Viewing Wi-Fi Details in Snow Leopard
In Snow Leopard, hold down the Option key before clicking the AirPort menu. Doing so reveals additional technical details including which standards, speeds, and frequencies you're using to connect, as well as what's in use by other networks. With the Option key held down and with a network already joined, the AirPort menu reveals seven pieces of information: the PHY Mode, the MAC (Media Access Control) address, the channel and band in use, the security method that's in use, the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) measurement, the transmit rate, and the MCS Index. In Leopard, some, but not all, of these details are revealed by Option-clicking the AirPort menu.
Submitted by
Doug McLean
Recent TidBITS Talk Discussions
- Alternatives to MobileMe for syncing calendars between iPad/Mac (1 message)
- Free anti-virus for the Mac (20 messages)
- iTunes 10 syncing iPod Touch 4.1 (2 messages)
- Thoughts about Ping (16 messages)
Published in TidBITS 1040.
Subscribe to our weekly email edition.
- iOS Security Fixes Released for Serious Vulnerabilities
- Wrangle Your Fonts with "Take Control of Fonts in Snow Leopard"
- Recover from Changed Wi-Fi Network Passwords in iOS
- Secured iOS Backups Reduce Security, but Not by Much
- Legacy TidBITS Issue Formats Moved
- Five Essential Safari Extensions
- Apple's iOS Security Challenges and Advantages
- TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 16 August 2010
ExtraBITS for 16 August 2010
Just two quick bits for you this week - a hearty congratulations to the inimitable Nitrozac and Snaggy for the 10th anniversary of their Joy of Tech comic and a link to an academic paper showing that smartphone passwords could be hacked by virtue of screen smudges.
Joy of Tech Comic Celebrates 10th Anniversary -- Congratulations to Nitrozac and Snaggy for 10 years of their technology-focused Joy of Tech comic, which has long been a regular stop for all of us here at TidBITS. If you're not reading it, you're missing out on one of the top sources of technology humor, often with a wry emphasis on the world of Apple.
Smartphones Susceptible to Smudge Hacking (PDF) -- Don't get too paranoid about this, but security researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown than Android graphical passwords can be recovered by photographing the screen of a smartphone and analyzing the smudge patterns. There isn't much likelihood of this attack being used widely, because its utility requires either gaining control of the smartphone or the same password being used elsewhere, and the screen can easily be cleaned. But it's still interesting just where security vulnerabilities will be found.
Typed notes are blended with recorded audio, video, and slides
to create notes that make more sense when you need them most.
Learn more at <http://www.usefulfruit.com/tb>!