If you are using a linux system, you can get the information by looking at
/proc/net/wireless, or by running "iwlist scan".

If you're running mac os, there's a command line program for doing
wirelessy things -
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport
You can scan for access points by running airport -s .  This will give list
the access points with their signal strength.
Extra information is available if you run airport -s -x , which returns an
xml .plist file.

There is a man page. It's special.

You might want to write extra code to automatically generate a critical
ticket with the networking department if the signal strength drops below a
justifiable-to-management level.  NOC based monitoring may improve soon
thereafter.

Simon

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 1:49 PM, Joe Hourcle
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> On Apr 12, 2012, at 12:14 PM, Tara Robertson wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Is there an automated way of monitoring (and notifying) when a wireless
> network goes down? I'm looking for something like Nagios, but for wireless
> (or can Nagios do this too?)
> >
> > I don't manage our network--our ITS department does. They seem to think
> it's adequate that I'm the monitoring system but I'm finding this extremely
> frustrating.
>
> Nagios can monitor *anything* so long as you can write a script that'll
> get you some status back.
>
> If you have a command line way of getting signal strength for the network,
> that'd likely be best, but you could also just test to see if you can ping
> out on the right interface.
>
> -Joe
>