Kismac Stole my Extreme Card
I wanted to load a wireless detection app on my Powerbook today (for the Pilot Project wireless demo). I got the old standby, MacStumbler, and also grabbed iStumbler (both work well). Then I found Kismac.

Kismac gives you way more information than MacStumber or iStumbler plus it has some cracking features. I was tempted to try getting on the pilot muni network in my neighborhood but it will be free and open in a week so I will just wait - rather than risk someone seeing my crack attempt.

Kismac is a bit scary as it takes over you wireless card and you lose basic Internet connectivity. But it worked fine on my Powerbook 12-inch and it released my Extreme card when it quit. I chose the 'configure manually' option when installing.

So then I tried to install on my Powerbook 15-inch (that's my company owned model). I could not get it to work with my Extreme card even after several installs and removals. I get an error on scanning and it hijacks my Extreme card and won't give it back until I reboot.

The Extreme cards in both units are the same. Must be something in my network config, I suppose. This link has some troubleshooting help so I will attempt to get Kismac working on the 15-inch. But how weird that it works on one and not the other.



- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 5:11 PM [to Del.icio.us]