Count WiFi enabled devices around a WiFi AP (Passive WiFi)

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

I do have a WiFi hotspot configured in a cafe. I am trying to get an idea about the number of people coming to the cafe with smart device. I am trying to get this done by counting the number of unique mac addresses of the devices which sent Probe Requests to the WiFi router. But I couldn’t find any related article about this with MikroTiks.

Is there anyway I can capture/view the mac address of devices that sends Probe Requests to a Mikrotik WiFi router? I am using RB951 in the network.

2

I don’t know how to do this with a Mikrotik device directly. However, various other tools may be able to help:

  1. tcpdump or Wireshark would definitely be able to do it
  2. aircrack-ng suite of tools - I think the airodump-ng tool in particular displays probes
  3. horst tool (http://br1.einfach.org/tech/horst/) - not sure, but maybe

And I am sure I am missing some. All of these require a separate device (a small embedded device would do) and a wireless interface(s) in monitor mode.

3

Hi robertkjonesjr

Can you help me to get this set up?

BR
lpoulsen