After association, your client (which is typically configured to use DHCP) has no IP address assigned (its IP address is 0.0.0.0).If access point is using WPA/WPA2 and you don't know the password, then you cannot proceed to further steps, and certainly cannot know anything about IP address of target access point. Getting WiFi to work involves following steps:

It's a pretty effective bit of kit for what you're after.You can't do that if target access point is protected with WPA/WPA2. You can also set the software to start with your computer, as well as build up a list of hotspot priorities, by MAC address. The in-built windows wireless network manager will then drop whatever (if any) connection you currently have, and attempt to connect to the device with the MAC address you selected within the Passmark Wireless Monitor software. You can then find one with the MAC address you want, right-click it, and select 'connect to AP'. Using this software will display a list of every wireless network in the local area, providing a breakdown of its MAC address, channel, and other useful information.įor example, if there are six access points in range, all with an SSID, 'hotel_ap', then you'll see six individual rows as separate entries. It has a 30-day evaluation trial and works perfectly on Windows 7. Passmark WirelessMon is what you're looking for. Is Windows choosing the stronger signal? If so, why isn't that working for you?

However, my advice to you would be to focus on what's causing your issue rather than trying to patch around it. Windows will choose the 20MHz signal if it's stronger even if it yields a lower transfer rate. I have this issue myself with one access point that uses a 20MHz bandwidth and one that uses a 40MHz bandwidth. One common irritation is that the strongest signal may not yield the fastest transfers. (You can turn it down if frequent AP changes are disrupting connectivity, and you can turn it up if you're getting stuck on a poor AP.) This essentially decides how much better a signal has to be for Windows to switch access points with the same SSID. On some WiFi cards, you can tune the 'roaming agressiveness' from the device manager. Windows will generally select the strongest signal among access points with the same SSID in the same band. The manufacturer of your WiFi card might offer a custom connection manager that offers this functionality, but I've never seen it. At least, not with any standard solution.

How to find ssid from bssid