

using NativeWifi;
using System;
using System.Text;

namespace WifiExample
{
    class Program
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Converts a 802.11 SSID to a string.
        /// </summary>
        static string GetStringForSSID(Wlan.Dot11Ssid ssid)
        {
            return Encoding.ASCII.GetString( ssid.SSID, 0, (int) ssid.SSIDLength );
        }

        static void Main( string[] args )
        {
            WlanClient client = new WlanClient();
            foreach ( WlanClient.WlanInterface wlanIface in client.Interfaces )
            {
                // Lists all networks with WEP security
                Wlan.WlanAvailableNetwork[] networks = wlanIface.GetAvailableNetworkList( 0 );
                foreach ( Wlan.WlanAvailableNetwork network in networks )
                {
                    if ( network.dot11DefaultCipherAlgorithm == Wlan.Dot11CipherAlgorithm.WEP )
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine( "Found WEP network with SSID {0}.", GetStringForSSID(network.dot11Ssid));
                    }
                }

                // Retrieves XML configurations of existing profiles.
                // This can assist you in constructing your own XML configuration
                // (that is, it will give you an example to follow).
                foreach ( Wlan.WlanProfileInfo profileInfo in wlanIface.GetProfiles() )
                {
                    string name = profileInfo.profileName; // this is typically the network's SSID

                    string xml = wlanIface.GetProfileXml( profileInfo.profileName );
                }

                // Connects to a known network with WEP security
                string profileName = "Cheesecake"; // this is also the SSID
                string mac = "52544131303235572D454137443638";
                string key = "hello";
                string profileXml = string.Format("<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><WLANProfile xmlns=\"http://www.microsoft.com/networking/WLAN/profile/v1\"><name>{0}</name><SSIDConfig><SSID><hex>{1}</hex><name>{0}</name></SSID></SSIDConfig><connectionType>ESS</connectionType><MSM><security><authEncryption><authentication>open</authentication><encryption>WEP</encryption><useOneX>false</useOneX></authEncryption><sharedKey><keyType>networkKey</keyType><protected>false</protected><keyMaterial>{2}</keyMaterial></sharedKey><keyIndex>0</keyIndex></security></MSM></WLANProfile>", profileName, mac, key);

                wlanIface.SetProfile( Wlan.WlanProfileFlags.AllUser, profileXml, true );
                wlanIface.Connect( Wlan.WlanConnectionMode.Profile, Wlan.Dot11BssType.Any, profileName );
            }
        }
    }
}