Kismet Win32 Readme

1. Requirements
2. Quick Start
2. Configuring Kismet
3. Building Kismet


1. Requirements

    The Windows version of kismet requires Windows 2000, Windows XP (32/64bit),
    Windows Server 2003 (32/64bit), or Vista (32bit).

    At this time, only two kinds of sources are supported:
    
    * Drones
    * The AirPcap USB capture adapter from CACE Technologies 
      (http://www.cacetech.com/products/airpcap.htm)

    THE AIRPCAP ADAPTER IS THE ONLY WAY FOR KISMET TO CAPTURE LIVE 802.11 
    TRAFFIC UNDER WINDOWS. NO OTHER CARDS ARE SUPPORTED. THIS LIMITATION IS 
    CAUSED BY THE LACK OF SNIFFER-MODE CAPABLE DRIVERS ON WINDOWS; THE 
    AIRPCAP ADAPTER CIRCUMVENTS THIS LIMITATION THROUGH THE USE OF A SPECIALIZED 
    CUSTOM DRIVER.
    
    If multiple AirPcap adapters are plugged in, Kismet is able to take 
    advantage of them to listen on more than one channel simultaneously.
    
2. Quick Start

    The easiest way to run Kismet on Windows is downloading and running the 
    installer executable available at
    
        http://www.cacetech.com/support/downloads.htm
        
    The installer creates an entry under "All Programs" with the following 
    items:

    * Kismet: the program executable.
    * Kismet Configuration Console: the GUI that can be used to configure the
      program behavior.
    * Command Line Prompt: this opens a dos console in the kismet installation
      folder; advanced users can use this to manually run kismet_server.exe,
      kismet_client.exe or kismet_drone.exe.
    * Kismet Logs Folder: this shourtcut allows access to the files that kismet
      produces when it runs. The folder will be empty until Kismet is run at 
      least once.
      
    After the installer is done, just click on "Kismet", and the program will 
    start with all the available AirPcap adapters as sources.
    
2. Configuring Kismet

    Run the Kismet Configuration Console (start -> All Programs -> Kismet ->
    Kismet Configuration Console). You will have the option to configure:
    
    * the local sources Kismet will use for packet capture.
    * the list of drones Kismet will try to connect to for remote monitoring.
    * if kismet will log information about the discovered networks to disk.

    Additionally, you will be able to edit the kismet.conf, kismet_ui.conf and
    kismet_drone.conf files to tweak the program advanced settings. For a 
    reference on these three configuration files, please refer to the program 
    manual.
    
3. Building Kismet

    Requirements:

    * the Cygwin Unix emulation environment. Install it from 
      http://www.cygwin.com/, and remember to include the development packages
      (gcc and make at least).
    * the kismet sources, from http://kismetwireless.net/download.shtml
    * the AirPcap developer's pack, from 
      http://www.cacetech.com/support/downloads.htm
    
    IMPORTANT: unpack the AirPcap developer's pack INSIDE the folder with the
    Kismet sources. You want the AirPcap_Devpack_XXX folder to be in the same
    folder of the Kismet makefile. The reason is that Cygwin appears to have a 
    bug which prevents proper linking if the devpack is not in the same 
    directory that Kismet is compiled in. If kismet_server.exe instantly exits 
    with no output, it is typically indicative of a linkage path problem.
    
    Instructions:
    
    a. run the following configure line:
       ./configure --enable-airpcap --with-airpcap-devpack=<devpack_location>
       Where <devpack_location> is the name of the AirPcap Developer's pack 
       folder, containing WinPcap and AirPcap
    b. Build Kismet by typing 'make'