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War Driving With The Kids

Posted by Hemos on from the wonderful-way-to-spend-a-vacation dept.

burntfungus writes "War Driving on Vacation with your kids. A drive from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo's Gum Alley (yes, it's bubble gum on the wall), then on to San Francisco. Hundreds of 802.11b Access points available for mapping with Netstumbler. Some in the middle of nowhere."

10 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Security Question by utdpenguin · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Just something that occurs to me, but if it literaly so easy to get into a company's network, can they really be said to have any expectation of privacy? If you shout something outloud in public you have none, it's perfectly legal for anyone to overhear you and act however they wish on that info. Is this significantly different?

    --
    In Soviet Russia you dant have to put up with these crappy jokes
    1. Re:Security Question by ZoneGray · · Score: 3, Interesting

      More to the point... if you connect to an unsecured network, you're a damned fool if you expect any privacy... regardless of what the law says. As soon as you check your e-mail through a non-WEP connection, anybody in the neighborhood can have your POP password. I've often wondered what it would be like to set up an AP with an SSID of "public", and run tcpdump on what comes through....

    2. Re:Security Question by Nematode · · Score: 2, Interesting
      However there also remains some practical considerations. For example, say I leave my car unlocked and the keys in the ignition. Surprise, surprise, in the morning its not there. When I o to the cops they are going to tell me its my own damn fault for making it so easy. Sure, it's still a crime to steal my car, but I'm also asking for it.
      Actually, the cops may say that, but then they will file a stolen car report, and then treat your case like any other stolen car. I've seen it happen before, and just this week that same situation occurred in my town. Guy left his keys in while he ran into a pharmacy, came out to see the car being driven away. The cops put out an APB, found the car, and spent the next 30 minutes chasing it.

      Yes, your actions can make you more or less likely to be victimized by a crime. This does not absolve the criminal, nor does it keep you from being protected by the law. Slashdot posters may insult you, and the cops may roll their eyes and lecture you, but they're still obliged to treat your case like the rest.

      Next time you're arrested for walking into someone's house and burglarizing them, see how far you get by arguing that their door was wide open....
  2. This makes always good news. by leuk_he · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It always makes good media to (re)post about broken wireless networks that could be accessed from anywhere. Lots of dead tree magazines are writing about this.

    Who says he is not detecting freely accesable networks that are made to be public. /. reported about this part my times before.

    1. Re:This makes always good news. by Zocalo · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Who says he is not detecting freely accesable networks that are made to be public

      He almost certainly was detecting them, the point is made about every Starbuck's in the article, but even if the networks are for public access, they probably should have more restrictive access and do not. After all, I'm sure that Starbuck's would prefer you to buy a coffee and danish to "pay" for your use of their public connection, rather than sit outside in your car.

      Also, having taken a more leisurely cruise around likely candidate sites for 802.11b compromises (hi-tech business parks) I can state for a fact that the majority of wireless networks are begging to be compromised by someone with a darker shade of hat than mine... One other statistic I drew was that the bulk of these unsecure networks are running under NT, which explains a lot.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    2. Re:This makes always good news. by leuk_he · · Score: 4, Interesting

      starbuck.

      I was not aware of the starbuck network. google turned up this. It states you have to logon (and pay ) to use their network. I suppose the car is also good for them if you have to pay anyway.

      By the way: I was disappointed when i went on vacation to california this summer about public internet access. I found:
      -public libraries: 3 out of 4 times there was a waiting list. (reserved days ahead)
      -something at a gas station in palm springs.
      1 (1) internet cafee at the las vegas strip.

      A friend went to peru and in almost every small village they had public (not free) access.

  3. Enough about this. by ejaytee · · Score: 3, Interesting


    OK, this is the how-many-eth article about how 802.11b networks are poorly administered?

    We've had /. War Driving in NYC, Hoboken, Washington, Minneapolis, and, now, War Driving on vacation articles.

    I think everyone gets the point. No need to keep hunting for Yet Another Angle.

    The only thing this story adds is the amusing reference to childen and car-seats in PCI-card terms (insert and remove the children from their seats).

  4. Re:Sounds fun but... by don_carnage · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've said it before -- let's combine the two sports: Geocaching and Wardriving. "There is a cache on an NT network at these coordinates. Take a file if you want, but please be sure to leave something in return.

    --
    Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
  5. I just had my first wardriving experience by Nerftoe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A couple weeks ago, I bought an Orinoco Gold access card, downloaded netstumbler, and had my homemade Pringles antenna ready to go.

    The wife and I got out last Sunday to see if I could find any access points. We live a few files from Indianapolis, so I figured we would have to go downtown to find any access points. NOT TRUE! Many of the APs we found were on personal home networks. Every time we would pass an apartment complex.. blip!.. an AP or two would show up. Where they encrypted? Heh, no. We made one loop through downtown Indy and came back to our house and we found 40 access points. 5 were encypted.

    So, we found one near a Mr. D's (grocery store). We stopped in the parking lot, I set up my Pringles antenna, and browsed the web via someone's @home connection. Really cool!

    You can imagine the looks that I received when passersby saw me scanning back and forth with a pringles antenna, wires coming out of it, and a laptop on my lap. Anyway, wardriving is fun for the whole family. It's kinda like Geocaching, but quite a bit easier. :)

  6. Re:Gum Wall, It Smells good too!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It's true, gum all the way up the wall. They had to put a light up because of the things that happened at night so close to all the bars, yes those and the you and your girlfrend/drunken date at 2am kind. The part most miss from the photos is the true scratch'n sniff smell power of it all (come to think of it no scratching required).heh enjoy
    watching where i step in Slo