(no subject)

[ninjarat]

As Ben has said on several occasions, there is not a whole lot to do around here. However, I am pretty good at improvising. I have a car. I have an iBook. And I have KisMAC on said iBook.

This morning, I went wardriving for the first time.

For those joining us late, the term "wardriving" comes from the older term "wardialing", dialing sequences of telephone numbers searching for unprotected dial-in modem banks. Wardriving entails driving, biking, walking, flying, ballooning, or whatever, in search of unprotected WiFi access points.

Based on my drive through the center of town and the residential areas immediately around it, there is substantial "free" Internet access available for the taking. Of the 16 BSSIDs I found, only one had any encryption enabled. Linksys has the majority share of access point hardware with eight access points discovered. D-Link and Netgear are tied for second with two each. One each for Cisco and Microsoft (I believe the Cisco AP is for the McDonalds up the street, based on the "dumac" SSID). The remaining two were unidentifiable by KisMAC.

Comments

Geez...

[foolhammer.livejournal.com]

I think I oughtta report you, or something, seeing as how I work for the people who set up all those linksys wifi systems...

(I'd never squeal, fear not, I'm kidding)

Although I *am* gonna start telling these folks to use encryption when available... :)

Re: Geez...

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Report me for what? Everything I did was in full compliance with FCC regulations regarding unlicensed RF bands. The only access point in the area I used was Ben's, and I had his permission to use it.

well, hence the *something*...

[foolhammer.livejournal.com]

Not living in your fine country, I have no idea how the regs affect wardriving- I do suspect that actually horning in on someone's wireless (without their permission, of course) is at the least in a legal gray area. Not that I particularly *care* if it is, y'unnerstand, since I've a larcenous streak a mile wide meself, but your post caught my eye since I spend at least three hours a day troubleshooting wireless customers for slow throughput. So the next time I get one of those calls I'll be thinking "Hey, Mr. Joe Schmoe in Maine, the reason your wi-fi is buggy is because there's a gweep biking around the area borrowing your connection for purposes unknown. Don't worry, gweeps won't damage your pc. Just give it a few minutes and said gweep will move on."

Not (as I said before) that I'd dream of actually bringing this to anyone in authority's attention- it's just amusing on a "six degrees of separation" kind of way how people's lives intersect like this. :)

Re: well, hence the *something*...

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Okay.

In a nutshell, FCC regs state that one may legally receive and record any legally broadcast signal. That's what I did.

Using someone's access point without permission is theft (of service). But I didn't do that :).