[kismac] Re: KisMAC is way buggy

  • From: Erik Winkler <ewinkler@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: kismac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2004 19:57:00 -0500


On Mar 6, 2004, at 12:07 PM, Jeff Schwartz wrote:


Mick:

Here's a list of bugs which prevent me from using KisMAC.

Problem:
KisMAC only records GPS coordinates for about 20% of the sites stumbled. This is based on over 3000 access points detected.
Notes:
This only occurs with my Cisco Aironet 350 card. With a borrowed Prism 2.5 card, KisMAC works great -- records all GPS coordinates perfectly.
I reported this on the bugtracker months ago, but it was closed with a note "not reproducible".


Problem:
KisMAC drivers don't seem to unload.
Notes: If I run KisMAC and scan and quit it, then I cannot get a connection through my Airport Extreme, Senao, or Cisco Aironet card. In fact, if I scan with KisMAC, quit KisMAC, relaunch KisMAC, it says that it can't load the driver. So basically if I scan with KisMAC, I have to reboot my machine afterwards.

I guess you have never tried Netstumbler with an Orinoco card under Windows 2000. You'd have the same problem, only on a crappy OS. In my world I'll take KisMAC any day.



Problem:
KisMAC crashes or locks up moderately frequently.
Notes:
KisMAC is more stable than it used to be (used to crash when I looked at it wrong). I can't exactly reproduce the crashes, but I can give you instances that increase the probability of a crash:.
(1) When resizing the KisMAC window, especially repeatedly.
(2) When resorting KisMAC lists (in previous versions, this would inevitably cause a crash).
(3) When the list gets over about 400 access points (very easy to do within 30 minutes in San Francisco).
(4) Switching between the list window and map window repeatedly or too quickly (this causes a freeze).

I have had the same problem with Kismet in high density AP areas. The good thing about KisMAC and other open source software is that it will only get better.



Due to these bugs, perhaps 90% of the nodes I scan are unusable. I no longer wardrive with KisMAC. I can't imagine that anyone else does either.


PS: I'd be happy to pay a $15 shareware fee if the above bugs are fixed, as the features it offers are not matched by any other Mac OS X software.




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