Linux find Wifi Networks trotocol(a/b/g/n) version of all available access points

Question

I do use iwlist wlan0 scanning and it gives me a fair amount of data, but one part is missing. It is protocol version. By protocol I mean (a/b/g/n). It would be very good to have these commands in standard distro. I am using OpenWRT.

Answer 1

iwconfig (and its wireless extension API) is deprecated (it's in "maintenance only mode" and "no new features will be added"). Use iw instead. This requires a moderately recent kernel (e.g. >= 3.0) with support for nl80211.

using iw dev wlan0 scan, you can figure out the protocol used:

• If there are Supported rates below 11mbps (except 6), there is 802.11b support.
• If there are Supported rates or Extended supported rates above 11mbps or 6mbps, there is 802.11g support.
• If there is a HT capabilities IE, there is some kind of 802.11n support. The specific HighTroughput features available are
• If you are on the bleeding edge and you see a VHT IE, welcome to the 802.11ac world. I'm not even sure that iw currently knows how to parse it and if it doesn't, it might in the future.