A Go program tells users about nearby WiFi routers
Programming Snapshot – Go WiFi Scanner
© Lead Image © damedeeso, 123RF.com
Mike Schilli lives high above the city. Inquisitive by nature, he wrote a Go program for the Raspberry Pi Zero that detects new WiFi routers in his neighborhood and reports them via texts to his phone.
Whenever you try to connect to the WiFi network with your computer, you are likely to also see the network IDs of surrounding apartments and houses in the selection list. The names often reveal interesting facts. Do the neighbors have a sense of humor? Have they purchased a new router yet again? To keep up to date, I decided to design a scanner that would collect the names of all accessible WiFi access points every five minutes, save them with a timestamp in an SQLite database, and send a text message to my cellphone in case of changes (Figure 1).
Minimalist Hardware
A Raspberry Pi is a great choice of hardware platform for my scanner, which comes as a compiled Go binary by the name of wifiscan from the sources in this issue. My scanner will search for available WiFi beacons and is happy to use a slow CPU and a small amount of RAM during the scan. A Raspberry Pi Zero 2W with 1GB RAM costs around $15 and is perfect for the task. A plastic housing for a few dollars more provides dust protection, and I'm sure you have a power supply with a USB-C connection lying around that can provide the two watts the Raspberry Pi needs. You will also need an SD card with at least 8GB capacity.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Cairo Dock 3.6 Now Available for More Compositors
If you're a fan of third-party desktop docks, then the latest release of Cairo Dock with Wayland support is for you.
-
System76 Unleashes Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
System76's first beta of Pop!_OS 24.04 is an impressive feat.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.