The geolocation API also finds locations from cell tower IDs. Looking at the structure of the example Google calls, you can enter several wifi MAC addresses, along with signal strength, and the API will presumably triangulate based on that information to give a more precise location. The second part of the jigsaw was to try to find a way of looking up a location from a wifi access point MAC address – it seems that the Google geolocation API does that out of the can:Īn example of how to make a call is also provided, as long as you have an API key… So I got a key and gave it a go: (On Windows, the equivalent is maybe something like netsh wlan show network mode=bssid ? And then call it via python.) The airport command with '-s' or '-I' options is useful: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/amework/Resources/airport

I was challenged about the possibility of this, so I did a quick bit of searching to see if there was an easy way of looking up the MAC addresses (BSSID) of wifi access points that were in range, but not connected to: During a course team meeting today, I idly mentioned that we should be able to run a simple browser based activity involving the geolocation of a student’s computer based on Google knowing the location of their wifi router.