Show BSSID of an access point?

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

5 Answers

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 ...

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

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.

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

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.