Messin with WiFi

I got my laptop the other day, and I've been addicted to WiFi ever since.

Its amazing what fun you can have walking around your town with your laptop running NetStumbler. You can get some good statistics too. I found out that 30% of wireless access points in town are WEP encrypted. I'm not sure how many employ MAC filtering, since I never connect to them, but thats probably another percentage.

I'm going to get some extra gear for it too, a new wireless card (an ORiNOCO one, apparently the best) and an antenna, and sometime in the future a GPS device.

I'm thinking of starting a WiFi club at school, y'know, doing competitions like how far can you make a WiFi link stretch using only the following materials... that sort of thing. Could be fun

 

So it was YOU lurking along my street all morning with a can of beer in one hand and ciggie in the other! And the only excuse you came up with was "WiFi"

 

I'll challenge you to see who can get the best access point furthest from their own house!!!

 

hehe i can picture you walking down the streets, with your laptop in hands. Not bothering to look up. lol

 

No no, not in hands, in bag, with audio feedback It tells me when it finds a new AP and says "linksys is open" or "belkin54g is closed" depending on whether WEP is enabled.

Mcadam - when I get my ORiNOCO and pigtail, definatley

 

you'll kick my a$$ but hey why not! better find myself some software to pick these up, recommend anything?

 

http://www.netstumbler.com/
for sure. Its cool because it prevents you from connecting to an AP illegally when you're just walking around.

Now, we are going to have to do this carefully. First, you'll need to go for a drive (or walk) and find a road going straight away from your position, and log all the AP's you find along the way. Then you have to try and get a signal from each AP getting further away. Then you work out how far away the furthers AP you picked up was

You can use any antenna you like

 

I give up, you win it's too complicated for my little mind!

 

Ok, lets make it easier.

You have a wireless AP, yes? Just walk away from it and work out how far away you are from the AP. We stop when SNR is like, 60.

 

alrite you're on beeyatch! jokes!

 

Actually even while running netstumbler you can acidentaly connect to access points. Your best bet is is disable any protocols (ie tcp/ip) while stumbling.

 

And that I do. In fact, TCP/IP has been off on my Wireless adaptor since I got the laptop, for exactly that reason.

I've also got my wireless configuration setup so that it will never connect to a network unless I tell it to.. but still its better to be safe than arrested

 

hey GF how are you? so your getting into "war driving"? if you get to Brooklyn Map out my area I found three spots in my neighborhood from my home using netstumbler and one of them i can easily get into if i wanted to. i have very unsecure neighbors