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802.11n is displayed as 802.11g.

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I'm new to Wireshark, so I'm really hard to suppose why this happens.

The connection between my PC and AP is certainly 802.11n, but the packets which is captured through AirPcap shows that PHY type is 802.11g.

Is there any problem in my PC or AirPcap?

asked 13 Jan '16, 23:28

Chen0641's gravatar image

Chen0641
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accept rate: 0%

Thanks! Now I understand what was wrong!

(14 Jan '16, 19:18) Chen0641
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Note, by the way, that Wireshark 2.x shows, in addition to the radiotap or PPI or... header, a "radio" header which is constructed from the radiotap or PPI or... header and that should show, for all header types (radiotap, PPI, or any of the other formats in non-pcap/pcapng capture files), radio information in a form that's easier to read than any of the raw headers. (It doesn't currently handle signal or noise levels from multiple antennas, but I plan to fix that.) That should, for most people, mean that it won't matter whether the headers are radiotap or PPI or something else.

(14 Jan '16, 19:38) Guy Harris ♦♦

@Guy Harris: Thanks, Good to know.

(14 Jan '16, 22:27) Christian_R

One Answer:

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The connection between my PC and AP is certainly 802.11n, but the packets which is captured through AirPcap shows that PHY type is 802.11g.

The connection between my Mac and the AP is 802.11n, but if I do a capture, I see plenty of 802.11g packets as well as 802.11n packets. The 11g packets (which are really only 11b or even legacy 802.11 packets!) are sent from or to my ancient (first-generation!) iPhone.

So don't assume that all the packets on your network will be 11n.

answered 14 Jan '16, 19:46

Guy%20Harris's gravatar image

Guy Harris ♦♦
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accept rate: 19%