Slashdot Mirror

You could also wardrive, and populate databases like WiFiMaps.com, a site used for collecting locations of hotspots. This enables anyone to find out where these hotspots are, look at coverage, pricing, etc -- all on a graphical map!

You could also use our AvantGo channel for WiFiMaps.com -- even on your PDA, or your cell phone. Slightly more portable than opening up your laptop.

You could also use our AvantGo channel for WiFiMaps.com -- even on your PDA, or your cell phone. Slightly more portable than opening up your laptop.

Actually, I think RFID technologies are neat -- clothing, products, vehicles, I actually can't wait to start experimenting with some of this stuff at home. As someone mentioned above, all kinds of new technology has potential applications, as well as potential abuses.

We intend to explore RFID's location-based potential, but with an emphasis on privacy, which we've held to.

There is lots of potential here, but there's a way to fight for our privacy and rights -- we can fight back by tracking the RFID tags, coming-up with ranges of unique numbers for products, ways to modify tags, or insulate their signal.

What I really worry about, is where people are forced to have them (shopper cards, bus passes, etc), where people themselves can be tracked. Keep an eye out.

The reason we created WiFiMaps.com -- to show exactly where these things are.

There are lots of privacy concerns, and this is why we've recently deprecated the display of "unclassified" APs -- those that are not explicitly free, or explicitly pay. This way, you can examine your neighborhood without being directed only to your neighbors houses! Another way we try to stay on the good side of things is to not display the MAC address in our queries.

Thanks for the comment, and I look forward to reading the book when I get a copy.

No mention of WiFiMaps.com for drawing Wardriving data onto a map? I would figure that even mentioning Netstumbler, Kismet, and talking about maps and stuff would give at least a mention -- sheesh! Guess I'll have to wait for O'Reilly's Mapping Hacks book to come out.

Bluetooth is great for location based applications, too. I expect the older style USB bluetooth dongles would become far cheaper in the future, and almost disposable -- like the smaller USB flash drives -- enough to just give them away. A side effect, is that now you have unique MACs which you can use for discovering your location. Of course, this all depends on wardrivers.

The US Patriot Act has caused me to fear my government even more than normal. Now, when I work on my projects, even if I am not actually a terrorist, I worry that I may be labled as such. Is this the way a law abiding citizen should feel at home?

You can investigate actual Wi-Fi surveys from wardrivers at wifimaps.com. You can view your location, and see the other access-points in the area -- complete with channel data.

Another site listing Wi-Fi is WiFiMaps.com. This covers mainly the US, and data is updated by our users who upload their wardriving scans.

Having personally gone wardriving through Cambridge, I would also expect MIT at number one, and at least see CMU up there too. Nice to see Pittsburgh having not one but TWO entries -- Duquesne and Pitt. A little disappointing, tho, isn't this 2004?

Spatial data is neat, tho, I think it is nice that the US Gov't does this -- and publishes the data for free. Without things like TIGER, we wouldn't exist!.

Interested in Wi-Fi coverage from a wardriver's perspective? Check it out here on, or here on.

I figure that if the students aren't providing a security risk, it shouldn't be an issue. I wonder how the students will work around the school's demands.

Ah, Philadelphia, my home town. I went to attend one of the 80211-planet.com Wi-Fi shows there a few years ago. The conf was pretty small compared to all of the other shows I've been to. Thank goodness that's changed. We did quite a bit of wardriving, a snipplet of which you can see here. Since then, Wi-Fi coverage has exploded, which you can see here and for your area.

Of course, the pansy-assed white folks there can't cook, there are still a few places to get a decent meal.

You can actually see the results of wardriving some of these networks at. Check it out. I think our statistics say 83% are unsecured, and about 70% default.

There are quite an assortment of GIS tools available for Linux, too, for those of us mapping wi-fi. Check out Mapserver, GRASS, and PostGIS.

Over at WiFiMaps.com, we have detailed street level maps of the US (Canada soon), and data uploaded from wardrivers from all over the world.

As an example, zoom-into Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, or your area.

Over at WiFiMaps.com, we have detailed street level maps of the US (Canada soon), and data uploaded from wardrivers from all over the world.

As an example, zoom-into Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, or your area.

Over at WiFiMaps.com, we have detailed street level maps of the US (Canada soon), and data uploaded from wardrivers from all over the world.

As an example, zoom-into Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, or your area.

For those of you interested in wardriving or what's out there, here's a look at Austin Texas from a wardriver's point of view.

I used to be a palm zealot. Great design, initially. 68k, 1 meg of RAM, and always on. Thousands of programs appeared on the net for free. I used it for a calendar, and to schedule appointments, and to keep track of my time, and where I was. I used the address book rather violently -- and picked-up hundreds of contacts (imported from my old Casio BOSS, and collected through the years). I also downloaded neat programs, and experimented with development. Truly a neat system 1997, and ahead of it's time. (Of course, I drooled over the Apple Newtons!)

Connectivity is really the thing for me, being able to transfer data/programs easily, as well as to other people is something I need to do. I admit it, I'm a geek, and rely on this stuff. The Palm's serial port, while great, required a special cradle, and even with two, it's still a pain. Don't get me wrong, AvantGo, and the whole syncing thing is great, especially if you spend time on trains, busses, airports, or meetings. Infra-red is a really great technology, and I'd like to see it's use more widely expanded, to include tv-remotes as well as whatever other standards are out there for transcieving via infra-red (ie IrDA, etc).

Bluetooth really takes the cake on connectivity, except for it's bloated stack, and silly implimentation. Wi-Fi or soft-modem technology would be a great alternative. Using bluetooth, I can synchronize my Nokia 3650 without even taking it out of my pocket - nuts a-frying be damned. This is something far more attractive than even more icky cables, and easier than pulling-out the device and pointing it at something.

Having a Nokia 3650, I take pictures all the time, so it's nice to bluetooth them at my workstation, or drag them from my phone onto my desktop. I can do this while my phone is charging in the other room!

All of the features I used to use my Palm for, work on my phone. Plus, I can take pictures, and make calls. This makes me not wonder why Sony stops making PDAs. Why do we need an additional device? Now, having more computing power, that's one benefit, but for special applications, and extended uses, a full-on PDA might make more sense.

We've been seeing Wi-Fi turn up just about everywhere, including truck stops, municipal buildings, our favorite stores, and so many more. You can check out your area or search for specific places in the US, as seen by wardrivers.

Check out wardriving maps of the US at location based wifi headquarters. Upload your findings, and see data from other wardrivers. Of course it's a shameless plug, but at least it's on topic!

At our website the maps we use are based on TIGER 2002, and we're homogenizing TIGER 2003 as I type this. It's not easy to parse TIGER, but there are tools out there to do this for you. We had to integrate some features to fix some of the errors in the TIGER format, and a few other things.

Also, we're starting to publish our data (maps and other) -- just trying to figure it all out, and determine the best way to do this (suggestions are welcome!). Currently, our map engine supports some form of XML output, so we're experimenting with this at this stage.

Did you know that you can find the locations of some of these projects, by searching for SSIDs? Also, if you know part of the MAC address (for the vendor), and the location, you can pair it down, and see maps of their coverage. Of course, this is all from wardriving data, uploaded by our users -- go out and wardrive!

Now we can do location and positioning with a potential high degree of acuracy.

like I noticed, tho, with my recent $20 purchase of the p5 glove, the technology may be there, but where are the applications? Aren't there developers out there, unemployed?

WiFiMaps.com is taking a stab at the location based computing, any interested developers out there?

Three WiFiMaps.com laptop stickers go to the uploader of the most Microsoft-brand MAC addresses durring the worldwidewardrive. Upload your wardriving results to WiFiMaps.com.

Any wardrivers out there? It would be nice to check out the place. We don't have any wardriving data uploaded from our users at WiFiMaps.com. Wonder how quickly wardrivers can band together, and observe things like this.

I had a fun time wardriving with Lord Hector and Umut after the 80211-planet.com in Philadelphia a while back. Wardriving is definitely a neat way to explore a new City (or even one's home town). We have the data we collected posted at WiFiMaps.com.

How do they get a position from wi-fi? Do they have a database of Wi-Fi access-point locations? We do, and we're planning on publishing this via xml as soon as we figure out how!

There's an interesting concept, wardriving for radio.

Get ready for the World Wide Wardrive, in June. This is a coordinated effort to wardrive everywhere, and collect statistics. Be sure to upload your scans, and check your results at WiFiMaps.com.

wardrivers say , and the FBI also says there aren't any known issues. Of course, I'm biased, since I not only wardrive, but operate a location based wi-fi site. Be ready for The World Wide Wardrive coming-up in June!

your MAC (00:30:BD:9C:BD:B2) wasn't listed in our database wifimaps.com, WiGLE doesn't seem to be operational, or I'd do a search there too.

IMHO the Google WiFi search is not that useful, at least in my zip (I get a Starbucks and a Quality Inn). I got much more interesting results from here. Not sure how up-to-date it is, though.

So, I figure that it's in Microsoft's best interests to release the source-code, and claim that it's "leaked". The idea, is that this will offload some of the work from their QA department, as they can do a google search for "leaked microsoft source code", and see reviews, comments, and potential fixes.

Location Based Wi-Fi

Glad that thing isn't anywhere near us, I still have things to do before close of business today! Ooph! Time to go! Location Based WiFi

Vacation is the distance between jobs.

Location Based WiFi

I shouldn't be posting at work, but I got this in my email from Tom:

Something else I thought of regarding the "legality of war-driving" issue: when you start a new wireless connection it scans for wireless networks in the area and asks you which one you want to connect to. This sounds just like war driving. So if war driving is illegal then hundreds of thousands of people everyday are breaking the law every time they setup a new wireless connection. Doesn't seem likely to me. Just a thought.

While there is a difference between portscanning, and wardriving, I believe the meaning of what he's trying to say is still the same -- wardriving is okay, lest you access networks which you are not authorized to use.

Perhaps in the future I can interview a lawyer who's up on these issues, as well as some researchers.

Also, the NCFTA is at http://www.ncfta.net. I got some really great clips about their work with SPAM, but they weren't quite relevant to the show, unfortunately.

Location Based WiFi

Think wireless cameras would be an interesting thing to look-up on a Map? Check out http://www.wifimaps.com, and let us know.

Any one handed keyboards, like the twiddler? They use these for the MIThril wearable project. Some modification required. Location-Based Wi-Fi

Wardriving is a perfect example of how GPS has changed the way we look at computer security, especially where wireless LANs are concerned.

Check out wifimaps.com to see if your wlan has been scanned.