I don't know, my knowledge is not so great to say something with absolute reliability! But... if we look at Fake Authentication page: http://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?...authentication the ESSID is always specified. And then it says: Airodump-ng does not show the ESSID Airodump-ng does not show the ESSID! How do I do fake authentication since this is a required parameter? Answer: You need to patient. When a client associates with the AP, then airodump-ng will obtain and display the ESSID. If you are impatient then deauthenticate a client to get the ESSID immediately. Of course, the ESSID doesn't identify the network univocally as the BSSID; however, as they answered me in Aircrack forum, it seems to be required all the thing to work. If I well remember (4 years are past!), I found the precise document which says why ESSID is necessary. I'll try and look for it. Then, I'll also try fAircrack 0.46. Many thanks for your work!