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Once the driver is installed you can swap over to the Packet Viewer using the icon in the top tool bar or by clicking Packet Viewer from the menu.
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You’ll get a warning message that you might crash your system and you’ll need to acknowledge that you are completely okay with this*. Select Monitor Mode On and select Install the NDIS driver. Just click the menu in the right corner, and select Change to get to the Monitor Mode settings. By default, Monitor Mode is turned off and the NDIS driver is not installed. The installation of Acrylic Pro is straightforward, as is turning on Monitor Mode when you know where to look. I checked out the supported USB wireless options, ordered one off the list from Amazon (I picked the NETGEAR A6200), and downloaded a free trial of Acrylic WiFi Pro to get started. This driver allows you to capture in promiscuous mode, so you can capture all that management frame goodness, but without the AirPcap adapter.
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While researching alternatives to pricey AirPcap adapters, I came across this Acrylic WiFi Professional post on their option for an NDIS driver. Especially if you can’t quite justify the cost an AirPcap adapter for study purposes. For those with MacBooks that do this natively, read no further, just keep on perfecting that smug look of disdain with a slight hint of pity for the rest of us Microsoft peasants.įor those whose laptops aren’t fruit branded, but you still want to capture 802.11 frames in promiscuous mode, this is the post for you. Studying for CWAP, I embarked on a mission to capture 802.11 management frames using my Windows laptop.
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