How can I get the list of surrounding wireless accessing points using node.js?

Question

Environment

Linux Ubuntu
node.js v0.6.12

Goal

I'd like to be able to get the list of APs available / network names (SSIDs)

I may want to select a specific SSID.

My ultimate goal is to be able to check on wifi signal strength and quality in order to force re-association to another AP before it loses completely connectivity.

How do create a loop that retrieves and updates the list of surrounding APs using node.js?

Would `node.js` a good choice to accomplish this?

How do I get information from an AP i.e. signal strength and quality?

Node does not have APIs for this type of information directly. You will need to execute linux native tools as child processes and parse their output and/or get information from the `/sys` filesystem. You will probably have better luck just researching that directly. You are not quite ready to start coding or ask for node help at this point. — Peter Lyons, Oct 02 '14 at 15:11
Yes I suppose I should modify my question to ask how to use the "native" linux tools from `node.js` and what are the best tools. I am guessing I could use `wpa_supplicant` but how do I call `wpa_cli` from `node.js` and keep it in a loop to keep an updated list? — zabumba, Oct 03 '14 at 13:27
Use the `child_process` module to run native commands. You can use `setInterval` to run code periodically. Repost after you have some code. SO frowns upon this type of question with no attempt at any code posted. — Peter Lyons, Oct 03 '14 at 19:41
Peter don't be annoyed. Helping with a patronizing note is quite lame actually. I am just trying to get started with `node.js`. We can't all be good at everything, sometimes trying the right piece of doc to educate yourself can be a difficult. How many times have I read 30 pages of doc to no avail? So please spare the community of such patronizing notes. — zabumba, Oct 03 '14 at 22:13

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 25 '15 at 14:32

You can use the wireless-tools package.

Usage:

var iwlist = require('wireless-tools/iwlist');

iwlist.scan('wlan0', function(err, networks) {
  console.log(networks);
});

// => 
[
  {
    address: '00:0b:81:ab:14:22',
    ssid: 'BlueberryPi',
    mode: 'master',
    frequency: 2.437,
    channel: 6,
    security: 'wpa',
    quality: 48,
    signal: 87
  },
  // ...