Wireshark-users: [Wireshark-users] Capture traffic in monitor mode - only broadcasts

From: "S.A. Moeys" <basmoeys@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 01:22:19 +0200
Hello,

I've been desperately trying to capture all WLAN traffic on my home network. I'm using a MSI laptop with an integrated MSI ralink wlan adapter. I'm running linux/ubuntu. I'm not sure about which driver is installed, but it seems to work ok.

I put the wlan adapter on monitor mode and adjusted the channel to the one my router is broadcasting through, using iwconfig. In wireshark, it captures a lot of packets, but they're all broadcasts from a the access point. It's on the right SSID and the right channel, but apart from a few occasional SMC broadcasts I can't capture any traffic on the network.

These broadcast packets are useless I guess. Is the problem port related and if so, what to do?

Summarized:
-running linux
-adapter is in monitor mode
-adapter is on right channel
-only capture broadcasts, no actual traffic

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Sebastian