13

I know that iwconfig can provide the frequency of a Wi-Fi interface.

But is there a way to know the channel which was configured for the wireless interface?

I use Ubuntu 12.04.1.

4 Answers 4

14

OK, I found an answer:

iwlist wlan0 channel

Last line of the output informs about the current channel.

10

Because iwlist is deprecated on many systems, you can find the channel using the newer iw as well using iw dev.

2
  • 3
    For instance: iw wlan0 info Apr 19, 2020 at 9:29
  • 1
    I don't see any channels when I run that
    – jcollum
    Sep 6, 2021 at 18:38
1

In order to view channels of available wireless interfaces in your locale, you could do:

  1. airmon-ng start and view name of wireless interface eg: wlan0

  2. airmon-ng start wlan0 (To Put Wi-Fi Adapter in Monitor Mode with Airmon-Ng)

  3. airodump-ng mon0 (Capture Traffic with Airodump-Ng)

  4. airmon-ng stop mon0 (To stop Monitor Mode)

There you will see channels of respective wireless interfaces under heading CH .

Besides : values wlan0 and mon0 may differ depending upon your wireless and monitor mode interface as wlp2s0 and wlp2s0mon.

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  • 1
    If you're going to suggest using tools that need an install you should include install instructions. But a better answer will use tools that are already installed by default.
    – jcollum
    Sep 6, 2021 at 18:38
1

Using iw

Expanding on confused00's answer and the helpful comment by Gabriel Devillers, iw wlp3s0 info prints the currently used channel among other information:

ifindex 4
wdev 0x1
addr 78:f9:d4:fa:98:0b
type managed
wiphy 0
channel 11 (2462 MHz), width: 20 MHz, center1: 2462 MHz
txpower 20.00 dBm

In this example, wlp3s0 is the name of the network interface.

Alternatively, iw wlp3s0 link shows the frequency in use, 2462 MHz:

Connected to d1:81:cb:6a:36:8c (on wlp3s0)
        SSID: Your_Routers_SSID
        freq: 2462
        RX: 809691 bytes (6101 packets)
        TX: 39608 bytes (313 packets)
        signal: -58 dBm
        rx bitrate: 24.0 MBit/s
        tx bitrate: 72.2 MBit/s MCS 7 short GI

        bss flags:  short-preamble short-slot-time
        dtim period:    3
        beacon int: 100

iw phy gets the supported frequencies:

2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
2467 MHz [12] (20.0 dBm)
2472 MHz [13] (20.0 dBm)
2484 MHz [14] (disabled)

To print the hardware capabilities of your network controller and the kernel module it uses, run sudo lspci -vv -s 03:00.0.

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  • On my MacBook Pro iw info is mostly worthless printing almost nothing. iw link will print the frequency used. This can be combined with iw phy to determine used channel. Nothing seems to display 802.11 mode (A/G/N/AC/AX). Dec 28, 2023 at 13:07

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