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wireless networking - Identifying MAC address of connected device


I have a home network consisting of a router plus a wireless range extender (repeater), and I cannot reliably identify to which of them my laptop is connecting (both are in range).


I tried using arp -n from the laptop, but it always returns the Ethernet address of the router, even when I'm connecting via the range extender (it is easy to notice the difference, since the connection goes from 0.2 MBps to 10 MBps).


I tried setting the BSSID in the (Mate) network manager of my laptop to the MAC address of the range extender, but the connection often slows down to a point in which it seems the laptop is connecting directly to the router, so I'd like to confirm if this is the case.



Answer



Use iw dev link to see the Wi-Fi link information:



$ iw wlan0 link
Connected to 24:a4:3d:9e:a2:16 (on wlan0)
        SSID: Home
        freq: 2462
        RX: 912692438 bytes (1247502 packets)
        TX: 77739414 bytes (744392 packets)
        signal: -37 dBm
        tx bitrate: 65.0 MBit/s MCS 7

        bss flags:      short-preamble short-slot-time
        dtim period:    1
        beacon int:     100

Somewhat more verbose information can be shown using iw dev station dump:



$ iw wlan0 station dump
Station b8:d3:41:f1:5a:83 (on wlan0)
        inactive time:  186 ms
        rx bytes:       2697906
        rx packets:     12566
        tx bytes:       698344
        tx packets:     3350
        tx retries:     480
        tx failed:      0
        signal:         -51 [-51] dBm
        signal avg:     -49 [-49] dBm
        tx bitrate:     150.0 MBit/s MCS 7 40MHz short GI
        rx bitrate:     150.0 MBit/s MCS 7 40MHz short GI
        expected throughput:    47.350Mbps
        authorized:     yes
        authenticated:  yes
        preamble:       long
        WMM/WME:        yes
        MFP:            no
        TDLS peer:      no


For certain older drivers that only support WEXT but not nl80211, use the iwconfig dev command:



$ iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Home"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: D8:A3:83:F1:58:80
          Bit Rate=150 Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=45/70  Signal level=-65 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:149   Missed beacon:0

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