Understanding WiFi

[balanga]

I rarely use WiFi, much prefer wired, but I guess I should make an effort to understand the technology...

When I just ran ifconfig wlan0 scan I got:-

SSID/MESH ID                      BSSID              CHAN RATE    S:N     INT CAPS
CoreELEC-AP                       60:f1:89:0c:87:12    1   54M  -74:-95   100 EP   RSN HTCAP WPS APCHANREP
TALKTALK047865                    18:0f:76:04:78:65    1   54M  -85:-95   100 EP   HTCAP WPA RSN WME WPS
BTWifi-with-FON                   1a:62:2c:53:76:2d    1   54M  -32:-95   100 ES   HTCAP WME
DOM-2G                            80:37:73:16:18:98    6   54M  -75:-95   100 EP   HTCAP WME ATH RSN WPA WPS
LOFT-2G                           80:37:73:4e:9a:08    6   54M  -78:-95   100 EP   HTCAP WME ATH RSN WPA WPS
0x0000000                         7a:fe:3b:13:44:af    6   54M -112:-95   100 EP   RSN BSSLOAD HTCAP WME
BT-FTA3T8                         44:fe:3b:13:44:ab    6   54M -100:-95   100 EP   RSN BSSLOAD HTCAP WPS WME
BTWifi-with-FON                   7a:fe:3b:13:44:ac    6   54M -123:-95   100 E    BSSLOAD HTCAP WME
BTWifi-X                          7a:fe:3b:13:44:ad    6   54M -112:-95   100 EP   RSN BSSLOAD HTCAP WPA WME
TP-LINK                           e8:94:f6:68:3c:b7   11   54M  -88:-95   100 EPS  WPA BSSLOAD HTCAP WME
VM988567-2G                       e8:fc:af:27:9c:80   11   54M  -78:-95   100 EP   HTCAP APCHANREP WME ATH RSN WPA WPS
LOFT-5G                           80:37:73:69:97:78   36   54M  -57:-95   100 EP   HTCAP VHTCAP VHTOPMODE VHTPWRENV WME ATH RSN WPS
DOM-5G                            80:37:73:29:03:50   36   54M  -83:-95   100 EP   HTCAP VHTCAP VHTOPMODE VHTPWRENV WME ATH RSN WPS
Hub3.0-5.0                        c0:05:c2:c4:ce:6f   48   54M  -79:-95   100 EP   HTCAP VHTCAP VHTOPMODE VHTPWRENV WME ATH RSN WPS
TP-LINK-5                         e8:94:f6:68:3c:b8   36   54M  -85:-95   100 EPS  WPA BSSLOAD HTCAP WME
DIRECT-D6-HP ENVY 5540 series     30:e1:71:4a:71:d7    1   54M  -91:-95   100 EP   RSN HTCAP WME WPS
                                  fa:8f:ca:32:75:16   11   54M  -92:-95   100 ES   HTCAP WME
jazz                              40:0d:10:22:25:31    6   54M -101:-95   100 EPS  HTCAP WME ATH RSN WPS
BTHub5-9K5G                       18:62:2c:53:76:2d    1   54M  -91:-95   100 EPS  RSN HTCAP WME WPS
TALKTALKBA1CDA                    98:e7:f5:ba:1c:e0   11   54M  -92:-95   100 EP   HTCAP WPA RSN WME WPS

How do I find out what all this means?

 

[Deleted member 9563]

I get the same output on my router when I do a scan, though formatted slightly differently. In your case the column headers is all you need to answer your question. IE, SSID is just that, followed by the MAC address, etc. But perhaps your question is deeper and I didn't get it.

PS: not a lot of entertaining SSIDs there - must be a commercial environment.

 

[hukadan]

How do I find out what all this means?

By reading ifconfig(8), in particular the list scan part :

list scan
Display the access points and/or ad-hoc neighbors located in the
vicinity. This information may be updated automatically by the
adapter with a scan request or through background scanning. De-
pending on the capabilities of the stations the following flags
can be included in the output:

A Authorized. Indicates that the station is permitted to
send/receive data frames.

E Extended Rate Phy (ERP). Indicates that the station is op-
erating in an 802.11g network using extended transmit rates.

H High Throughput (HT). Indicates that the station is using
HT transmit rates. If a `+' follows immediately after then
the station associated using deprecated mechanisms supported
only when htcompat is enabled.

P Power Save. Indicates that the station is operating in
power save mode.

Q Quality of Service (QoS). Indicates that the station is us-
ing QoS encapsulation for data frame. QoS encapsulation is
enabled only when WME mode is enabled.

S Short Preamble. Indicates that the station is doing short
preamble to optionally improve throughput performance with
802.11g and 802.11b.

T Transitional Security Network (TSN). Indicates that the
station associated using TSN; see also tsn below.

W Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). Indicates that the station as-
sociated using WPS.

By default interesting information elements captured from the
neighboring stations are displayed at the end of each row. Pos-
sible elements include: WME (station supports WME), WPA (station
supports WPA), WPS (station supports WPS), RSN (station supports
802.11i/RSN), HTCAP (station supports 802.11n/HT communication),
ATH (station supports Atheros protocol extensions), VEN (station
supports unknown vendor-specific extensions). If the -v flag is
used all the information elements and their contents will be
shown. Specifying the -v flag also enables display of long
SSIDs. The list ap command is another way of requesting this in-
formation.

 

[scottro]

The handbook's page, https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-wireless.html might also be of use. It's probably a little more user friendly, especially for the newcomer, than the man page.