Owner was the wrong word - name of the signal? I presume SSID is the proper name if you know what that is. You need to know the 'name' to connect to that source. I have read that if the name/SSID is not "broadcast" it can rather easily still be determined.
iPhone, in settings, lists the 'name' of available sources, but not channel or strength which are important for setting up or troubleshooting. We have city WiFi internet source and I am trying to determine why service sucks.
I get internet from city WiFi by a WiFi modem, which connects (ethernet-wired) to a house WiFi router. Desktop computer connects to the router by ethernet. 2 computers and 2 phones connect to my WiFi router by WiFi. Connection limited to specific MACs.
That is the kind of thing I was looking for. I have 2 of the apps in the review and they don't do 'name' channel strength, but the article should help. Plus WiFi Analyzer
The phone connects to Verizon/whoever for telephone For data/internet the phone can connect to a WiFi signal or can use cell phone data. Cell phone data may have a co$t. Some businesses (Starbucks?) have free WiFi, which may be insecure.
That would be *definitely* insecure.
As you may know, MAC filtering is fairly easy to work around, if a person wanted to. For that reason, I don't use it.
MAC filtering will 99.9% work unless you're a politician, celebrity, political activist, university student or hi-rise resident with other nerd residents.
MAC spoofing will kick out the active MAC user and that user will probably kick the hacker off immediately after by logging in again. Or they'll just turn off their Internet connection. MAC spoofing is easier said than done.
I've read all 26 replies so far. I must misunderstand. On my iPhoneX, if I want to see all the WiFi signals available to it, I go into settings, select WiFi, and every signal it sees, comes up. Since there's so many, it may list them in the window, some at a time, over a short period of time and repeat. I can see signal strength by the number of bars. I can see if they're locked from me if the padlock is locked and I don't know the password. Other than my own network, which I've named, I have no idea who they are. Again, I'm missing something. The group misc.phone.mobile.iphone may get you further.
Missing nothing ; misunderstanding nothing ; the OP question was a bit obscure. John T.
Hi John,
I am a computer consultant. The OP's question was not at all obscure to me. And you will notice he acknowledged my advice as what he was looking for in his reply to me.
I think the confusion you had comes from me having intimate knowledge of the subject and confusing those outside of the field.
-T
A teckie site recommended WiFi Analyzer (as from JJ) for Android. The Analyzer web site looks good but it is only available for Android and W10. For iPhone the site recommended AirPort Utility. Really basic but gives signal name, channel and strength. You have to turn WiFi Scanner in settings on before and off after.
iPhone > Settings > WiFi comes up with 5 signal names in 5 minutes. AirPort came up with about 25. Signal strength of 0-3 undefined bars is pretty useless to determine interference. AirPort (and the monitor for a WiFi modem) gives numbers like -62 dBm, which has a defined meaning and is very comparable.
Far more important - iPhone doesn't give channel numbers. A list of signal names and strengths is pretty useless if you don't know what channel they are on (and what channel you are using).
AirPort also includes the signal MAC address. It lists signals with no signal name, probably because they don't broadcast the signal name.
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