good wireless traffic analyzer?

[MTBRScott]

Here's my problem...

I live in a townhome complex, and there are at least 5 other wireless networks very close to me... At first they were all broadcasting their SSID and I could see what channel they were on, but now everyone is hiding their SSID for security by obscurity.

My TiVo adapter HATES when another wireless network is on the same channel. It sends out malformed packets, is constantly busy, and can not connect to the TiVo service. Presently I just guess what channel someone else might be one and change mine accordingly, looking to see if the traffic on my TiVo adapter goes away.

Is there any good, free wireless network analyzing software out there for Windows so I can see what channel others are on? I've done a Google search and found a bunch of Linux stuff and horribly expensive Windows stuff..

[mlippitt]

Have you tried this?
http://www.ethereal.com/

[MTBRScott]

I have used Ethereal, that's where I saw the malformed packets, maybe I'm missing how to use the functionality I'm looking for. Does it say the channel information somewhere in the packets? Also, won't that only show network information hitting the computer I'm looking at ethereal on?

[MungoJerrie]

Have you looked at NetStumbler, I believe it shows AP channels...

[juanian]

I haven't seen one that shows connections for hidden SSIDs (unless you have a connection to that SID).

(Also remember that a wireless network is 'wider' than just a single channel; if the channel used is 6, it will also have an impact on channels 5 and 7, and a small impact on 4 and 8.)