Operating System Support
The Microsoft Windows Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) API does not support any extensions for wireless monitor mode in older versions of Windows. With NDIS 6, available in Windows Vista and later versions of Windows, it is possible to enable monitor mode. NDIS 6 supports exposing 802.11 frames to the upper protocol levels; with previous versions of NDIS only fake Ethernet frames translated from the 802.11 data frames can be exposed to the upper protocol levels. Monitor mode support in NDIS 6 is an optional feature and may or may not be implemented in the client adapter driver. The implementation details and compliance with the NDIS specifications vary from vendor to vendor. In many cases, monitor mode support is not properly implemented by the vendor. For example, Ralink drivers report incorrect dBm readings and Realtek drivers do not include trailing 4-byte CRC values.
For versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista, some packet analyzer applications such as Wildpackets' OmniPeek provide their own device drivers to support monitor mode.
Linux's interfaces for 802.11 drivers support monitor mode and many drivers offer that support. FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and DragonFly BSD also provide an interface for 802.11 drivers that supports monitor mode, and many drivers for those operating systems support monitor mode as well. In Mac OS X 10.4 and later releases, the drivers for AirPort Extreme network adapters allow the adapter to be put into monitor mode. Libpcap 1.0.0 and later provides an API to select monitor mode when capturing on those operating systems.
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