detect new wireless network?

[artstar]

This is just in the thinking process now, however this is what I am needing.

Right now this is what we have. In our service trucks we have a video camera that records to an SD-Card and this device is also wireless. Each device has it's our SSID (Example truck #1, #2, #3, Etc.) What happens now is when the truck parks in our parking lot from a central computer in the office we can login to each device and pull over the video files for that day from each truck.

What I am wanting is for the central computer to know when one of the wireless networks has just come into range and at that point automatically login and pull over the files from the SD-Card. I am sure I can do all of that, what I don't know is what would be needed for the central computer to auto sense the wireless network coming into range and then logging into that network.

Thanks for any Ideas!!!

[CDRIVE]

As repugnant and totally Orwellian as I find this, maybe you can put Ping code in a Timer and periodically check for a return. I sure hope these are armored trucks because this is awfully intrusive.

[artstar]

As repugnant and totally Orwellian as I find this

Maybe I can explain further. Yes, these trucks do carry MONEY! The camera's are not to watch our drivers but to help keep them safe. Since we have installed camera's in our trucks our Insurance has dropped 8% and we have caught 3 people trying to rob our drivers at gun point.

Now, our trucks display a sign on the out side saying under Video Surveillance. And all the dirvers feel much more safe. What would you want? A company that did not care about the driver?

What about School Buses? Taxie Cabs? Just 2 weeks ago a school bus driver was killed, if they had a unit like this, at-least maybe they could catch the person that did it. Now he/she is still at large.

[Jim Davis]

I'm not sure the wireless solution gives any protection to the truck driver, because a robbery can be done in a minute or less, but the reaction time the police will be alerted (also to arrive) is more than 10 minutes in average situations. i'm not good in statistics, but i feel right. Not to mention, the robber guys can remove or hide the wireless antenne, so the video stream will be interrupted immediately.

But, recording the interior/exterior are a good solution, thats why the black-box exists, to recording the input (cameras in this case). No one can open up/ or remove this black box, but by using special tools, that is exclusively made for black boxes.

Hire a well experienced developer/constructor team, they will give you the black box solution for your trucks. You can also put tracking devices to your trucks, that will show the actual positions of the trucks. You can also put more than one tdevice, in case the robbery team find one, but removing more than one tdevices takes for a while, the police can be arresting them.

[artstar]

WOW! I did not want to start a debate!!! These device have already proved themselves over and over again. The units are Black box's that record to an SD-Card. We just use the Wireless for transferring the video files back to the central computer. They also have GPS built-in. And yes, you are right it may not prevent a robbery, but it has already captured 3 robber's on video and we have be able to convict!

I don't understand what everyone is trying to tell me.

I just want to know if there was a way to detect a new wireless device when it comes into range.

[Jim Davis]

So, you are on the 802.11a/b/g channel set, you are using standard wifi AP's, and clients to connecting to. Your answer is based on the capabilites of your AP. But, i'm not sure that there any standard windows api call's you can use, but you may be able to call the DLLs provided to the AP driver. Consult their technical support about the possibilites, they will be happy to helping you out.

I have seen some AP will display in a listbox (by using its own stat application), what clients on what MAC address are connected, from what range (dB power), etc...

What is @CDRIVE told you, is an alternate solution. Since all (well most of the) network clients have a feature to answering PING (icmp protocol), you can verify on what IP address a client is connected or not. You just have to periodically ping the network IP address of each car, to see what car is connected or not to your network. Each truck can be PING'ed in every second.

To test this feature available or not, send a ping from the local network of this AP.
cmd.exe
ping 1.2.3.4 (the number will be the ip address of the truck's blackbox)

You may also want to include this protocol to the black box, in case it is missing for some reason.

[Siddharth Rout]

I am not a guru on this subject and nor did I create something in reference to this but you could try using the Win32_NetworkConnection Class....

This can give you the connection status of a network connection....

See if this helps...

[Jim Davis]

I'm affraid that the Win32_NetworkConnection will give information about the network connection on the client side, but not able to listing up the clients that are connected to the AP, that is just simply working as a Router (well its not a router, but more an AP hehe) in this case.

But any driver that is supported to the AP may be able to providing these informations. The manufacturer can give more informations about this thread.

[CDRIVE]

What about School Buses? Taxie Cabs? Just 2 weeks ago a school bus driver was killed, if they had a unit like this, at-least maybe they could catch the person that did it. Now he/she is still at large.

I don't want to hijack this thread anymore than I have. However, If I'm killed, I'm not going to feel any better because they caught the lower life form, gang banging, cretin. The first Continental Congress addressed this issue in 1778. It's called the 2nd Amendment!

Anyway, back on topic. You received a few options to consider, so post what solution you chose when you do it. I'm sure I and others will be interested.