Where's Your Nearest Wireless Access Point?

bgp4 writes "The Global Access Wireless Database (GAWD) is a search engine that allows you to find your nearest wireless access point. It also allows you to search for access points based on provider such as PersonalTelco or Seattle Wireless. The catch here is all the access points are added by the community. If you are invovlved in a wireless project, feel free to enter the information on your AP's into GAWD. Even if you're not in a project, if you know of an access point somewhere (good examples are locations in airports, bus stops, locations on the BART, etc) feel free to enter them as well. The more AP's that are in GAWD, the more useful it will be to everyone. GAWD is still under active development. If you have any feedback or ideas for improvements, please let us know." Its still a little new since it doesn't have any significant amounts of data yet, but this is a really cool idea. Especially when everyone leaves unencrypted 802.11 lans hanging around their houses and you can simply ping your way to infinite bandwidth *grin*

Comments

Re:Internet overload

[garcia]

whatever fool, you are the one that is posting on /. remember...

Aironet got bought by Cisco

[Otto]

Yep, Cisco bought Aironet out and are phasing out the 4500/4800 lines of cards. However, they're making a new line now that is directly compatible with the 4500/4800 drivers and so forth, so look for lots of support for these in the future. I don't have the model numbers of Cisco's new cards right off hand, but keep an eye out. If you see a PCMCIA Cisco 802.11 card, then you'll know that's the one. :)

---

It's new ... don't complain, CONTRIBUTE!

[SuperRob]

If you're upset at the lack of access points, help the cause and ADD ONE! My best friend and I both have one, and my office has a couple. While the office one is encrypted (and thus, unavailable) I'll add mine as soon as I find out what standard settings to give it.

Wireless won't take off unless the SSIDs and Channel info is set to some standard. But once it does ... whee!

By the way ... wireless has come a long way since Ricochet. It's fast enough now (and hceap enough) where I've set up every computer in the apartment to use Wireless. As soon as Bluetooth allows me to have wireless keyboards and mice, we should start getting rid of that cord glut.

Re:Signal to Noise

[Cramer]

• Think of it just as you would implementing a regular LAN.

Good greif. How many "regular LANs" do you allow any idiot off the street to plug into? Most cards don't have 128bit encryption -- some have very little at all. And I'd bet most wireless LANs are running with the default security settings. With a radio signal, unlike an ethernet wire, there's no wall behind which you can hide.

If your unwired laptop can do something, someone else's can too. Even if you make the access point itself a secured point in your network, you still have to get through it.

Re:Signal to Noise

[Cramer]

What goes on inside my network and what goes on between my network and some other network are totally different things.

Listening to what goes on within the wired confines of my apartment is much more difficult than listening to the RF from a group of wireless LAN cards. I can protect the wired network both in terms of physical access and "internet" access [firewalls, unroutable protocols, etc.] Doing the same thing for a RADIO network is much more difficult... I cannot stop everyone from coming with 1000ft of my apartment nor can I turn every machine in the radio lan into a fortified castle complete with shark infested mote.

"Useful" is a bit premature...

[Speare]

This engine currently searches 16 access points.

A stunning amount of data. I'm sure a few of those are nearby, I'm on the outskirts of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which as we all know is the center of the technology universe.

Lemme see... I'm surprised. There's one in Chicago. At least it's under 1000 miles from me.

From the writeup it sounded like it'd be useful to know which bus stops were in range... at this stage, the database helps you see whether you're in the right country or state. Maybe repost this once they hit several hundred, several thousand?

Re:Yeah right

[barnaclebarnes]

Why in God's name would I want someone to a) use up my LAN bandwidth, b) use up my cable connection bandwidth and c) most importantly, gain access to my LAN?

So that when you are outside of your LAN (You do get outside don't you?) you can have wireless access for 'free' from other like minded individuals. Case in point, I live in Brixton (London) and work from home. Most of the time I'm around the area, however I quite often have have meetings in the 'City' and would like to be connected when I am there. Consume.net (A free 802.11 network) will allow me to do that. And I don't mind someone using my bandwidth when I don't need it all 24/7. It is a mutually benefical(sp?) arrangement. Simple.

What wireless card to use ?

[f5426]

I now this is off-topic, but I happilly trade useless karma against good advice.

I am in the market for a couple of 802.11 wireless board. I have only ISA (or VLB!) ports avalaible for the base station (an old 486 DX4/100), to a laptop (PCMCIA).

Both hosts are FreeBSD. I'd like to support a good vendor (ie: one that plays well with open source, release its specs, etc).

Looks like boards with drivers are:

an(4) - Aironet Communications 4500/4800 wireless network adapter driver
wi(4) - Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA driver

and

ray: Raytheon Raylink 802.11 wireless NICs, OEM as Webgear Aviator 2.4GHz

Any pointer/advice ? Can those boards be mix/matched easily, or are there problems if vendors differs ?

Cheers,

--fred

Yeah right

[Fervent]

I have a wireless LAN in my house right now, encrypted. Why in God's name would I want someone to a) use up my LAN bandwidth, b) use up my cable connection bandwidth and c) most importantly, gain access to my LAN?

Didn't CmdrTaco post an article a few weeks ago about "locking down your boxes"? What's the difference between locking down our boxes and locking down our LANs? I don't want Rob to use my LAN unless I let him.

Another hacker paradox. Lock our boxes. Free bandwidth for all.

Re:Yeah right

[Fervent]

First off, I'm going to ignore the fact that your user info states you haven't posted more than 3 messages in the last month or so. Even though, in my mind, the whole purpose of Slashdot is to discuss; whether or not you understand the material or not is secondary -- you learn.

I don't know who appointed you as self-regulator of Slashdot. Perhaps you consider yourself one due to your low user ID. I, myself, talk to Rob and Hemos reguarly, so I don't understand what you would know that I don't.

I consider my purpose here twofold. One, to learn what others have to say. Two, to incite conversation. I do that poorly sometimes, but from the responses I get, the majority of talk is positive.

As for this wireless issue, yes I can reconfigure my firewall to limit bandwidth to outside users. But why? Your suggestion is like showing the hacker the front door, locked, and jiggling the keys in your hand. I'd prefer to have the door hard to find, or impossible to find.

Just because you are one of the few who was the first on Slashdot doesn't necessarily make you intelligent.

Great Idea

[Alien54]

I envy the guy who came up with this thought.

Like all great ideas, it is obvious once you state it and explain it well.

Of course, you realize that someone will announce a patent on this in a year or two

(Unless AltaVista decides that their previous patents cover this as well)

All that aside, I would encourage people to contribute to this.

Re:Before entering data

[b1t r0t]

He means the license on the database itself. Specifically, who owns the rights, etc. Sure would be nice if people undersood what they were replying to before posting meaningless replies on /.

Now that thar's front page news...

[American AC in Paris]

...a serach engine with nearly dozens of wireless access points!

Ok, ok. Granted, this news item came with the "but remember, it's brand spankin' new, hence currently useful to about 500 people" disclaimer, but still. Front page?

That said, it's a really cool service. Next time I'm out and about and need to find a wireless access point, all I need to do is fire up my wireless internet and query this search engine and...

Oh, wait. I'd need to know where the nearest access point was to do that. D'ohh.

information wants to be expensive...nothing is so valuable as the right information at the right time.

Security Cluster#^@|

[Bonker]

"Hey, you wanna crack MSN again?" "Man, they're on to ya. You're gonna be gettin' a visit from the Feds real soon now." "Nah, the Larson's next door got wireless. I'm all over that shit. When the feds show up, it ain't gonna be me they're bustin."

The zombies are coming!

[Arkleseizure]

A man at the mercy of a high bandwidth internet connection is not a pretty sight. The eyes become wild and red aroung the rims; the hair becomes greasy and unkempt; bathing becomes an impossibility lest the poor techno-freak have to deal with something as analogue as water.
So far fixed internet connections have kept such people locked away in their bedrooms where they belong, but soon wireless connectivity will bring these zombie hoardes on to our buses, into our churches, into our SHOPPING MALLS.... BRAINS!!!

Re:Internet overload

[wiredog]

We do not need wireless access
Unless, of course, you live in an area without wired access. If you live on the wrong side of the freeway in some areas it can cost thousands of dollars to get a phone line strung just 1/2 mile (1 kilometer). If cell phones are available there they are a much less costly solution. I know, different type of wireless, but it needs to be discussed, maybe I'll post it to K5.

No Kidding...

[Greyfox]

As if the SUV driving dipshits need any more of an excuse not to pay attention to the road. They're already veering all over the place while they play with their cell phones (Personally I think cell phones are a phallic representation used primairly by people who either don't have one or think theirs is too small.) Imagine how bad it'll get when those idiots can surf the web from their vehicle on a regular basis.

On the plus side, I suspect this will lead to much more rapid development of a self driving vehicle. Once that is designed, it will quickly become mandatory. It'd solve a lot of problems, though it'd see a lot of resistance here in the States, too.

Signal to Noise

[tagplazen]

I personally work on SeattleWireless, and as such I think GAWD is a great idea. However, there are things that start bothering you.

The people that jump on going "it's only got so and so number of points". Who cares? It was just announced, give it time.

The people that love bragging about how insecure access points are. Who cares if you can log in to someones network? Does that make you any better than a script kiddy bragging about how many shell accounts he has? Is 802.11 any different than securing any other xmission technology? Nope. So before bragging about the clueless users, why don't you help to educate them? Remember, at least a script kiddy has know how to dl a script to gather their accounts. :-)

To the luddite. Why don't you get involved with a similar project, user group, etc. etc. Then you'd see that you actually get more face to face time than you do sitting in front of a monitor writing screeds about how technology is disenfranchising the proletariat.

Okay, I've vented (and lost the first version of this due to fat fingers), but it just drives me nuts that every open source type of project you get into, for every one person that helps out and contributes, you get ten that sit around and tell you why you'll fail, and when it works, they get to tell you how it's flawed, politically unworkable, yadda yadda yadda. So Shmoo and any other groups that are contributing, they'll always get respect for taking the time away from rl in order to work on projects for other people. Thanks guys.

Before entering data

[f5426]

I'd like to see the license. I am surprised that, afert the cddb fiasco anyone is still ready to enter information into on-line without checking before how the database is licensed.

Cheers,

--fred

Security nightmare

[osgeek]

People leaving 802.11 networks completely unsecured would make a lot of problems on the Internet even worse.

Can you say "Drive by Spamming"? I thought you could.