Detecting Wireless computers which have not established any connection to a Wireless Network

All I know is that it is not possible to detect any wireless computer unless they are connected together in a network. I want to know; Is there any possible way, that I could turn on my Wireless Adapter, and search what are other wireless device types around me and s开发者_如何转开发ome sort of an ID such as MAC or computer name etc. without creating or connecting any Network such as Wireless Ad-Hoc network etc. like we do in Bluetooth? - If it is possible, then how to implement using C# or any language.

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Depending upon the operating system and NIC drivers that you're using, you can set the 802.11 NIC to Promiscuous Mode and Monitor Mode in order to capture all packets on a given channel.

At least under Linux, this functionality is supposed by most drivers in conjunction with LibPCap; although Windows is another matter altogether (you'd have to use a version of Windows featuring NDIS6 - i.e. Windows Vista or Windows 7, and an external packet capturing API such as the one provided by the Microsoft Network Monitor SDK).