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.

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).