Best Wireless SSIDs You Have Seen?

Ant writes "Best SSIDs you have seen is the name of the new Broadband Reports' wireless security forum. Funny ones listed that made me chuckle: WardriversOpenAP, GET LOST, HackedAP, SecureAP (no WEP/WPA), TOP_SECRET, HPD-FieldOffice, MiddleEarth, HoneyPot, mine, and people's full/last name." I think naming your network 'Default' or 'Linksys' should be a crime ;)

Comments

Naaaa

[slashnutt]

comatose, homeland security, rape me, and how about not broadcasting an ssid?

Re:Naaaa

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine is called ElCheapo. I'm in San Antonio, near saint mary's university, and it's wide open on purpose to protest uni policy of not allowing non-students even a quick look at their email.

Mine is also bandwidth throttled to 128k, eh.

Re:Naaaa

[CptCook]

One with the home address of the owner... I'm assuming it's the guy across the road with 1000's of aerials all over his roof. I suspect it's why mobile (phone) reception is so bad in our street!

Re:Naaaa

[k.ellsworth]

mine: SCAN_ME_AND_DIE :), and many try to access it but, wep 128 + mac access control works perfect.

Re:Naaaa

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine is "surfcheap.biz LOW RATES"

Over 40 APs in the area, and nobody bothers with mine for some reason.

My neighborhood

[dcw3]

Several "linksys", a couple with family names, and one called "The Castle"

Re:My neighborhood

[powerpointmonkey]

Up until two weeks ago, mine was the only SSID visible, Ok, so it's called 'home', but it's not broadcast, it's using wep and it's locked down by MAC address last week default and sitecom appeared. Both with default router passwords, I guess someone in my neighborhood got broadband for christmas. I feel like broadcasting my SSID and changing it to 'I'm at number 35, for god's sake please come over and speek to me about wireless network security!'

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I won't be visiting:
WEP is not secure.WPA is better. WPA2 better still, 802.11i more so.
MAC lock down is fooling yourself. You can see the MAC in the clear, even if using WEP.
A channel scan will pick up the SSID even when it's not 'broadcast'.
In your favour though is your neighbour's are even less clued up.

Re:My neighborhood

[Brackney]

I've picked up a "first/last name" and a "street address" from my kitchen. I thought the address thing was an interesting idea and the fellow had the good sense to enable WEP. (Not so w/ the guy who thought it was a good idea to use his name.)

Re:My neighborhood

[aacool]

In the university area nearby,"Unseen University", and another one, "See You NT"

Re:My neighborhood

[LifesizeKenDoll]

Um, if you live in Chicago, that's definitely my brother's. He didn't want me to secure it, because he doesn't care and thinks that it's easier.

Re:My neighborhood

[powerpointmonkey]

WEP is secure enough imho, and anyway, it's all my router supports and I'm not going to fork out for a new one just yet. In the meantime I change the keys weekly. Sure a MAC address can be cloned, but it's not exactly something that your average script kiddie is going to do. Hell, if someone really wanted to see what I was up to they could just tempest my CRT. It's about an apropriate level of security, and for me, MAC filtering, not broadcasting my SSID, and changing my WEP keys is enough.

Re:My neighborhood

[garcia]

Personally, I was thrilled to find four open WAPs in my neighborhood. When I first moved in I was attempting to get cable TV and cable HSD. Turned out that there was no cable run to our house and the cable company decided to tear up my landscaping to put a 4' long section of coiled cable sticking out of my yard.

I cancelled, went with DSL (who allow servers and don't block ports), and got a dish.

Because of the delay that I caused by going this route I was able to connect to any of the 4 WAPs in the area. Some days DSL was better than cable so I'd use one of the three there. Most of the time the cable had much better speeds so I'd leech from them.

I really don't care if they have wifi security. It keeps me safer. Yeah, I have it locked down pretty good but there's always a way in... If someone else can pwn my neighbors, why bother with me?

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, get on their wireless network and do some net send messages. They probably have got a shiny new router so they don't have a firewall on the actual computer. So the net send messages might get through :-)

Re:My neighborhood

[aventius]

Twice now, I have seen "linksys" as the SSID. Both times, I logged in remotely to their router because the the owners kept the default password. So I changed their SSID to "Yeasty Cunts" and then I booted and blocked them off their own network. I felt that doing this would teach them a little lesson in security. In both instances, the owners had a better SSID, enabled a new password and either WEP or WPA within a day or two. Mission accomplished

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

My neighbor INSISTS on leaving his WRT54G unsecured. I change it whenever I'm bored (I've also connected to the LAN, and then to one of his shared printers and printed out some "interesting" photos).

If your neighbor "insisted" on leaving his door unlocked, would you go in his house and pee on his carpet, just because you could? That would be equally funny.

Re:My neighborhood

[sysadmn]

Perhaps you should change it to "Gay Pride Open House".
Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

I think I'll get a non-linksys router and set mine up with the name linksys. Might confuse those trying to exploit it. Of course I'll still do the usual lockdown, but it might be funny to see if anyone tries some vendor specific exploits on an improperly identified name.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

My AP is 'Gateway to Hell' ... most people don't even try. ;)

Re:My neighborhood

[Zeinfeld]

Twice now, I have seen "linksys" as the SSID. Both times, I logged in remotely to their router because the the owners kept the default password. So I changed their SSID to "Yeasty Cunts" and then I booted and blocked them off their own network. I felt that doing this would teach them a little lesson in security. In both instances, the owners had a better SSID, enabled a new password and either WEP or WPA within a day or two. Mission accomplished

In the process committing a serious crime.

You don't have the right to decide how other people should manage their network. The fault here lies with the manufacturers for providing systems that require too much effort to secure.

Terrorising people into behaving in the way you think they should is despicable. Who made you King?

Re:My neighborhood

[DrSkwid]

ssh forwarding is your friend

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

My neighbor INSISTS on leaving his WRT54G unsecured. I change it whenever I'm bored (I've also connected to the LAN, and then to one of his shared printers and printed out some "interesting" photos). I'll name his AP stuff like "pimpwifi" "secureme" "hellomike", etc. Nothing too interesting really.

Yeah, just like you'd enter his house if he left the door unlocked. Too bad you can't get Glocked for jacking his access point.

Re:My neighborhood

[jarich]

Great job!

I knew this little old lady who didn't lock one of her windows, so I snuck in and changed all her locks and added a vulgar greeting to her answering machine! Boy was that funny!

Now she locks her windows, has new locks and generally has better security at her house! Mission accomplished! I'm glad I took the time to teach that stupid old lady a lesson.

Re:My neighborhood

[aventius]

No, you're correct. I don't have the almighty right to do what I did. It is likely that I broke a law and lastly, I never said I was King, nor do I wish to be.

But, hacking their system and showing how vulnerable they are is not dictating how they should manage their network. I didn't force them to enable better security measures, they could have easily went back to their insecure method. What I did promote was to RTFM. Manufacturers will never provide systems that are secure out of the box. This would create an abundance of returned items that supposedly "don't work." The problem lies within consumers not reading the damn manual. Most consumers don't know that security measures are available and/or needed, let alone eager enough to read a paragraph or two in order to learn how to set them up. Therefore, my simple hack only prompted my neighbors to read a paragraph or two, whereupon they learned how insecure their situation was and decided by themselves to change.

I will agree that my methods are not rewardable but they got the job done. Ever try to tell your neighbor that their lawn looks like crap? Of course not, trying to tell them that their computer doesn't want correctly is even harder.

Re:My neighborhood

[Zeinfeld]

But, hacking their system and showing how vulnerable they are is not dictating how they should manage their network. I didn't force them to enable better security measures, they could have easily went back to their insecure method. What I did promote was to RTFM.

Which is exactly the sort of arrogant geek centric approach that has led to bad security.

The access points could have been designed to be secure without anyone ever needing to RTFM. Print the serial number of the device on the case of the box, use it as the default password.

Same thing goes for these idiotic WEP keys which I keep having to type into one machine after another. Build the system so that I don't keep having to enter long strings of digits into each new machine I buy.

Re:My neighborhood

[Cat_Byte]

Some people are generous enough to let others use bandwidth and don't care. Who are you to decide?

Re:My neighborhood

[aventius]

I get your point. I agree that my methods are not great, but does anybody have a better idea to help their neighbors?

By the way, my neighbors are fellow college students in a large apartment building, not little old ladies. More importantly, their internet was most likely being stolen by 10 other surrounding apartments who chose to steal their wireless internet access in order to buy an extra keg per month.

Re:My neighborhood

[jarich]

does anybody have a better idea to help their neighbors?

The real question is why you feel the need to "help your neighbors"? What's the point?

It's not your job and they didn't ask you to. An open AP is not hurting anyone.

If you have an innate need to contribute to society, pick up trash by the side of the road... visit old folks in a retirement home... give blood... contribute to a SourceForge project.

But don't hack your neighbors to "teach them a lesson".

Re:My neighborhood

[anagama]

• Some people are generous enough to let others use bandwidth and don't care. Who are you to decide?

Good point. Wouldn't it be nice if you could walk around through town and always find a connection?

Re:My neighborhood

[aventius]

I completely agree. The systems need to be setup better by default. I even like your idea of using the serial number as the password, but this would still create problems. The consumer still has to know the serial number IS the password and that they need a password. The WEP key is a giant pain in the ass. Whenever I have a fellow student over to do a class project or whatever, I have to add their MAC address and then key in the long WEP key. Lately, I'll just be lazy and just use my Powerbook's built-in internet sharing with an ethernet cable.

Re:My neighborhood

[aventius]

Sweet. Thanks for the heads up. I knew I needed an extended trip to Brazil and this gives me the reason. Could you please inform my professors that I won't be in class today and will miss the exams in my fluid flow and heat transfer classes? Thanks.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

My neighbor insisted on leaving his back door unlocked so I took a shit in his living room. Now I live in a much more secure neighborhood where everyone has bars on the windows and a gun under the bed.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Mess with my AP and I'll kick your ass.

Really. I can't beleive that you'd screw with other people's property like that. I have a public AP with simple passwords so we technical folks of the community can all deal with problems as they crop up. If you screwed with it, it would cost me a couple hours of time to fix the issue costing me a couple hundred dollars of lost billable time. Similar cost to the cost you will incure to get your windshield repaired when I bust it up with my softball bat.

Joe

Re:My neighborhood

[rick_qcs]

Precisely why mine is "open".

As long as someone isn't doing something illegal, I don't mind sharing my 1M/1M internet connection...

and I did netsec for 5 years.

With that said, if that same AP was inside a bank or similar ReallyDumbPlace(tm) to put an access point, I'd have a problem with wide open, poorly secured APs.

Wardrivers and others who think they are l33+ by haX0ring and "stealing" bandwidth from people like me who give away their access and think the internet should be free for everyone just don't get it.

Re:My neighborhood

[I8TheWorm]

their internet was most likely being stolen by 10 other surrounding apartments

Don't you mean borrowed? Sorry, I could help but try to turn it into a **AA IP rights arguement :)

Re:My neighborhood

[bfields]

Some people are generous enough to let others use bandwidth and don't care. Who are you to decide?

Agreed--I keep mine open too. But I do change my password from the default....

--Bruce Fields

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh get over it. It is just a childish prank, nothing more.

Hardly a serious crime.

Re:My neighborhood

[Spark00]

yah this is probably gonna get -1'd as a troll or soemthing but in all seriousness. does ANYONE know to config a F**king SMC barricade router? I'm not dense, really, but this insane thing baffles me and as a result i CANNOT set up WEP or anything, so i'm a dopey wideopen loser. *sigh* i should just change my ssid to "dont_buy_smc_crap"

Re:My neighborhood

[lightknight]

Try this: track down their address and tell them they have a network security problem. Offer to fix it for free.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

I also logged onto a neighbors router that used the default password. I checked the logs and they hadn't logged into their router's config site since they set it up, so I changed the password and have been administering the router since.

Now I have access to port forwarding, etc. Also, sometimes when the connection isn't working, I'll restart the router for them... As far as I'm concerned, I'm helping them out!

Anyway, speaking of interesting SSIDs, this router I've pirated is called "SkullDuggery"!

Re:My neighborhood

[BVis]

Which is exactly the sort of arrogant geek centric approach that has led to bad security.

It isn't arrogance if you're right. Geeks saying "You need to use better security practices" doesn't lead to bad security, the average user's ignorance and stupidity has led to bad security. That's like saying using directional signals when you're driving causes more accidents; you might shock someone into an accident by actually using them, instead of cutting them off, but used properly they make driving safer for everyone.

The access points could have been designed to be secure without anyone ever needing to RTFM. Print the serial number of the device on the case of the box, use it as the default password.

1) Security 2) Convenience

Pick one, please.

Same thing goes for these idiotic WEP keys which I keep having to type into one machine after another. Build the system so that I don't keep having to enter long strings of digits into each new machine I buy.

Yup, having a more secure network is such a pain in the ass. WEP isn't perfect but it's better than nothing.

Oh and while we're at it, would you like some cheese with that whine? Laziness IMHO is one of the chief causes of poor security. If it's such a pain, save the key to a text file and put it on a thumb drive, or available on a share on a wired network, or a floppy disk, etc.

Re:My neighborhood

[Valar]

Actually, it is even worse than that, because locking ones windows and doors is common sense. Everyone knows to do that. Not everyone understands the finer points of computer security, because the vast majority of people didn't have that kind of information drilled into them while growing up.

Re:My neighborhood

[dourk]

Christ buddy, settle down. A crime? Technically, sure. Serious? Serious enough to call him a terrorist? You're nuts.

Re:My neighborhood

[Blakey Rat]

Bingo. I keep my access point unsecured on purpose because it doesn't bother me at all if people walking along want to use it. (Well, I do change the admin password, though...)

Anyway, your neighbors may not have been doing anything very wise, but at least they weren't breaking the law... the grandparent *was* breaking the law by hacking into their access points. Think about that one, and hope none of your neighbors called the cops.

Re:My neighborhood

[rlsthree]

There's one in my neigborhood that gives me a chuckle:

ESSID: ClydeSECURE
encryption: off

Mine personal essid is "DontEvenFuckingTry"

Re:My neighborhood

[Politburo]

I can't beleive that you'd screw with other people's property like that.

I'll kick your ass.

The cost you will incure to get your windshield repaired when I bust it up with my softball bat.

+1 hypocrisy.

No, "he started it" is not a valid defense.

Re:My neighborhood

[Val314]

> The real question is why you feel the need to "help your neighbors"? What's the point?

because i like them and really want to help them? (but telling them the problem would be the better way)

>An open AP is not hurting anyone.

most ISPs in Europe charge per GB, so having an open AP does hurt them.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Technically, probably not a crime.

Legend has it that you shouldn't put ** WELCOME TO ** in your telnet or SSH banners (because there is supposedly historical precedence for the defense that one was "invited" to enter the network.

Fact is, if I set my card to it's default and they set have their AP set at the default, their LINKSYS AP will advertise it's presence to me "inviting" me to connect. It will then in turn, without intervention on my part", "offer" me an IP address so that I can communicate with the network.

As long as you don't do anything that can be used to show plausible monetary damage, prosecution is pretty unlikely.

Re:My neighborhood

[soft_guy]

You don't have secure enough locks on your house to suit my tastes. So, I'm coming over to enter your home and I'm going to change the locks so you can't get in. This will help you RTFM about locks.

Sound fair?

Re:My neighborhood

[BobNET]

In both instances, the owners had a better SSID, enabled a new password and either WEP or WPA within a day or two. Mission accomplished

In the process committing a serious crime.

Sounds like he did them a favour. I recommend he send them a bill for his time. At least $200 each.

Re:My neighborhood

[forn28]

The funniest I saw is "septpechescapitaux" that can be translate to "Seven deadly sin".

Re:My neighborhood

[Tom]

Who made you King?

Linksys did. Dude, read the post you're replying to, ok?

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, just walk over and tell them, you stupid fucking nerd.

Re:My neighborhood

[Tassach]

Print the serial number of the device on the case of the box, use it as the default password

Uh huh. Can you say "tech support nightmare"? Not only that, it would mean you'd have to create one-off firmware for each and every unit. Every router I've ever used has a factory default password which gets used when you do a hardware reset, and for good reason: the drool monkeys who can't set the clock on their VCR are buying network gear and trying to make it work. The clueless tier 1 tech support goobers need to have a SIMPLE idiot-proof script they can read to the drool monkeys to get them back up and running when they inevitably dork things up.

Remember we're talking about the kind of end-users who set their password to their kids birthday and STILL manage to forget it. Actually expecting them to accurately transcribe a 20 digit alphanumeric string off the box (which they probably threw away immediately, along with the manual) is asking a bit much, and getting them to read the RIGHT number off a sticker on the unit (which likely has a half-dozen different numbers on it)

Re:My neighborhood

[Nephilium]

What I did promote was to RTFM. Manufacturers will never provide systems that are secure out of the box. This would create an abundance of returned items that supposedly "don't work." The problem lies within consumers not reading the damn manual. Most consumers don't know that security measures are available and/or needed, let alone eager enough to read a paragraph or two in order to learn how to set them up. Therefore, my simple hack only prompted my neighbors to read a paragraph or two, whereupon they learned how insecure their situation was and decided by themselves to change.

The problem is that the actual manual (at least for LinkSys) and the quickstart sheet specifically specify NOT to enable WEP. IIRC, it also never says to turn broadcast off, it just mentions that if you change the SSID that you will need to plug that information into your wireless card. It was one of scary quickstart guide.

Of course, I was hoping one of my neighbors had gotten broadband and a wireless network, and followed these splendid directions. It could have saved me some money... :)

Nephilium

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

I knew this little old lady who didn't lock one of her windows, so I snuck in and changed all her locks and added a vulgar greeting to her answering machine! Boy was that funny!
... And just last week, that paid off when houses on eihe rside of hers were broken into and the owners raped and mutilated, and all their belonings stolen. The criminals skipped over this old lady's house precisely because of her increased security.

You were saying?

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

You get what you pay for. If you want to buy a $5 router, your choice, but don't be surprised by its half-assed config that expects you to magically mind control it.

Re:My neighborhood

[tuba_dude]

Not completely on topic, but it's the same with my family's computer. Every time I'm home on vacation, they complain about popups and viruses. This time I decided to install AdAware and I paid for another year of Norton's live update. Everything is set to automatically update and run (even windows update), and I've replaced the Internet Explorer shortcut on the desktop with a firefox one (while keeping the icon the same). Yeah, it's a bit shady, but they wouldn't put the time in to fix the problems themselves, even when I layed out how to do it in what I hope was a user-friendly fashion.

Re:My neighborhood

[Asphalt]

The great thing about living in an apartment building in a dense urban area is that at any time you can see about 10 access points, 3 or 4 which are always wide open.

This provides a great backup solution for those times that your primary connection goes down.

I have "leeched" a few times when needed, but I have never run Kazaa or anything bandwidth intensive, never looked for open ports or file sharing on their network, and rotated to another open access after about an hour of use.

I doubt that they even knew I was there ... or cared.

If everyone would just be semi-decent about wireless access points, and not abuse things, most major cities would have multiple redundancy redudancy and internet uptime darn close to 100%.

Re:My neighborhood

[wannasleep]

they all come with some setup CDs. All You need is a wizard that will guide you through. No need to RTFM. Of course, this would work for windows only. There could also be a big label on your router that says: go to the address http://, your password is . Not too hard, still secure.

Re:My neighborhood

[darco]

Next time you feel like doing something illegal and obnoxious, how about just changing the default admin password and leaving the rest of the access point as it was. Considering that that the only real thing they have to fear if the kind of valdalism you executed, changing the password would protect them from their own ignorance.

That is, of course, if you actually are trying to help someone rather than just get juvenile kicks from network vandalism.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anomylous Howard]

Sounds like he did them a favour. I recommend he send them a bill for his time. At least $200 each.

And offer to "help" them again if they forget to pay the bill?

Re:My neighborhood

[Macrolord]

How come folks such as yourself never use Buddha, Mohammed, etc.. in a vain way?

Why use Christ?, or why do people "Goddamn" something when He does not even exist? What is the point of that? Can anyone clarify?

Seems odd that you might reference a name so specifically, yet so generically.

OT-1

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, it's not like just about every shrink wrapped piece of software has required users to type in long, cryptic, seemingly meaningless strings of random numbers and letters in order to get the software to work. I mean, what the hell was the grandparent thinking?

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey. The router I got from SBC has a serial number on the bottom, and that is the default WEP key.

Re:My neighborhood

[AK Marc]

If your neighbor "insisted" on leaving his door unlocked, would you go in his house and pee on his carpet, just because you could? That would be equally funny.

Well, if be broadcast his carpet into the bathroom in my house, I would pee on it.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, if you vandalize someone else's property, and it's not self defense, you invite violence upon yourself.

However, the appropriate amount of violence to use in return is only enough to stop the original vandalism. Therefore, taking a baseball bat to his wireless card (or entire laptop if it's built in) would be justified, but I don't see how smashing his car window would be at all useful.

Not that any of this is allowed under the law - just that there is a moral justification to defend yourself and your property from harm.

Re:My neighborhood

[nothingtodo]

heh, I use fcough as my SSID. There's two default linksys SSIDs I've discovered in my neighborhood.

Re:My neighborhood

[dourk]

Perhaps it was a christian upbringing gone bad?

Perhaps "Mohammed, buddy" wouldn't elicit the same response?

Maybe it's just a phrase.

Re:My neighborhood

[xRelisH]

What if the routers used a one-time-only ( that is, after you change the password it no longer does this check, unless you do a full restore to defaults ) CD-key like password? Print out a 6-8 digit key on the router somewhere, and have it so that the firmware will accept a certain set of keys.
So every 200 or so units, change the key checking algorithm slightly ( like changing a constant in it ) and generate 200 keys for those units that only work for those 200 units.

This way, there is no default password for all of the routers and a keygen app would be difficult to make.

This might be a little excessive but I think it would be worth it for those who change their passwords a month after they've set up their router ( or not changing it at all ).

Re:My neighborhood

[phoenix.bam!]

Drop me an email and I'll help you out.

Re:My neighborhood

[The Dodger]

You don't have the right to decide how other people should manage their network.

The right? No. The ability? Yes.

Terrorising people into behaving in the way you think they should is despicable. Who made you King?

GUARDS! TAKE THIS MAN OUTSIDE AND BEHEAD HIM!

Just because something's Evil doesn't mean you shouldn't do it...

D.
..is for Darwinism...

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, that guy has a LinkSys router just like me. I bet if I used my key, I could get into his system.

Re:My neighborhood

[ideonode]

How come folks such as yourself never use Buddha, Mohammed, etc.. in a vain way?

Jeez, lighten up!

Re:My neighborhood

[NeoSkandranon]

2Wire wireless enabled ADSL modems have a 10 digit string on the bottom which is the default wireless password (and it's enabled by default IIRC)

if 2wire can do it it cant be that difficult

Re:My neighborhood

[HeyLaughingBoy]

It's about an apropriate level of security

Exactly right. There's no need to build a vault to keep wardrivers out, just make sure you're harder to break into than the guy down the street.

Re:My neighborhood

[fataugie]

Back in the day, my brother and I shared an apt. near RIT (Generic Village). We had an old lady living next door. We, being young, idiotic late teenagers would always lock ourselves out of the apt. It had no deadbolt. So, we had a screwdriver in the weeds outside the door we used to let ourselves in when we screwed up. one day, the old lady locked herself out. "No problem" I said, went outside, came over with the screwdriver and before she could finish saying "Maybe we should call Maintenance" I had her door open and let her back in. I think it suprised her how fast we could get in.

Needless to say, she looked at us funny the rest of the time we lived there.

Re:My neighborhood

[_ph1ux_]

Driving down 101 the other day, near the san jose airport. I pulled out my machine to scan, and found one called "grandma"

I thought that was realyl funny.

Re:My neighborhood

[AK Marc]

No, "he started it" is not a valid defense.

Well, in TX, he could have shot and killed him for it, as long as it was night. So yes, "he started it" is a valid defense.

Re:My neighborhood

[mcrbids]

I feel like broadcasting my SSID and changing it to 'I'm at number 35, for god's sake please come over and speek to me about wireless network security!'

Using the admin passwords, set up a default route so that 0.0.0.0/0 routes to goatse or a porn site.

They'll get the idea REAL QUICK that way....

Re:My neighborhood

[_ph1ux_]

When I was in taiwan airport, I found one called default - so I went to the GW ip and found out what router it was, used it to go online and DL the usermanual to find the default password. As I was attempting to log into the device, I was cut off...

They found me and promptly locked it down. I jsut happened to see the thing as they were setting up. Too bad I hadnt been a little faster - I would have been able to change it PW and lock them out :)

Re:My neighborhood

[Politburo]

I can't tell if you're making a dig at Texas, or if you're serious.

So answer this: Do you believe that it is legal in the State of Texas to shoot someone for accessing your unsecured AP and changing the password (assuming, like you say, it is night)?

Re:My neighborhood

[kd5ujz]

And they would have had the strenuous task of holding down the reset button to get back in.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with you...

Hope your sperm count is low.

Re:My neighborhood

[dubl-u]

I'm glad to let neighbors use my bandwidth, so my SSID is my street number and street name (e.g., "123_Oak").

This was good, in that it led me to meet a couple of the neighbors. But it was bad in that one of them rang my doorbell to get tech support for their own wireless network. *sigh*

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

It isn't arrogance if you're right.

No. It's still arrogance. It's just justified arrogance :-)

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

how would they know what mac address to clone? is this possible?

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

Look up "deterrent". Deterrents aren't effective unless they are demonstrated occasionally.

You people on /. need to go outside once in a while and notice that violence is a conflict resolution device that has been successfully used for a very, very long time.

Joe

Re:My neighborhood

[bigpat]

"I will agree that my methods are not rewardable but they got the job done."

Let me guess, your father also beat you regularly telling you that once you could defend yourself you would be a real man.

What you say you did is not only "not rewardable" it is reprehensible. It is the problem, not the solution.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

In both instances, the owners had a better SSID, enabled a new password and either WEP or WPA within a day or two. Mission accomplished

Pissed off two people...check
Committed a federal offense...check
Killed your own backup access to the internet...check

You should promote yourself to vice-president.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a Protestant Christian, so I always use Joseph Smith.

"JOSEPH SMITH, why'd you leave the default password on your wireless router?!?!?!"

I have nothing against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but their leader's name has the right number of syllables for a good expletive.

Re:My neighborhood

[Politburo]

You made absolutely no point.

I never said that violence isn't effective in some cases. What I pointed out was how the GP went from saying "How could you not respect someone's property?" to "I'll smash your windshield and kick your ass" in a 5 line post.

That kind of hypocrisy is rampant in our society (US), and I'm fucking sick of this "do as I say, not as I do" bullshit. If you want to moralize, you can start by having morals.

Re:My neighborhood

[AK Marc]

So answer this: Do you believe that it is legal in the State of Texas to shoot someone for accessing your unsecured AP and changing the password (assuming, like you say, it is night)?

If the act of tampering with your wireless access point is considered Criminal Mischief, yes.

Texas Penal Code 9.42. DEADLY FORCE TO PROTECT PROPERTY.
A person is justified in using deadly force against another to protect land or tangible, movable property [...] to prevent the other's imminent commission of [...] criminal mischief during the nighttime;

28.03. CRIMINAL MISCHIEF.
A person commits an offense if [...] he intentionally or knowingly tampers with the tangible property of the owner and causes pecuniary loss or substantial inconvenience to the owner or a third person;


So, if someone is purposefully tampering with your gear in order cause you inconvenience at night, it appears to be legal to shoot them in Texas. There may be some argument about what is a "substantial" inconvenience and such, but the point is clear.

Re:My neighborhood

[mcrbids]

I knew this little old lady who didn't lock one of her windows, so I snuck in and changed all her locks and added a vulgar greeting to her answering machine! Boy was that funny!

Yeah, but you have to look at intent. Really. If I go to some stranger's car at a parking lock, open it, and sit down inside it, I'm clearly commiting a crime. But, if I turn off the headlights that were left on, write a message on my business card, and then leave, it'd be hard to argue that I'd actually commited a crime.

Technically, I did - breaking an entering. But, at least in California, INTENT is part of the definition of what a crime actually is. You run a risk, as there's a line you're clearly skirting.

But, in the case of your little old lady, you didn't take her life savings did you? And, by changing her answering machine, you did something to prevent her from losing her life savings a-la identify theft, didn't you?

You run the risk of pissing her off, going to court, and potentially being found. But, if you don't do anything, SHE runs the riks of losing her life savings.

What if you put "Hi there! This is -Address- and I left my window open. Somebody else is leaving this message so that I know to lock my window next time" as the message on the answering machine instead? Then, lock the window on the way out? She'd get a good warning, and it'd be hard to argue that you did anything but the equivalent of turning the headlights off...

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't force them to enable better security measures...

Bullcookies. You forced them to change all of their security settings by denying them access to their own network. If I burned your house down, I couldn't very well argue that I didn't force you to move since you could always camp in the soggy ashes.

Yes, they could have changed their security settings back to the "trust your neighbours" defaults but unfortunately they just found out that live next door to the kind of a**hole who would kill their internet access. It is quite possible that they would like to open their network to the public but that is clearly not possible where they live now because they have the kind of neighbours that would not only abuse that priviledge but spit in their face while doing it.

JM2C

Re:My neighborhood

[frishack]

An open AP is not hurting anyone

Actually open APs are used to post pirated warez/movies/child porn/send spam. Yes people are hurt by these people's ignorance.

Re:My neighborhood

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Mine is specifically designed for this. SSID of www.personaltelco.net - in hopes of one day joining this hobbyist group and providing free net access to the park across the street. In keeping with that group, the access point is a Linksys router on my lan, and while I don't have WEP turned on about the only open port you'll find is 80- all others are either filtered at the access point, or port forwarded to a machine on my network. Sure, this means that SSL is not available, but it also means that nobody is going to be sending spam from my LAN.

Re:My neighborhood

[Marxist Hacker 42]

I get your point. I agree that my methods are not great, but does anybody have a better idea to help their neighbors?

Ever thought, just a thought, of e-mailing them and offering your services for a beer?

Re:My neighborhood

[Andy Dodd]

2wire tends to sell to more technically inclined users.

There's a reason you don't see their products in Worst Buy, etc.

Re:My neighborhood

[ergo98]

Spam is bad, and warezing can be arguably destructive in a white collar IP society, but I think it's ridiculous to mix child porn in with those -- it is a world more evil and destructive, and it's patrons truly are the scourge of our planet.

I WPA and MAC-filter my router not because I'm hoarding my bits, but because I'm not going to help the scum of the world get their fix. Given the child porn angle I consider it gross negligence for people to offer up anonymous internet access.

Re:My neighborhood

[timeOday]

Yes people are hurt by these people's ignorance.

No they aren't. There are a thousand other ways to get on the 'net annonymously, which is fine with me.

It baffles me how geeks can agonize of the lack of wireless security without realizing the obvious: if it mattered, people would care more. There would be horror stories in the popular press, like there are for identity theft.

Re:My neighborhood

[cymen]

SBC Yahoo DSL uses 2wire devices. $26.95/month DSL means more than technically inclined users are going to be using the devices. The default WEP is only 64 bits.

Re:My neighborhood

[bluesky74656]

I once brought my laptop to the airport thinking it would be fun to see what I could connect to. Then I thought of the federal prison I would in all likelihood get sent to if I was caught, and decided that tetris was probably better.

Re:My neighborhood

[NanoGator]

"So I changed their SSID to "Yeasty Cunts" and then I booted and blocked them off their own network. I felt that doing this would teach them a little lesson in security."

It taught me a lesson on how to be an asshole.

Re:My neighborhood

[Citizen of Earth]

I like the one I use: "SkyNet": a literal interpretation of the nature of the network and a bonus movie reference.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

No only that, but you have to be within a certain physical radius of the AP to even get connected. If you need to be physically present to some extent, it makes it less likely that someone is going to use if for kiddie pr0n, etc.

Re:My neighborhood

[ergo98]

No they aren't. There are a thousand other ways to get on the 'net annonymously, which is fine with me.

Yet strangely there is a growing problem of child porn surfers cruising neighbourhoods looking for open relays (which is _truly_ anonymous. There are few options as anonymous as wirelessly connecting to a network far from where you live. Most anonymity on the net is nothing but a myth). In Toronto the police happened upon a guy spanking it whlie his laptop with kiddy porn (gathered via a wireless connection he hijacked) sat in the passenger seat. Two weeks ago a seedy looking middle-aged fellow sat in his car in front of my house (I run a WAP, though it's as secure as they get) trying to do something - I doubt he was trying to download the latest CD. He took off when I stepped outside. If you can't see this as a problem then you are naive.

Re:My neighborhood

[elemental23]

Spam is bad, and warezing can be arguably destructive in a white collar IP society, but I think it's ridiculous to mix child porn in with those

I'm not the original poster, but I assume these examples were given because they are all bad things that can get you in trouble if someone else uses your AP for them. I'm pretty sure no one was claiming that they were equal in severity.

Re:My neighborhood

[BrK]

No, but I might wander in and turn his TV upside down or something. That would depend on my mood, peeing on the carpet would be mean (albeit humorous). Fucking with his AP isn't mean, and is intended to provide a doze of clue-x-four (which admittedly doesn't seem to be working).

Re:My neighborhood

[gnugie]

One-off firmware for each and every unit? Auto industry's been customizing each and every electronic controller for at least 15 years now. This is child's play.

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

So what happens when you start getting tools which do this automatically? Drive through town with a laptop and bingo, 562 networks are now called "Yeasty Cunts".

Re:My neighborhood

[Doctor O]

Can you say "tech support nightmare"?
You've got it all backwards. Can you say "tech support wet dream"?

"Okay, now enter your router password."
-"I dunno. What is it?"
-"Pick up the small box with the blinkenlights, theres a huge 8-digit number printed on it, this is it."
-"Okay, I'm in. What now?"

Have you ever been doing tech support at some mid-sized ISP? People can't even tell you which router they have which would allow for resetting the device and using some DPL. Next thing is usually they start yelling at you about your 'incompetence'. Poor souls. Life must suck for those if their stupidity drags them down that much.

Re:My neighborhood

[dgatwood]

Better yet, just have them automatically route the web draffic to the internal web server on the first outbound connection.

The first thing that should pop up is a screen asking you to set a new admin password. The second thing that should come up is a screen explaining how to configure WEP. The third thing should be the configuration screen itself so you can actually do it.

Re:My neighborhood

[response3]

The problem is that the actual manual (at least for LinkSys) and the quickstart sheet specifically specify NOT to enable WEP

No it doesn't. It says to setup your AP without WEP to verify connectivity, then turn on WEP once you know that your signal is working. It's the same reason that you don't test a VPN before you have a connection, then wonder why you can't connect. It's called start simple, then add layers of complexity once you know that each previous level is working properly.

Re:My neighborhood

[dgatwood]

It isn't at all like burning someone's house down. More like realizing that your neighbor left his/her house unlocked, walking up to the front door, taking the door knob off, and installing your own lock, locking it behind you, and leaving the old lock on the kitchen table with a note attached that says "try using it next time".

Besides, you can leave access to the 'net open without leaving the default administrator password. Leaving WEP off is one thing. Leaving an AP with a default admin password is another thing entirely. It's like the difference between leaving your car unlocked and leaving your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition and a manual called "how to drive" on the front seat.

Frankly, I think it's freakin' hilarious.

Re:My neighborhood

[inhalentbroom]

"There would be horror stories in the popular press, like there are for identity theft."

And I suppose broadcasting unencrypted credit card numbers, names, passwords, etc... within a 100 meter radius over an easily accessible wireless standered doesn't contribute to identity theft at all? The people whos network had the SSID changed were probably pissed but I would bet they would be more pissed if someone stole their credit card number (via unsecure network) and went on a shopping spree.

Re:My neighborhood

[timeOday]

All the sensitive data - such as credit cards, since you mentioned it - is already sent over ssl, with much more security than WEP can provide, much less a non-default SSID.

Re:My neighborhood

[Zeinfeld]

Wow, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with you... Hope your sperm count is low.

If ever there was an invitation to a dick size measuring contest this would be it...

Re:My neighborhood

[Anonymous Coward]

What if the owner didn't care if it was "secured"? A lot of people don't care if you borrow their internet connection for a while. They probably added the security afterwards just to keep buttholes like you from screwing with it.

If I saw you in person, I'd whack you in the head with a baseball bat, just to prove to you that you should have been wearing a helmet.

Re:My neighborhood

[ryanmfw]

You really are dumb, you know that?

Full address

[ufoman]

I found one once that gave the full address. Including the apartment number.

Re:Full address

[Cat_Byte]

I knew someone who did that. They just wanted ppl to come by and ask for access so they could at least try to control who was on the network. Most people have more bandwidth than they want and some don't mind sharing.

Re:Full address

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I'm going to take the time to knock on your door to ask permission to use your AP... not.

Re:Full address

[tomjen]

How raised you? Did they not teach you to not take things without being asked.

best SSID

[Anonymous Coward]

FirstPost

- Moomin

Re:best SSID

[djsmiley]

that was a joke.... ffs

Well, i THINK it was?,

wait, A/C? maybe it wasn't but it WOULD of been funny ;)

Re:Best SSID

[AKnightCowboy]

I think the one most relevent to current events is the coolest. That'd be Cisco's "tsunami" default SSID on some of their access points.

Re:Best SSID

[Sinus0idal]

Although lots of people are bashing it, I think default is actually quite a good name (assuming that the router isn't still in its completely default config!) Linksys is not so good as it gives away the manufacturer and allows an attacker to target the attacks. I do however think that default is a lot better than people using house or family names, as that identifies where the AP is. Even using mordor or middleearth or similar can give away your interests, and thus possibly who you are to someone who knows your street well... default is nice and unassuming.

Re:Best SSID

[Anonymous Coward]

If I had an AP in my hose, why would I care if someone knew my address? Are terrorists out there searching the globe for the locations of $60 wireless routers? Besides, they can just wander around and mark where the signal boundaries are and my house would be at the center of the circle. Its broadcasting, so its not going to be very secret.

Re:Best SSID

[Anonymous Coward]

It becomes much harder for an adversary to do what you say when you have several different access points, who have overlapping broadcast ranges, broadcasting the same SSID. Think!

Re:Best SSID

[emilymildew]

But since linksys uses linksys, aren't there specific routers that use default? Thus using default is the same as using linksys; one can easily look up the default user/pass and log in to it.

Re:Best SSID

[Mindwarp]

Even using mordor or middleearth or similar can give away your interests, and thus possibly who you are to someone who knows your street well

Exactly. Take, for example, the SSID "PoopyYard" which is present in my neighbourhood. The guy who lives at the back of our house owns four dogs. Any guess where this SSID is being broadcast from?

I kid you not.

Re:Best SSID

[EvilTwinSkippy]

I'll just wave that one on.

Re:Best SSID

[Sinus0idal]

No terrorists might not be looking for you, but if 'that other guy' at work has just had his promotion given to you instead, he might be out looking..

Re:Best SSID

[EvilTwinSkippy]

So what does an SSID of ETOYOC tell you about me?

Re:Best SSID

[JLyle]

I recently discovered that one of my neighbors' WAPs has the SSID "defualt" (note the misspelling). I'm still not sure if it was done as a joke, or if he just can't spell.

I named mine "unplugged", which seemed pretty clever at the time I set it up (about two years ago).

Re:Best SSID

[fshalor]

I think the'll probably be changing that due to it's negative connotations in the future.

Elements is my favorite. *you know who you are*. And if you see it; bug ogg! It's protected.

I went through a dorm hall a few months back with my iBook before the rouge ap's got shut down. Funny stuff. :)

They all had MAC filtering on the floor I went through, though no wep.

One of the extra campus dep's here uses only MAC filt.

The main campus uses vernier boxes in front of the dhcp server and router. You try and get on and a webpage with login info gets shoved at you on port 80. GOod system.

Re:Best SSID

[bay43270]

Linksys is not so good as it gives away the manufacturer and allows an attacker to target the attacks.

It gives away a manufacturer; not the manufacturer. My 'Linksys' might be running on an Airport.

Re:Best SSID

[MountainMan101]

That you like Road Runner (read the SSID backwards).

Re:Best SSID

[saigon_from_europe]

With or without the name of the manufacturer, it is the same. You can always discover the manufacturer - MAC address is unique, and its first part is assotiated with the manufacturer.

Re:Best SSID

[Anonymous Coward]

If I had an AP in my hose...

Helluva strange place for one!

Re:Best SSID

[Durin_Deathless]

My school blocks torrent. One day, doing laundry, my iBook offers to connect to 'linksys' for me. I agree. It's an unprotected WRT54G. Default passwords. I torrented an ISO that I'd been needing badly.
Oh, I later located the house with the AP. It was 1500 feet away, and had just a taste under 2 bars of signal. Not bad for unmodified consumer hardware....

Re:Best SSID

[jerryasher]

In my apartment complext, my WAP is locked down through IP filters. Yes, I know that's neither secure nor locked down. But it's good enough for my needs. (And actually, I think that proving you're an incompetent sysadmin may be a good thing in these Ashcroftian, DRM'd days.)

My SSID is my phone number.

Intriguingly, in the three years I've been here, the SSID's went from mine alone, to about three or four others, some secured, some not. And my phone has never rung with someone looking for a temporary connection.

It's never been called.

I'm a bit surprised to read all these 5 posts where all these friendly geeks have all these obnoxious and relatively useless WAP policies.

Re:Best SSID

[Technician]

Generic names most always mean I get free wireless access.


My friend upgraded to .11g. I got the old .11b. I don't have broadband. I think it would be fun jut to power it up (changed password) with the default SSID, but not connected to anything. It might be fun to watch a wardriver stop and try to hack it.

Re:Best SSID

[jpoage]

Mine is currently named "The Matrix"

Re:Best SSID

[drew]

i did something sort of like that for a while. last time i moved, i didn't get internet access at my new apartment for about 3 months. i still powered up the access point, which was hooked up to an old web server i use for testing, so that i still mess around with it using my wife's laptop when i had reason to. i had some security enabled on it, but less than any of the other access points in range from my unit.

i never looked at the logs that close to really see if anyone had tried, but it was amusing to imagine somebody's frustration after successfully hacking in and then finding out that they didn't have access to anything useful.

when i finally got cable, i added mac filters to the configuration, just in case.

Re:Best SSID

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine is "surfcheap.biz LOW RATES"

Over 40 APs in the area...nobody bothers with mine.

Re:Best SSID

[Ash-Fox]

Pirating Microsoft Office eh?

Re:Best SSID

[codeconfused]

I like "FBI-STING" I bet that will scare them away

Re:Best SSID

[X0563511]

One problem with your argument - even NetStumbler gets the AP's fingerprint and identifies the vendor.

Re:Best SSID

[EvilTwinSkippy]

I actually built a firewall to do that using Linux. Amazing the power if IPTABLES, MySQL, and a couple of TCL scripts to tie the two together.

The application was a metering system for a Coffee Shop. You would show up, try to access the net, and would be greeted by a message telling you to see the person at the counter to activate your connection.

Re:Best SSID

[EvilTwinSkippy]

You sir are at the Acme of intellect.

Truth be told, it's the Coyote who was my favorite. What an embodyment of the engineering can do. No matter how many anvils get dropped on your head, keep plugging away at a solution.

At the same time, what an embodyment of the problems of the engineering mindset! No matter how many times it blows up in your face, keep plugging away at ever more elaborate technical solutions.

Re:Best SSID

[mjpaci]

This sounds like a question one would see from an avid Ask Marilyn reader.

Another favorite: In order to solve global warming, why doesn't everyone turn on their air conditioners and open their windows.

She didn't have an answer for that reader. I don't know if she didn't answer it because 1) it was a stupid question that any high-school physics student should be able to answer or 2) she had no clue.

--Mike

Re:Best SSID

[windex]

Where I live, in the middle of nowhere, my linksys router can't even break my property line from my house (hell, I'm connected via Direcway, ugh). I lovingly named the AP 'plzsniffme' and put no encryption/authentication/security of any kind on it, although it does make log entries for mac addresses not in a very short list.

Re:Best SSID

[Anonymous Coward]

tsunami: suitable for ping floods...

Re:Best SSID

[jjhall]

I don't see how it is a problem to use a street address as an SSID. If somebody wants to figure out what house the AP is in, all it takes is a Pringles can (or less) and a couple dollars in parts. They can then look at the numbers on the front of the house, and they have the exact same information as before. I know what house every AP in my neighborhood belongs to, without even using directional antennas. I have spoken with their owners (was helping resolve interference problems in the neighborhood) and confirmed my guesses. If you don't want anyone finding out what house has the wireless AP, you probably shouldn't use wireless equipment in that house.

Using the address, or a phone number, or even both as I do, makes it very easy to get in contact with the owner should the need arise. If an AP is malfunctioning or misconfigured and is causing interference, the owner should be contacted and informed.

The other reason I have my phone number in mine is because if someone else wants to use it, they can. I don't want Johnny Scriptkiddy driving through and screwing with it. But if a neighbor has a guest staying who wants to use my wireless, that is fine. Long and short of it, if someone has the decency to call and ask permission, I will give them my WPA key. My AP is on a separate subnet and requires VPN to access my wired network, so I don't mind giving local people access. Without VPN, all they can do is browse the web and check e-mail.

No matter how you look at it, using wireless has some risks to it. The best way the average home user can protect themselves is to enable WEP (or WPA if available) and lock down the MAC addresses. Using an accurate and descriptive SSID is not a risk, and can actually be very helpfull. Turning off SSID broadcast does absolutely no good and can cause additional problems.

Advanced users and corporate users obviously have more options available to them, but out-of-the-box configuration options are adequate for home users as long as they configure them.

Jeremy

Re:Best SSID

[Anonymous Coward]

My parent's AP is named "I'm Rick James!".

Nobody will ever associate that name with my parents.

Mine is "w00t!!one" Not exactly the name you'd associate with a 40 year old, though I admit to living in my _own_ basement.

Re:Best SSID

[antic]

Ours is called "we can see you from up here".

Re:Best SSID

[Trejkaz]

Exactly. And if you set your SSID to "default" or "router", and actually do secure the thing heavily, then you cause a lot of grief for weenies who think they can get free access. :-)

Re:Best SSID

[v1]

I've set my SSID to "call (my phone number)" and leave WEP off. But then my WAP is on the outside of my NAT router, on its own IP address. As with yours, all they can do is internet and soforth, not play with my machines. I have my WAP set to email me access logs periodically, and so far I've only seen one foreign MAC in the logs, and I have yet to get a phonecall. But then I'm in an "old" neighborhood, not too many grannies with wifi cards around here I guess.

Re:Best SSID

[Yottabyte84]

Linksys is not so good as it gives away the manufacturer and allows an attacker to target the attacks.

The mac address give away the manufacturer as well, and that can't be changed.

Re:best SSID

[djsmiley]

BTW you play q3? I had a guy called moomin once train me up...

or maybe CS? as this guy called moomin came into our lan gaming center and owned EVERYONE on the stats for way over a month.

best ssid

[broyles]

either kingdoms_west or hackme_n_die or leave_me_alone or unsecured_network

Best SSID

[harlingtoxad]

The best SSIDs are generic names like linksys or default. Generic names most always mean I get free wireless access.

SSID which was the 64bit wep key in hex

[timecop]

N/T

In a local coffee shop...

[DigitalGodBoy]

Found one that said "SECURE_ME". A quick Windows share enumeration showed sales data and presumably credit card information avaliable to anyone who was listening.

I informed the business owner that it needed to the secured, and he said his ISP had called and asked him about an "open access point - whatever that is". I sighed and left.

Re:In a local coffee shop...

[jrockway]

Many APs at my school are called "0wned by sf_killer". Who could have done that?

Re:In a local coffee shop...

[Politburo]

A quick Windows share enumeration showed sales data and presumably credit card information avaliable to anyone who was listening.

I'm not sure why you make this presumption. You say it's a local coffee shop, so any credit card purchases would likely be put into a standalone card reader/transmitter like almost all small businesses (and even some large ones). Now, you've been in the shop, and I probably haven't, so you may have seen something that led you to believe this, like cashier software running on a windows box with integrated CC reader, etc., but with just an open Windows share, there's no reason to assume that CC data is available, though it's certainly a possibility.

802.11 ray beams known to cause lumps in brain

[Anonymous Coward]

We live in an apt and named our SSID "ware da filez at" - A nice change from the dozens of defaults and "rr-wireless xx" ones in our vicinity.

I swear when 802.11 cancer comes out, everyone in our apts are screwed.

Address

[vboivie]

The address (somewhat abbreviated) where I live, in case someone wants to ask me for access (since it is "protected" by WEP).

Re:Address

[jaredmauch]

This is what I and my Neighbor do. It's nice becuase if you have conflicts you can figure it out easily. :)

It also means that if you're cataloging them, you don't necessarily need a GPS to know where they are. If you ever see 8285ReeseLaneAP, it's likely me :)

Re:Address

[R.Caley]

DNS name of the box, with .s changed to -s. Very obvious which one is which that way, and if you have a half way reasonable domain people who need to know will know it is yours.

Of course, then you have to come up with a decent DNS name. Mine is `gaga', because it was all I can hear due to the nice heavy masonry walls of these traditional blocks.

Re:Address

[Megane]

I have mine set to one of my e-mail addresses. Or at least I did until I set up an AirPort base station as a second base. The Linksys software didn't care, but apparently there's a spec that says "@" isn't allowed in an SSID, and someone at Apple actually read it. Still, as far as I know, nobody's sent me e-mail because of it.

So now it's my e-mail address with @ changed to " at ". And my WEP-40 key is posted in a prominent spot in my living room, because the house is wired for Ethernet, and anyone who is already in the house might as well be given the wireless key, too.

Re:Address

[codeguy007]

40Bit WEP, you want to get hacked do ya? I have a friend who can hack 128 Bit WEP in 2 hours if the network is busy enough.

Re:Address

[Megane]

Why would anyone hack me when there are two open networks I can reach from my driveway? There's nothing useful in my network except internet access, and most of my machines run OS X, too.

Here's the choice: spend hours to hack my network, or seconds to associate with the neighbors' networks. And AIUI, hacking WEP actually requires traffic, so you have to wait for me to get home first.

Re:Address

[codeguy007]

Why access a network that's no challenge when you can access a network that a bit of a challenge. There's no skill required in logging onto an open network thus there's nothing to brag about.

Strange ones I've seen

[a_nonamiss]

Not trying to be funny here, but I've seen HACKME and my boss insists that I use his last name so that he can remember it. (Even though it's broadcasted.)

I just hope he doesn't get mad at me when he gets hacked and someone starts downloading child porn and The Anarchist's Cookbook using his broadband connection.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[dmayle]

someone starts downloading child porn and The Anarchist's Cookbook

Why are these two even in the same sentence? The Anarchist's Cookbook is legal to peruse and distribute. Most of the things you can learn from it can be used for shady purposes, but the information is still protected by the first ammendment...

Discussion of how to copy DVDs, however...

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[Anonymous Coward]

wifion
carlton
default
" "
MacPoint
AirportHome
Macrocks
Airport1
Dudi k
Home
Office
WLAN
WIFI
802.11G

all of these in a 500 Meter radius..

It's good to be me...

Without going into detail, you can raise an eth without an IP and snort away...

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[yivi]

If he forgets his lastname it makes sense to have it broadcasted, otherwise he wouldn't be able to get that practical reminder.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[a_nonamiss]

Downloading either one will get you noticed by the feds. Don't fool yourself. I know TAC is perfectly legal and all, but don't for a second think that every time you download it doesn't go into your "file" somewhere. Hell, this message is going into my file for sure.

Hello Feds! Just going about my business here. Nothing to see.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[presarioD]

Downloading either one will get you noticed by the feds. Don't fool yourself. I know TAC is perfectly legal and all, but don't for a second think that every time you download it doesn't go into your "file" somewhere. Hell, this message is going into my file for sure.

In fact even thinking about it gets you registered into the... File. Not only talking about it or even going to the extreme of downloading it.

The Feds take freedom and democracy seriously!

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[mrogers]

The Anarchist's Cookbook is legal to peruse and distribute. Most of the things you can learn from it can be used for shady purposes, but the information is still protected by the first ammendment...

I hate to sound like an extremist (OK I don't really), but why isn't the same true of child porn? Pictures of people being beheaded are legal, even though beheading people isn't. Personally I think people who look at beheading pictures are sick, but I think they have the right to look.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[EllisDees]

2 words: plausable deniability!

Feel free to download all the bomb making material and kiddie porn you want while simultaneously running bittorrent, LimeWire, and Kazaa at the same time. You can always say "It was someone on my open access point, not me!", but you better have a well-encrypted drive.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[Ash-Fox]

" " is used by secured belkin routers.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[andi75]

And then explain to the judge that "yes, your honor, this drive is encrypted to the point the NSA can't break in, but no, I'm too stupid to enable WEP, and no, I just can't remember the pass-phrase for the drive".

- Andreas

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[falconed]

You can always say "It was someone on my open access point, not me!", but you better have a well-encrypted drive.

Except that with the search warrant, they'll find out how well you encrypted your data and all of a sudden your deniability isn't so plausable anymore.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[llefler]

The Feds take freedom and democracy seriously!

Shouldn't that be....

The Feds take freedom and democracy, seriously!

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[MaynardJanKeymeulen]

Because to make pictures of someone being beheaded,
someone had to be beheaded.

For making child porn,
children have to be abused.
I hope you don't want those things to happen
otherwise I wouldn't mind seeing you featured in a beheading movie...

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[EllisDees]

There is certainly no law saying that you have to secure your wireless access points, nor that you have to monitor what's going through them. As for the encrypted drive, well you wouldn't want hackers getting your data through that open WAP! ;)

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[andi75]

Actually, there's probably a law against it. Same reason why you can't just leave a loaded weapon lying around, or a car with the key in the ignition (at least around here).

- Andreas

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[mrogers]

Of course I don't want children to be abused, or hostages to be beheaded. My point was that images of something illegal shouldn't necessarily be illegal.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[elemental23]

Tell that to the Texas parks department. Also to the hundreds of coffee shops and other businesses that provide free wireless internet access to their customers.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[dcam]

Encryption works really well, until they get a court order forcing you to give it up. You'd be better off having a means of destroying the data real quickly if necessary.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[Jherek Carnelian]

this drive is encrypted to the point the NSA can't break in, but no, I'm too stupid to enable WEP, and no, I just can't remember the pass-phrase for the drive".

If you are akamai enough to encrypt your hard disk with that level of security, then you are smart enough to use a physical token, like a usb flash-drive, to contain a nice big and completely unmemorizable "pass-phrase."

Too bad you were just dumb enough to have somehow misplaced it in a burning fireplace when your PC was confiscated -- probably due to the emotional stress the confiscation caused you.

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[Cracell]

heh I decided to make mine appear open, I've got it on MACS, which is easier to hack, but they'd have to know what they were doing, and if they do then my little linksys router can't keep them out no matter how hard I try, so minus well make it easy mine is named CranNetwork though I must admit my wired network is named mshome, it's just easier to hook up others pc's since that's the default name

Re:Strange ones I've seen

[pyro17]

To my knowledge it is only illegal to download The Anarchist's Cookbook if you dont already own the book itself. I don't think the writers will be comming after you, and i doubt the publisher. But if you own the book you can download it legally in the USA. Knowledge is power.

What

[Rexz]

A single, not particularly busy thread on a fairly obscure webpage. Linked from the front page of Slashdot.

Seriously?

NEWSFLASH: SOMEONE WHO PLAYS EVERQUEST DOESN'T KNOW WHICH CASE TO CHOOSE

Re:What

[Roofus]

Obscure? Broadband Reports (formerly DSL Reports) is the best source of information for all things DSL/Cable (and now VOIP too). Everybody else seems to know that, except you.

The knowledge of cable and DSL there is much better than what I see on /.

Re:What

[CaptRespect]

That's no excuse for how lame this "story" is.

What's next?

What's the best ringtone! LOL!!1
What's the best bt client??!! LOL!!!1
Wha'ts teh candy?? LOL!!!1(pol)
What's the best advice....LOL!!1
LOL! LOL! LOL!

wow just wow

[Kyle Hamilton]

the best one is the persons street number but close to that is the one marked "free"

-1 Lame

[CaptRespect]

Wow, a "story" on a slashdot forum about a lame "what's the best post" on another forum.

Too bad I can't mod the entire story as -1 LAME.

Re:-1 Lame

[Loco3KGT]

No shit. Not a single one of those in the story post on /. even made me crack a smile. This site is going to shit.

Re:-1 Lame

[The Good Reverend]

And yet you're spending time posting to it/about it? Who's lame?

The best

[CypherXero]

is "linksys". From that point, I know that the AP is unsecured, and has a default admin password. I visit a cafe a lot in my town, and they have wireless internet that you have to PAY for, and it's like $20/hour, which is ridiculous to pay that much for wireless internet access. But what's more amusing is that it's unencrypted AND still has the default password to the admin console. I feel sorry for anyone who's paying that $20 to surf the web there.

Re:The best

[jridley]

I dunno. At my house, I haven't changed my SSID, don't see the point since it's the only WAP for half a mile at least, but I've got all the encryption turned on, a good password, MAC filtering with only one wireless card allowed, AND you have to go through an authenticated proxy (the address of which is not advertised in any way) to get out on ports 80 or 443.

Re:The best

[CaptRespect]

So you might as well change the SSID and not broadcast it(if you can). Obviously you don't want unauthorized users to connect. Changing the ID is simple and would help keep people from knowing exactly which router you are using.

Re:The best

[EllisDees]

That's funny, I live in a large apartment building in the middle of a big city and I leave my access point completely open for anyone to use. As long as they aren't doing any file sharing and sucking up all my bandwidth, what do I care if some people are using my excess bandwidth?

Re:The best

[soft_guy]

And how exactly do you ensure they aren't file sharing?

Re:The best

[Open_The_Box]

Well, you're more generous than I am. You're paying for that bandwidth. Anyone using your connection without your prior approval is stealing from you.

Very public spirited, but I can't help thinking that you'd feel differently if you were being charged per GB. Just better hope that they're all using the connection for legitimate purposes - otherwise the next knock on the door will be the police about that you know what you've been ordering from you know where and we've got the download records to prove it.

Re:The best

[judo_badger]

It's not really your excess bandwidth. You're ( likely ) not paying anthing close to what a dedicated internet pipe would cost. The reason that you pay so little is that your provider is counting on your "excess" bandwith being available to its other paying customers.

Re:The best

[PitaBred]

Yeah, well, that's the gamble that the provider is taking :) It's usually right, so a few outliers won't screw things up too badly.

Re:The best

[EllisDees]

If I notice a lot of activity on the network, I just look at what ports they are using and use mac address filtering on the file sharers. Sure, they could change their mac address, but I haven't seen it yet. If it ever gets too bad, I'll just cut them all off but I haven't had any real problems in over a year now.

Re:The best

[EllisDees]

>You're paying for that bandwidth. Anyone using your connection without your prior approval is stealing from you.

I get charged the same whether I download 1 meg or 50 gigs, so it doesn't matter to me at all.

>Very public spirited, but I can't help thinking that you'd feel differently if you were being charged per GB.

Of course I would. As I said, "excess bandwidth".

>the next knock on the door will be the police about that you know what you've been ordering from you know where and we've got the download records to prove it.

All I have to say is anything questionable came from someone using my completely open WAP. I also have a cron job that deletes my router logs daily. ;)

Re:The best

[jridley]

eh, I don't really care. Besides, I'm in the country, you'd have to come into my driveway to hit my WAP. It's in the basement intentionally so I can get it from inside the house, but it gets rapidly attenuated when outside.

Re:The best

[Open_The_Box]

Ah. Fair enough.

Looks like I'll just have to accept the fact that I'm not as generous as I thought I was. I salute your altruistic tendencies! If there was more free internet the world would be a better (if slightly more scary) place.

Someone im my neighborhood.

[Anonymous Coward]

They kept the SSID simple: FU

Best ones ever?

[LouCifer]

goatse and tubgirl

personal favs

[Darth_brooks]

HackerDetected and Iwillsniffyourpackets are a couple I've seen.

Re:personal favs

[Anonymous Coward]

Infected_Host

Re:personal favs

[Anonymous Coward]

Number one SSID should be "Slashdotted"

Re:personal favs

[dubiousmike]

I have seen:

ibetyouwantin, assholeswithbeepinghorns, weallloveeachother, callforpermission (with a phone number afterwards)

Re:personal favs

[chialea]

eh, who cares if they sniff your packets, just proxy through ssh.

There is one exception, though: I'd be careful about typing passwords in interactive sessions. Type them with strange timing (so they can't get timing data from the one-packet-per-character interactive thing), or just use keys. Problem solved.

I'd not connect to other people's net that didn't want to, but that person's just asking to be amused by trolling around in their logs. :)

Lea

Re:personal favs

[Trejkaz]

I once saw "IfYouCanReadThisYouAreTooClose". I figure that dude was pretty introverted, given the range of the thing.

Rabotieso

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in Elche (Spain). Kinda Straight Dick or something...

A couple of SSID

[Jere H]

In my neighborhood, there is a MiddleEarth, linksys, and a friend's dad has one called BatNetwork (he is obsessed with Batman). The strange thing is they all have WEP or WPA enabled, including the linksys.

Re:A couple of SSID

[LouCifer]

What's strange about that? You can have WEP or WPA enabled and still broadcast. You have to specifically disable SSID broadcasting.

Re:A couple of SSID

[Jere H]

I meant it is strange that the owners of all of the networks in my neighborhood have enough sense to set up the encryption on their networks. For example, my friend's dad is not especially skilled at computers, and he set up his network himself and had enough sense to know that other people would be able to access his network share through the wireless connection. This was before the local news coverage about open access points, which has probably helped some other people know the risks of running an unsecured wireless AP.

Re:A couple of SSID

[AviLazar]

I find it odd that people do not rename their networks. In the office high rise I work, there are three linksys SSIDs, and two of them are wide open (just gotta guess which one it is). I kinda like naming my SSID for convenience and a little bit of pride.

Now a better question, how many people change their network IP address? I for one can't stand the default IP address (sucks if you have to VPN to a place that also has a default IP address).

Netstumbler has a simliar thread

[X00M]

http://www.netstumbler.org/showthread.php?t=11311

Well even though mine is cloaked...

[gamorck]

I can't speak for many others but my SSID is "KeepDrivingAsshole" - I've also seen one in my wardriving travels called, "LeaveMeAlone". Apparently somebody had already had a bit of fun with his network, eh?

Re:Well even though mine is cloaked...

[zaffir]

WardriveMeNot is one of my favs.

Re:Well even though mine is cloaked...

[Anonymous Coward]

Best thing you could do to wardrivers is have a bunch of MP3s shared on a honeypot server. Encode some popular songs at a quiet rate (about 5% to 10% of maximum volume) and then after 5 or 10 seconds change to high pitched noise at 100% volume. Nothing like a little ear-shattering noise to make a wardriver go off the road.

juvenile cleverness

[siliconcenturion]

my friend and i were at a summer camp where we werent supposed to have internet access, but we plugged in a WAP we brought and set the SSID to "drewisawanker"
drew was the name of his RA
the next day we saw 3 RA's walking through the hallway trying to triangulate the location of the WAP
crazy kids we were!

Re:juvenile cleverness

[identity0]

Jeez, kids these days...

Whatever happened to old summer camp standbys like throwing a blanket party for annoying counselors, setting fire to the outhouse, and sneaking vodka into canteens?

Summer camp is supposed to be about having fun the old-fashioned way, none of this techo-nonsense.

HomeAlone

[Anonymous Coward]

HomeAlone

DVDA

[b00m3rang]

That's mine.

Re:DVDA

[Anonymous Coward]

Change in volume with respect to change in area?
The DVD Association?
Or is it something a bit more, uh, perverse?

Re:DVDA

[ibentmywookie]

It's from Orgazmo the movie.

It means "Double Vagina, Double Ass".

If you still don't know what it means, you haven't watched enough porn.

Re:DVDA

[ptomblin]

The same acronym was used as the name of Stone and Parker's band, which did a very punked-up version of "What Would Brian Boitano Do?".

Re:DVDA

[FencingGerbil]

Mine's been bukkake for a year and a half or so. I live in a small town in the Bible Belt so it's my own little joke on them they'll never get.

SYSKNIL

[El_Muerte_TDS]

That's the name I gave to my parents' WLAN.

If it is wrong to call my AP LINKSYS

[blowdart]

when it's a Netgear with WPA running then I don't want to be right.

Re:If it is wrong to call my AP LINKSYS

[Tenebrious1]

If it is wrong to call my AP LINKSYS when it's a Netgear with WPA running then I don't want to be right.

What difference does it make? The MAC address still shows it's a Netgear.

Re:If it is wrong to call my AP LINKSYS

[X0563511]

Except that a NetGear i was playing around with lets you set the entire MAC address.

Just like i can do to both my laptop's 10/100baseT interface and 802.11b/g interface. In windows. With default drivers. From HP (hp pavillion ze5730us). WTF?

"The Tits are Here"

[whiterat]

Best one I've seen - laughed my ass off. I can just imagine a "neighbor" coming over to help them set it up. Hahahahaha.

Re:"The Tits are Here"

[myom]

Acquintance of mine has a SSID "Blew me for helping with WLAN" (In Finnish though, "Imutti WLAN-avusta", I think) in his neighbourhood. He's been looking out through his window since the discovery at his neighbours lately trying to figure out which woman it is, always willing to help out.

Re:"The Tits are Here"

[arafel]

Of course, he could be making a fatal mistake by assuming it was a woman...

I laughed my ass off at this one:

[anakin357]

BeaverNet, and before you ask.. yes, it was "wide open" :)

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me try...

Did you...check for open holes?
Did you..."sniff" around for a while?
Did you...send a modified SYN packet to throw off the firewall?

Alright, I'm not good at this at all.

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[Anonymous Coward]

How about at the corner of 54th and E:

HookerforHireApt12B

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[AndroidCat]

Remind me to never access a network called goatse.

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[Clinton]

Whenever I setup a secure AP for someone, I always set the SSID to "NOTYOURS". It's still surprising to see how many people try to make it theirs when I read the logs tho....

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[Anonymous Coward]

Mike Kershaw of Kismet fame always puts good ones up- ala ForgetAboutIt-etc - chances are he means it.

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[mveloso]

Wait, I don't get it.

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[bfizzle]

SpongeBob

Just because my neighbors are:
Joe
Lilly(street name)
Default
Linksys

My favorite is EagleRotary. This SSID is one of the local ISP's Wireless service. Not only do the broadcast the Physic location of the AP (Rotary Park) they don't encyrpt any traffic over the network. Since the have the volume kicked up so high I can use a little omni antenna inside my house to sniff everything broadcasted out from the APs.

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[ToddBox]

Pshh... I'm currently broadcasting "IcanslapyourmommaifIonlydreamit".

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[leife]

That is almost as good as Frog-uck Trying to be polite I dropped a leter there. Yes it was what you think.

Re:I laughed my ass off at this one:

[Anonymous Coward]

I named my Microsoft router (encrypted, with MAC address filtering enabled) "linksys" just to see who could hack it :D

MY PENIS

[Fermicirrus]

You are connected to MY PENIS. Ahhh...I'm only 12 so it's ok.

My favorite

[wang33]

Real close to my job, "Mr Rodgers Neighborhood" with or w/o spaces can't remember now been a while since I went Net Stumblin'
The "Get Lost" ones always make me chuckle when I see those.
Wang33

Re:my favorite

[Anonymous Coward]

Taking suggestive names a good deal further, in Toronto, I've seen one called "bukkake". It's not open, though -- has WEP, at least, but maybe also covered in plastic or rubber.

Been there, done that...

[sysadmn]

Already done on the Netstumbler forums. Personally, I like "You have been hacked fool!". Worst I've personally seen was an address (nnn Afton Valley Ct). Best was "LandOfChocolate". Check them out at Wigle.

A few of em.

[g0bshiTe]

I saw one someone name "Thug"
and another that someone had named "PISS_OFF"

By Postal Address

[IvanHo]

All over my neighborhood they're frequently named for the postal address of the home in which they reside, e.g., 15AMaple. Or so I've been told.

Address...

[QwkHyenA]

12 Maples Drive.

No joke, buddy and I were driving around and saw someone had used their address for SSID. We couldn't stop laughing...

Re:Address...

[SnowWolf2003]

Why is using your address such a bad thing? It's not like they are advertising something you don't already know right? Chances are you were driving down Maples Drive past number 12 at the time...

And using your address does help if one of your neighbours wants to come round and ask if they can connect.

Re:Address...

[Zone-MR]

Why is that so funny?

It lets people know where to contact the admin. Could be useful if nearby AP operators wanted to link, or perhaps discuss the channel configuration in order to avoid interference.

The address isn't exactly top secret information, surely anyone near the area could easilly figure out what house the wireless signal is strongest near?

Don't broadcast it

[tbcpp]

I don't broadcast the key, but one I use is heyjudedon'tletmedown. It's a blast typing that in and watching others raise an eyebrow.

Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Apple Network xxxxxx" is fun...

The better link is

[Laurentiu]

here

linksys disguised as a netgear

[2MuchC0ffeeMan]

I named my linksys WRT54G as 'netgear'... among the mac address filter, the sveasoft firmware, and the WEP encryption (And living in the woods, the best defense), i'm not worried about war drivers.

Re:linksys disguised as a netgear

[AKnightCowboy]

I have to wonder about that. I can't pick up my access point more than 20 feet from my house with my laptop... where are you guys living that you're vulnerable to war drivers? They'd practically have to park on my front lawn to reach mine (it has WEP turned on though). I guess you could use a high gain antenna, but who would go to all that trouble to get access to some guy's access point when you can just get your own DSL?

Re:linksys disguised as a netgear

[nandhp]

It's not netgear, it's NETGEAR!

Last I heard, SSIDs were case-sensitive.

P.S. I'm connected to The Sub-Etha Net, a WGR614v2 formerly known as NETGEAR.

Re:linksys disguised as a netgear

[Enigma_Man]

My high-gain beef-stew cantenna cost me about $2 for the dinty moore can.

I can get signals from a house down the street at a distance of about 300 feet, through 3 other houses.

-Jesse

Re:linksys disguised as a netgear

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I have file shares open with confidential information as well as proprietary source code, and I'd rather not have outsiders gain access to those data. I try to keep the sensitive data on the wired side, but it's nice to have some security provided by the network. If there is an opportunity for people to be mischevious, it seems best to avoid it if the fix is simple. The fix in this case is to make wireless clients use a VPN. With the proliferation of this technology, we can expect greater amounts of sensitive data traveling over the air. It was a mistake to introduce new technologies such as WEP to secure wireless links when proven technologies were already available. Also, if the industry cared about the welfare of their users, they would have prevented the use of insecure links without going into some kind of advanced mode in the configuration interface (or not offering it at all). We can probably blame MS in this case for convincing users that systems should never stand in your way; that the user knows best (yeah, right).

Re:linksys disguised as a netgear

[ptomblin]

Seriously. My WAP is in my basement, and unless I stand right in front of the basement window I can't pick it up standing outside of my house. My wife's laptop has a better antenna than mine, and she's got MacStumbler, and she can't pick it up more than a few feet from the house.

In a way it's unfortunate, because there have been some nice days when I would have liked to sit outside, but couldn't get a signal.

Re:linksys disguised as a netgear

[EllisDees]

My apartment building has about 20 wide-open access points available. I don't need to war drive, I can war-walk.

Re:linksys disguised as a netgear

[darco]

Access points and repeaters are pretty cheap these days. Check out the dlink stuff.

Look on ebay and you'll find it even cheaper.

There's no good reason why your yard shouldn't be blessed with broadband. :)

Re:linksys disguised as a netgear

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I can get signals from a house down the street at a distance of about 300 feet

...which happens to be about the distance to my closest neighbor. I figured that anyone wanting to wardrive me would either have to park right outside the house (on a street where very few people ever park and by law every house must have off street parking), or in my driveway. So I'm not too worried. But I still have SSID broadcast turned off, use MAC filtering and WEP encryption (would use WPA, but the laptop from work doesn't support it), and of course the password changed to some useless alphanumeric combo that only makes sense to me.

The mfrs should really have a little card with a suggested configuration. It's not difficult to promote security!

Invitation

[matman]

My WAP is connected to an 'untrusted' interface on my firewall, such that users can access the web and DNS only. The SSID is, with "addr" replaced with my street address, "come_4_beer_at_addr". Haven't had any takers, yet. :)

Name?

[DrEldarion]

Using your name actually may turn out to be a good thing if your network is insecure. Somebody in my apartment complex had a wide-open network with the SSID being their name. I was able to track them down by that in order to tell them they should secure it.

They were wondering why their cable connection was so slow.

My favourite

[ectoraige]

THIS_IS_A_SHIT_STORY

Last Name

[ispel]

My last name is Default, you insensitive clod!

Garbage

[md81544]

I think the funniest SSIDs one sees in Kismet are the garbage ones (like ^L*&^G^x#, etc).

Apparently according to the Kismet developer this is where MS Windows-based wireless clients "leak" crap into the packets... nice...

Sorry...

[IO ERROR]

Mine is "Sorry, the network is down right now." with MAC filtering enabled. Nobody ever stops to play with my AP.

Re:Sorry...

[bill_mcgonigle]

Nice. I've found "28.8k modem uplink" to work similarly.

Search for SSID Names at WiFiMaps.com

[drewzhrodague]

YOu can search for SSIDs, MACs, and cities and states at WiFiMaps.com. Funniest ones I've seen:

hellostumbler - Framingham, MA
buyclamsonline.com - Pittsburgh, PA

My List

[JabberWokky]

iwlist scanning gives me (the first is mine): "CH" "cchsiao's WLAN" "Lasting sensation" "janelandanne" "linksys" " " "humperdink" "2WIRE019" "instaconnect-3442de" "instaconnect-3442da" "OC" "MA" "instaconnect-3442d4" "instaconnect-343f77" "instaconnect-343ce6" "KHarris" "instaconnect-3442d9" "flyfish" "instaconnect-343ce8" "instaconnect-3442d8" "instaconnect-3442df"

Yep, that's a bunch of a local WiFi provider's APs. There is normally a "penis" in there, too.

I have a feeling that for the really amusing ones, I should walk down towards campus and sniff the dorm and off-campus housing from UCDavis.

--
Evan

Not so Secret

[Anonymous Coward]

Best on my street is "SecretMachine" - which broadcasts it's SSID.. hmm..

Why I'm A Bastard

[WombatControl]

I used to live fairly close to a major street and not too far from a university campus, so wardrivers were always trying to connect to my network.

So I decided to ask WWTBOFHD? (What Would The Bastard Operator From Hell Do?)

So, I set up a nice AP called 'linksys' with no WEP. Obviously, every freeloader on the planet would try and connect to it.

Oh, and you could connect to it alright. The problem was that it was connected directly to a proxy server that rerouted every web request directly to goatse.cx and blocked everything else.

Apparently the word got around, and the number of people trying to access that AP went down precipitously after that.

I'm such a bastard...

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[Anonymous Coward]

You bastard. A child might have seen that.

Won't somebody think of the children?

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[agraupe]

Wow... you have my undying gratitude and respect for that. How did you do that, out of curiosity? This would be a welcome solution for many wardriver-victims... post a guide, perhaps?

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[Bagels]

I know that my netgear router is configurable to redirect addresses with given strings in them... just set one to ".com", ".org", etc., and watch the havoc that ensues, I'd guess.

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[IO ERROR]

Suspended Domain
The domain goatse.cx has been suspended by the registry.

This is generally due to lapsed registration or violation of policies.
To renew your registration please visit your registrar.

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[Rude Turnip]

I would have set up a worm-infected Windows proxy server for them to hook up to, but to each his own :)

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[Gr8Apes]

What a cool thought. I hadn't even considered this option. Now that's pretty darn funny, I may have to rethink my current configuration and change it to hell mode :)

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[Technician]

it was connected directly to a proxy server that rerouted every web request

What? with a story like that and no link to the proxy? I was looking to test your proxy.

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[Insightfill]

tubgirl? Not safe for work?!?

Seriously, not safe for .... anyone.

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not go with a lemonparty.org then?

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[Anonymous Coward]

It's pretty easy to do if you run your own DNS server.

Create a forward zone called "." (no quotes), and a domain called "*" within that zone, and create a new host in that domain with no name, pointing it to whatever IP you want it to. (That's MS DNS Server -- see the link below for BIND)

That'll redirect top-level domains to whatever IP you want. Then use mod_rewrite if you redirected it to your own web server, to strip all the URL information off of it, so that it always goes to "mypicutre.png".

I would post a sample, but I've got too many junk characters in it.

Use this page: http://www.freebsdfreaks.net/articles/fake_dns.php s

for more info.

Re:Why I'm A Bastard

[1110110001]

I'm a little bit late with my answer ...

When I'm in a public place I like to have a job in the background running loading the picture of goatse via wget (redirected to /dev/null). For all the sniffers around.

b4n

Names

[glyneth]

At work, it's called Roswell because the basestations (Apple's) looked like spaceships.

At home, it's called Orwell because that's what my husband picked.

And I've heard someone has called hers The Hordes of Attila, because it always asks her if she "wants to join the Hordes of Attila?"

Mine

[Anonymous Coward]

is called BadaBing! (from sopranos)

What's the matter with Default?

[rolocroz]

What's the matter with Default if you change the default password and enable encryption?

Re:What's the matter with Default?

[Secrity]

Leaving the SSID default or Linksys, is just so ... unimaginitive. Setting the SSID to Belkin when it is actually a Cisco is so much better. What is even better for corporations is to include their corporate name, division name, group name, floor number, and a contact phone number; all using only 32 characters.

Re:What's the matter with Default?

[Garak]

On mine I leave it set to linksys so no one can find it in the mess of 5 or 6 other linksys routers on my street. I also disabled DHCP, changed its IP to not .1 and lowered the TX pwr. To a war driver it will just seem far away and he will think he can't get an IP because he is just to far away. Then he will go on to one of the other insecure AP's on the street. If I was running WEP or WPA or had a diffrent SSID it would be like hanging a sign hackme. (I also use ssh just about everything over wireless)

I know this this shit because I do war drive. I ether go for the easyest (default config, good signal) or the hardest ("secured", weak signal).

Some of the more interesting ones are the collages links between their building back in my home town, which was totally unencrypted, they paid big money to have that system installed before wifi was popular. Now I find it funny that I can sit down in my parents living room and watch people's email passwords/email's and webbrosing scroll my screen.

Now that I'm away going to collage, I can pickup another link between the univeristy's buildings. I think they must have forgotten about this link because their wlan on their main campus is pretty secure. I can harvest email account passwords and what not. I can't associate because they are using wds accross the link. I may try and clone on of the AP's and see if I can spoof some packets into their network.

"noconnect-Federaloffense"

[flinxmeister]

I set up one for a buddy of mine with this SSID. His building is right next to a post office, so it adds credibility. It's hilarious to watch people come in and see "do you want to connect to noconnect-federaloffense?" One literally jumped back from his laptop.

I guess the Man has us trained well!

Re:"noconnect-Federaloffense"

[phobos13013]

I go with this mentality as well. Its COINTELPRO, with Mac filter and 128 WEP. Im sure somebodys gotten on it by now and read my directory of all the stolen COINTELPRO papers from the Weather Underground.

Re:"noconnect-Federaloffense"

[rnd()]

This reminds me of my undergrad days. The Solaris system was configured to display the contents of the .plan file whenever a user was fingered.

I set up my .plan file with a message that said that the user's finger priviliges had been revoked for my uniquename, that the request had been logged, and to contact the IT department with any questions.

I had a few friends come up to me and ask if everything was allright between us... not to mention some weird looks from some people who I suspected had been using finger to keep track of my whereabouts.

Soon after the university stopped including .plan in the finger output.

Mine's called "Default"

[TomorrowPlusX]

Mine's called "Default"... and has no password.

Oh, wait... it's not mine, it's my neighbor's. That's why I don't need to pay for broadband service ;)

Re:Mine's called "Default"

[ari_j]

When I lived in Phoenix and was feeling uncreative, I named my wireless network "eldefaulto".

Re:Mine's called "Default"

[carl67lp]

I just moved in to an apartment, near the University of Michigan campus. I expected APs to be around, but not two within a good range from my laptop and completely open to boot. Last night, I turned on the laptop and waited for a connection to my own (MAC-filtered) AP, and saw that the signal strength was below normal. Then the message popped up indicating I was now connected to the "default" network. :-) I surfed for about 30 seconds before deciding that I wanted a better signal and better speeds. Incidentally, the other open network is named "linksys", no foolin'.

WEPMYASS

[beest]

It was funnier before Randy Moss changed my perspective about this phrase...

Re:WEPMYASS

[SunPin]

I thought the actions of Mr. Moss after his touchdown were hilarious and completely on topic. The Green Bay FudgePackers actually moon losing teams. Moss just pretended to moon them. It's a light retribution for earned karma.

Re:WEPMYASS

[stupidfoo]

totally offtopic now, but Joe Buck and Chris Collinsworth are retards.

Re:WEPMYASS

[SunPin]

I agree completely.

PearlyGates and Katahdin...

[terraformer]

PearlyGates is for my AExpress I use traveling (In missoula right now) and Katahdin is for my home BaseStation.

Best one I've seen

[JimmyQS]

NotGoingToGetOnThisInternetBitch

MaxiesMadhouse

[mschaef]

After we got our dog Maxie, and lived with him for a few weeks, I renamed our network MaxiesMadhouse. Six months later, it still fits.

Sinistar_Net

[Skater]

My brother is into arcade games, and has quite a few video and pinball machines around his house.

I just use Snowball, though - the name of my cat.

--RJ

Re:Sinistar_Net

[ShawnDoc]

And a semi-deviant sexual practice.

My office SSID is

[ALecs]

thessidofdoom

What a coincidence...

[jvollmer]

Linksys is the name of my network.
What are the chances of that?

The best I've seen...

[xorowo]

At a hotel that charged for Internet access, someone had an access point with the SSID, "LeaveBeeror5dollarsatRoom505". Nice, cheap, easy Internet access without the $15 charge the hotel wanted.

Re:The best I've seen...

[sysadmn]

And he probably paid for his AirPort Express in about a week.

Re:The best I've seen...

[Linker3000]

THAT IS the best! I'll have to try it one day!

Re:The best I've seen...

[Anonymous Coward]

This would work even better if you lived across the street from a hotel, where you could have it going all the time (though you'd have to be home to get the payment), and lock it down.

Random name without broadcast

[macklin01]

I always figured it wouldn't hurt to use a random string of letters and numbers and not broadcast the SSID. e.g., 2j9djfjZJ3. At least it won't give any info on what's found on the network, and it'd be nearly impossible to guess. -- Paul

Re:Random name without broadcast

[Anonymous Coward]

I use a string of random hex characters to be generic, but I have no illusion that this constitutes any security at all. The SSID is broadcast with every packet so a sniffer will catch it instantly. You can easily get a 32-character string of hex with the following command:

od -x -A n /dev/urandom | head -n 1 | sed -e 's/ //g'

Yes, I know /dev/random produces "better" random data but for this purpose the preceding is appropriate.

Re:Random name without broadcast

[macklin01]

Thanks for the nice tip! I agree that this doesn't really add to your security all that much, except in two respects: it keeps people with identifying your SSID with what might be on it or where you live (e.g., Hey, they have a great computer in 1234 Apple Street. Let's break in there!), and it helps to keep the honest and/or curious users from accidentally connecting to your network.

But I absolutely agree that it needs to be part of a larger security scheme (see my post above), and even so, wireless is always going to be riskier than a ``wired'' network ... Thanks! -- Paul

linksys

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh. SP2 gives me enough problems with wireless networking, and since I don't use WEP, XP doesn't even want to connect to it. I use whitelist MAC filtering, and while I may be vulnerable, I myself am a bit of a wardriver. (just... without the car) Also, the layout of my neighborhood makes anyone trying to leech me pretty obvious. I do go out to look at mysteriously parked cars, and I tested; you have to be pertty close to pick it up. And there are plenty other APs in my neighborhood to leech. It's not perticularly hard to leech me, just not worth your time. ; )

Re:Linksys

[Anonymous Coward]

They will still have sufficent probable cause to seize your computer and look for any traces of evidence to prove it might have been you.

ssid

[valadil]

My computers always get names from Tolkien so it was a no-brainer that my router get called palantir.

*BSD Anyone?

[tuxliner]

Mine is :

OpenBSD

'cause it's supposed to be rock solid.

And another thing...

[ectoraige]

How does a wireless SSID possess a you've?

If you're going to submit a lame story, at least check your apostrophes.

Best SSID

[MobileDigit]

retardflyngmonkysw/flamthrowers

ChickenAndPorn

[chickenandporn]

I get raised eyebrows by accident -- Chicken And Porn. No one forgets it.

My neighborhood

[BrK]

My home AP is named "FuckOff". It's secured (to the extent that an AP *can* be secured) well enough.

My neighbor INSISTS on leaving his WRT54G unsecured. I change it whenever I'm bored (I've also connected to the LAN, and then to one of his shared printers and printed out some "interesting" photos). I'll name his AP stuff like "pimpwifi" "secureme" "hellomike", etc. Nothing too interesting really.

Greek irony

[Belisarivs]

I named my Icarus.

Re:Greek irony

[Detritus]

Mine is Charon. It seemed like an appropriate name.

Not very funny

[Moloch666]

Mine is "omfg"

based on LOTR :)

[sakis]

I am a member of a community wireless network over Thessaloniki, in Greece. We have named many of our nodes based on the Lord of the Rings universe and Middle Earth places, so there is "Morgul", "Amon Sul", "Tirith", "Rivendell" etc. nodedb link

An Homage to the NCSC's Dockmaster system-

[Sam Nitzberg]

I named my wireless access point-

Dorkmaster

It's a fun name, and if you run several WAPs, you can plug in any vowel in the place of dOckmaster's "O"

For reference,
http://www.google.com/search?q=ncsc+do ckmaster

In a Marriott Lobby

[cOdEgUru]

Got caught once between a traffic cop and a busted hood and hence had to take a Defensive Driving course. Ended up at a Marriott's Conference room with my laptop and 8 hours of "God help me".

Popped up the Available networks list, Marriott's own was thankfully not secured, however they did want me to validate by entering my room number. Hmm.. how about "301". Oh joy!

Browsed for the next 8 hours with out a hitch..

my old ssid

[aldousd666]

BoroughPolice, who just happen to be right next door.

my own

[scupper]

puppies and thanksforyourmacaddress

Hallooo Daaaaave

[HugoQuixote]

My SSID is, quite simply:

DAVE

I really couldn't think what to call it. And then my friend picked up the box and said 'Hallo Daaave'.

That, was that.

Casual security

[lorddarthpaul]

The first thing I did when I got a Linksys WAP11 was to change the SSID to MaryPoppins. I briefly tried hiding the SSID altogether, but my laptop kept getting confused. I enabled the 128 bit WEP key, which may be far from perfect, but, at the least it implies KEEP OUT. These days I mostly use wired 1000Base-T though.

PUBLIC

[BeesTea]

Easily the best I've seen

while in California last week..

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs, with no security at all of course :)

Naming yourself Lynksys ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that naming yourself Lynksis would be funny if you are using a very different AP! Just think of all the hackers trying to get in using the wrong methods.

Phone infected error...

[thrill12]

I used to name my phone that way in bluetooth.
A lot of people actually were wondering what was wrong with their cellphones, when they explored their bluetooth-neighbourhood (or got a bluetooth message from me)...

One with a domain name

[Koos]

Once wardriving in a train (or is that 'wartraining' ? wartraindriving? I was just the passenger) I found one with a domain name in the SSID. I made a remark about it on my homepage, with a link to the overview of access points found and to the found webserver of that domain.

He linked back to my site a few days later, finding it funny. (I won't link directly to his webserver now, to avoid a slashdotting to a site most of you can't read since it's in Dutch)

Bait and Switch

[VE3ECM]

I used to take my SSID and switch the name to a manufacturer's default that WASN'T the same as the router I was using...

ie. I'd use an SMC, name it the default for a netgear, then change to a DLink, etc.

Then I'd watch the access logs and see what fish I could catch trying to take a nibble.

Seeing that I was living in a pretty dense, busy area in downtown Toronto, I watched more than a couple people try to access my AP.

The same as my password

[philkerr]

*****

It's easy to remember :)

Re:The same as my password

[agin]

I actually did this. The first time I set up my home AP, I was not aware that SSIDs were actually broadcast. Thought I was being clever using the access password as the SSID. FU manual.

Re:The same as my password

[xx01dk]

I get it, even if no one else did. Mod this one up.

Re:The same as my password

[agin]

I got it too.

names default & linksys

[mvizos]

Why can't I name it linksys? I've got a dlink, I see no issue to naming it linksys. Oh, screw flanders.

For the one I have at school...

[emplynx]

the AP is ap_123456. That's the default AP on my Asus unit and I've never been able to access the control panel to change it. Then again, I guess that's not very funny.

Re:For the one I have at school...

[someguy42]

Wow! That's amazing! I have the same SSID on my luggage!!!

Free Ride

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. Ah, what would we do without the simple minds of technologically impaired with big wallets? ^_^

RedBuick

[Huma_D]

The SSID emanating from my car while driving down the road with a Sprint PCS card and an AD-HOC wireless network so others in the car can share the connection. I still have yet to have any other cars travelling in my direction connect.

"PRIVATE NO ACCESS"

[HEbGb]

One of my neighbors' SSID is "private no access". Of course, there's no WMA, WEP, or MAC filtering - it's wide open. ;)

Re:"PRIVATE NO ACCESS"

[Lehk228]

change it to "PUBLICFREEACCESS" and see how long it takes for him to notice.

The best SSID ...

[The Llama King]

... is the one you never see. Turn off the SSID broadcast unless you want to share the connection.

Re:The best SSID ...

[crowemojo]

Turning off the SSID is a great step towards keeping the wardrivers away, but if you have a neighbor that wants to get on that network, it won't stop them. The SSID, unfortunately, is still broadcast in the association frames even if beacon frames are disabled. A dedicated attacker is going to get in, so best use something other then just WEP with MAC filtering and beacon frames disabled.

Re:The best SSID ...

[kaisyain]

Wouldn't even 64-bit WEP keep wardrivers away, too? The only people who can break even that little bit of WEP can sit outside your AP for hours or days on end and those are the same people who will see your SSID even if you turn off broadcasting it.

Re:The best SSID ...

[dcam]

And the myth continues.

As another poster has commented this is pretty much a waste of time.

Ditto for MAC address filtering. Can be sniffed.

Probably the best you can do at the moment is enable WPA with a long key.

If you have the time a better solution is to leave the AP unsecured, but put a VPN server between the AP and the rest your network.

My SSID is...

[Anonymous Coward]

WasteLand ;)

mine is simple

[Anonymous Coward]

mine is set simply to ")(" (no quotes). I don't consider WEP to be strong enough to be an effective layer of defense, so might as well make it open, which doesn't bother me, I don't mind being an open AP anyway.

Mine is Fatline...

[Enzo90910]

...meaning I expect as brillant future for this network. :-)

hah!

[xjohnx]

mine is hackme - however i did see one named "tinytitties" yesterday.

Better yet...

[Anonymous Coward]

Please post your favorite WEP keys with the SSIDs and Lat/Long please.... thanks, that's much more helpful.

Adress

[Peden]

Alot of people around here name their network after their adress! I am not kidding, its fucking hilarious, I wonder where I can get a good connection? Number 23 you say? Then I'll drive just 200 meters down the road, thank you....

my friend aaron's home network.....

[PureCreditor]

BitchNet

I still get a kick out of this one

[CWasko]

'StumbleThis'

It had WEP enabled, I didn't try any further to get in, but did get a pretty big kick out of the name.

A crime?

[tgd]

I named my Linksys AP "Default" just to mess with people...

haha

[robyannetta]

The most memorable I've seen was

FindMeWinBeer

Odd ones..

[technos]

SSIDs listing the geographic location of the AP are a good idea in my opinion. If you know there's an AP at 185th and Birchwood from a cursory glance, you either use a non-interfering frequency or make sure the directional antenna is not throwing garbage that way. Company information is much more useful though. "WmDavis Rsrch AP01" lets me look in the phone book and find "William Davis Research" to yell at them. Troubleshooting an intermittant PTP link in Seattle, I discovered someone claiming to be on a particular street several miles away throwing waay to much signal and cutting off the customer. Driving down there with a directional only got me down to a particular block of leased warehouses, with two dozen companies. If I could have said "Yeah, that's Airborne Express", I could have had a word with their guy and gotten it moved. Instead, I had to swap cable to lose some loss, realign the antenna on each end, insert an amplifier to further drop the losses, and change channel. But at least I knew where the interference was coming from; At many other places in the city, I could have moved them to a different POP with a twist of the antenna.

Some of the odd ones I saw while looking to find free spectrum:

"MYWRHSEAP" (And on the same frequency, farther down, "MYOFFAP")
"USN_Secure" and "NSA Fort Mead"
"iVEgOTbIGbALS" (Spelled like that)
"Bad firmware dont use"
"Cyberdyne Systems"
"CPE1704TKS"
"plz dont hack"
"Jerrys porno"
"NOT STARBUCKS ASSHOLE"
"Change your password, moron"
"Unconnected"

Also saw a bunch pushing some agenda or another.. "GoreIn04", "BushSucks", "Lower My Taxes", etc

Wirless

[Anonymous Coward]

My personal favorite WIRLESS which is wireless spelled incorrectly.

Re:Wirless

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? I thought it was Throatwarbler Mangrove spelled incorrectly.

"minegetout"

[Anonymous Coward]

I got a chuckle out of the name "minegetout"...

My list

[ponds]

Wardrivers are Welcome
Go Big Girl Productions
Air Eggroll
Rebels Rule (In a dormitory at school, our rival school is the Rebels)
Sniper's Den
Big Daddy's
Penguin Army of Doom
wirelessland
What?
cute-little-network
pi mpbot9000

Yeah, I live in a college town.

Stinksys

[Anonymous Coward]

Stinksys is the best one i've seen so far. It was a WRT54G.

pimp AP name

[jfruhlinger]

I live on Abell Avenue, and one of my neighbors has an access point named ABELLHIZZY. I don't think it's Snoop Dogg, though.

It does have WEP protection, too. Snoop says: Stay the hizell out of my access pizzoint, muthafucka.

jf

A personal favorite....

[tvh2k]

A kid in the dorm room next to mine named his AP "Internet would be nice".

Almost impossible to guess?

[Anonymous Coward]

I always figured it wouldn't hurt to use a random string of letters and numbers and not broadcast the SSID. e.g., 2j9djfjZJ3. At least it won't give any info on what's found on the network, and it'd be nearly impossible to guess. -- Paul

Not anymore...

Re:Almost impossible to guess?

[macklin01]

Not anymore...

Haha, good point. (That joke immediately occurred to me after posting, too.) Of course, that's not my SSID ...

Of course, choosing and not broadcasting the SSID should only be one of several layers of security. (Using whatever WEP or WAP security you have available and changing keys frequently, MAC filtering, reducing the transmission strength on the AP to the minimal level necessary, etc.) -- Paul

Ours is 'PleaseWork'

[rjlorimer]

We were having router problems, what can I say...

Heres some

[Anonymous Coward]

IAmAFagzor
StayOffMyShit
TryAndHackMe
IShootWar drivers

Some of my favorites

[SmurfButcher Bob]

Mine, Mine, Mine
no carrier
I RTFM
fucking cordless phones
YOUR SSID
this song is just 6 words long
vRG18bNuW2940F17sM8e (funny because no wep wpa etc)

And my #1 favorite
Shit N Surf

Naked Chicks and Beer

[Anonymous Coward]

Naked Chicks and Beer is the SSID I use. It was my old clan name from Half-Life, in the pre-Team Arena/CounterStrike days, back when the fragging was good.

My network

[Anonymous Coward]

My network is called Wirless Hell while a friend's, at the suggestion of his Russian roommate, is called Soviet Power.

by contrast, mine is: free_internet

[Xavic]

i live by a busy highway (i65) and have my ap pointing out the window and named free_internet

i dont keep my machines at home turned on so i dont really care who accesses the net through me. i log mac's though so if someone does do something i can show the authorities that (unless they know you can spoof your mac) it wasn't me...

Re:by contrast, mine is: free_internet

[Anonymous Coward]

i dont keep my machines at home turned on so i dont really care who accesses the net through me. i log mac's though so if someone does do something i can show the authorities that (unless they know you can spoof your mac) it wasn't me...

Yeah, right.. and they're going to believe you.

Firstly, some of the authorities aren't so sophisticated as to differentiate MAC addresses. Your access point, your negligence in securing it, your responsibility.

Secondly, they may just feel you're hiding your kiddie pr0n laptop (with the targeted MAC), and harrass you to no end.

Either way, you're just a fucking retard.

Re:by contrast, mine is: free_internet

[Anonymous Coward]

>Yeah, right.. and they're going to believe you.

Who cares, they are never going to be able to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt as long as he can say anything illegal was some random passer-by.

Re:by contrast, mine is: free_internet

[Xavic]

lol, i sense misdirected rage. whats wrong, did the authorities come around and scare you into deleting your \/\/4R3z and kiddie porn stash? tsk tsk tsk. truely i feel sorry for you. from you comments above i can see that your life is miserable and you just want to hit something. (but dont have the balls to do it under your name)

TANSTAAFL holds some fondness

[Anonymous Coward]

for SSID.

Back in the day a wide open network was treated with respect so it would remain open.

These days it's an A$$hole magnet.

Floo

[ThePolkapunk]

As in the Floo Network.

Dad's Debtor

[Anonymous Coward]

I found an SSID once of a man who owed my father $2000. I knew it was his because his SSID was his last name. The AP was completely unsecured. It was pretty hilarious

I named mine....

[boiscout]

Yocto Bytes -- SSID
Yotta Bytes -- iPod
Pebi Bytes -- G5
Zetta Bytes -- Powerbook :) Just fun sounding names. And big ass numbers. :)

TK421

[p0z3r]

"Why are you not at your post?" -StarWars IV
http://www.tk421.net/

skynet

[kartracer_66]

is my sssid. Although I know that I will regret naming it this in 1997, 2001, or 2004. By then, though, I will have gone back in time, prevented the ratification of certain ammendments and sent a T-800 to become president and kill sarah connor.

Re:skynet

[Photon Ghoul]

Although I know that I will regret naming it this in 1997, 2001, or 2004.

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but it is now 2005.

Re:skynet

[kartracer_66]

Yes, I realize. This was a joke.

The supposed dates that skynet became 'selfaware' are from here (but are all now in the past).

Re:skynet

[Photon Ghoul]

I was joking as well. Thought it would've been obvious. Sorry bout that.

Report from a friend who wardrives

[Mister Transistor]

The best one I've heard was from a buddy who is into wardriving... he said he found one that was:

"GetTheFuckOffMyNetwork"

Best one in my neighborhood

[chopkins1]

NoWarDrivingHere

Fake AP

[crowemojo]

Why broadcast just 1 SSID when you can broadcast several thousand?

Fake AP is a tool that generates thousands of beacon frames so that your AP, named "12381" can get lost in the shuffle. It's not fool proof, but it is funny to hear netstumbler wet itself when you come in the vicinity of it.

my favorite

[CAIMLAS]

"penis" is one I've seen a lot of here in Sioux Falls.

Then there appears to be several others done by the same group with a similar theme - "MobilePenis", "HandheldPenis", "LaptopPenis" and the like. Of course, these are all open networks...

I've also seen "hacked" on a network with and 256 bit WEP and MAC filtering, as well as several other measures which are in the protocol layer.

My next access point will probably be named...

[Sam Nitzberg]

LOOPBACK

Best one I've found...

[Anonymous Coward]

Best one I found on a war drive was "OpenF**kingAccessPoint"...

Anti-virus?

[Anonymous Coward]

After using my neighbors WAP overnight...it mysteriously changed it's SSID to "VirusTestUnit". Now I'm scared.

For Mac users...

[Anonymous Coward]

No Airport networks in range

using home address for SSID

[ChrisCampbell47]

What's wrong with using your home address for the SSID? Seems perfectly logical to me.

I have mine set that way AND I have it moderately secured. I have WEP enabled, which I know doesn't do much, but I also have MAC filtering. How common is MAC spoofing, and are there any exploits out there that can figure out some valid MACs from the over-the-air traffic?

I like using the address, not because I want neighors to waddle over and ask me about using my network or blather on about how they're a nerd too, but because if someone else picks it up they'll know right away "oh, that's not my own network, that's why I can't get this damn thing to work".

State your case.

Re:using home address for SSID

[igomaniac]

I think it's a pretty sensible choice for a SSID - I'm not running some top secret operation, and if someone wants to hack my network maybe they'll feel more guilty when they know exactly who they're screwing over. Besides, it's a truly unique identifier so no chance the neighbour will come up with the same 'clever' SSID as me and screw up my networking. And if one of my good neighbours have a problem preventing them from accessing the internet, they know who to ask if they want to borrow mine. (And yes, I would also lend them a cup of sugar if they came over and asked...)

Re:using home address for SSID

[BenjyD]

From what I understand, MAC filtering is virtually no help at all against anyone trying to use your connection. Mac spoofing is easy, and getting a valid MAC from network traffic is simple as well.

Re:using home address for SSID

[microcars]

well, driving around my neighborhood, I found ONE SSID that was actually labeled with the street address (number and street). No WEP.
Very handy for helping me find just where to park to get the bestest signal.

That is the only SSID as Street Address I've seen, I wish more people would do it, it would be very helpful (to me).

call__for_sharing_dsl

[Teppich]

This ESSID Ive seen while drinving trough Munic searching for open APs.

Re:call__for_sharing_dsl

[Teppich]

should should have been
call_1231341323_for_sharing_dsl

I have two

[Y Ddraig Goch]

And they are named Middle-Earth(no wep) and The Shire(wep). As I live in a rural area I'm not much concerned with war drivers. The one with the wep key is just to keep the other PC's in the House off of the WiFi that runs my SqueezeBoxes (Shameless plug for www.slimdevices.com).

go team linksys!

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in an apartment community, and at any given time I am likely to find about five or six linksys's. The upshot to this is that I can usually rely on "team linksys" to provide me with free bandwidth!

Sad but true

[RAMGarden]

I found one in my neighborhood called "ShutUpImLazy".

WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

I live nearby a large military installation (not in the US) and used the military's internet domain as my SSID (mil.xx). It is completely open and meant to be that way.

I forgot about the whole thing it until a friend of mine powered up his WiFi laptop and said "OH SH*T!"

Then I changed it to the police's domain instead.

Behold the power of Bob

[scifiman]

and log onto BobNet!!!!!!!

UCONN

[Anonymous Coward]

There are lots of open APs around UCONN... best I've seen yet was 'JewNet'. I can only assume it was coming from the Beta Theta Pi frat house.

I played a $2 PacificPoker tounament on it.

Phone Number?

[Matt - Duke '05]

While living in an apartment this summer, my roommate and I set our SSID to the telephone number to our apartment and enabled WEP so that no one could use it. Within a few days we got a few phone calls from other residents asking for the WEP key. We gave out the key to everyone who agreed to split the cost of the DSL with us and ended up paying about $5/month. We didn't really need the DSL for anything that bandwith intensive (nor do I think anyone else did), so this setup actually ended up working out quite well.

Neighbor used SSN

[Anonymous Coward]

He wanted something easy to remember and used his social security number.

Distance you can pick up a signal

[jeffc128ca]

"I have to wonder about that. I can't pick up my access point more than 20 feet from my house with my laptop... "

I live in a large metropolis. From my 16th floor Apartment there must be at least 60 AP's I can pick up. One has an address as the SSID and I figure its about 600 yards away.

My own Orinico card has trouble working with my Linksys AP from 1 foot away, but it can pick up that 600 yard signal no problem.

Re:Distance you can pick up a signal

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in a large metropolis. From my 16th floor Apartment there must be at least 60 AP's I can pick up. One has an address as the SSID and I figure its about 600 yards away.

If I go outside and get line-of-sight, I can associate to the VA hospital at 1.3 miles away using a plain old Netgear FA311 card; it's very shaky but it works. I suspect they have the antenna on the roof. I never do that, though, since they charge for access, and the moron across the street with the SSID of "VB FOREVER" has lots of bandwidth on his cable connection, and can't seem to figure out how I keep getting on his network despite his hiding his SSID and filtering MAC addresses. Not to mention the few dozen other completely unsecured APs within a few hundred feet. Why bother? But long distances are possible without Pringles cans.

My $.02:

[orpheus2000]

Guy down the next apt. building doesn't care if people use his WAP, he named his SSID "enjoy"

Since my computer names were dilbert characters, my SSID is cubefarm :P

WarTraining is c00l

[KE1LR]

During a trip last year on the Acela I ran NetStumbler for a couple of hours as we cruised toward Washington DC and was able to find hundreds of access points. Here are a couple of the interesting SSID's from the log:

• KeepDemBussesRollin (passing a state DOT building)
• Don't mooch off my shit
• testing-testing-testing

It was also common to use what looked like a business name or the a person's first name ("lisa") as the SSID. Some AP's had random alphanumerics or what was obviously an attempt at a password for the SSID.

I also did a very basic analysis of some of the interesting things I discovered, such as...

• Most AP's were advertising 11Mbit speed but about 16% advertised higher speeds. I'm not sure if the higher speeds were "a" networks, "g" networks or both. My laptop had an a/b wireless card.

• 1/3 of the AP's detected were using what was obviously their vendor's default SSID (i.e. "Linksys" "default" "NETGEAR")

• >60% of all AP's detected were not running WEP of any kind, but more than half of the Cisco AP's had WEP enabled (probably because end-users generally don't run Cisco stuff).

• Vendor breakdown (no they don't add up to 100%)
  • Linksys 38%
  • Cisco 17%
  • NetGear 11%
  • D-Link 6%
  • Symbol 4%
  • Apple 2%
  • Microsoft 2%
  • Proxim/Agere/Orinoco 2%
  • Belkin 1.5%
  • BreezeNet 1.5%
  • ... and a bunch of others that only appeared once or twice like Addtron, Sercomm,Gemtek, Z-Com, etc.

The sample size for this was about 250 AP's during the outbound trip. On the return trip I ran NetStumbler for a lerger portion of the ride and recorded over 1000 AP's (some of which were duplicates of course) but I haven't taken the time to anlyze this larger data set yet.

I didn't try to connect to any of the AP's... most of them would come and go within a few seconds anyway. :)

Re:WarTraining is c00l

[mottie]

I'm surprised that "Fake" didn't show up more. I see this all the time.

Example: Sveasoft running on a WRT54G.

I like "Microsoft Corporate"

[ebcdic]

or possibly "Mastercard Accounts".

Warsitting

[coyotecult]

Sitting in my apartment I have seen:

3STUDS (open)
pervertcentral (us! not open to general public, WEPped and MAC'd and all)
nydia-kaye (open)
theguys (WEPped)
Wireless (WEPped)
eaglerayeast (error of some kind with Airport)
pax_central (WEPped - a rip off on us maybe?)
rav4 (open)
Mishi (error joining network, like with eaglerayeast)

All this from lying in bed at different points in time.

Slightly OT: Bluetooth ID

[Fatchap]

A chum of mine used to set the device name on this bluetooth PDA to the name of the local police force cyber-terrorist squad and then did a device discovery in the bar/trainstation.

Soon saw the people who did not realise they had devices with bluetooth and it was turned on go pale as they thought the cops were on to them!

Mine's simple enough...

[eric2hill]

"heaven"

The connection tool says "Connected to: heaven". It's a long-range connection :)

Re:Mine's simple enough...

[multipartmixed]

> LOAD "SIG",8,1

If you load ,8,0 (or just ,8), your SIG PRG would load at the start of BASIC, instead of just wherever BASIC starts on the machine you saved it on. This means that your SIG would be portable across all CBM machines, provided that it contains only platform-agnostic CBM BASIC 2.0 statements.

Just thought you should know.

Re:Mine's simple enough...

[Anonymous Coward]

thats awesome
gave me a good laugh

8675309

[ubiquitin]

After seeing an access point named "867-5309" I drove down the street humming that song in my head .

give it a vile name

[EvilStein]

My g/f got a cable modem. I couldn't think of anything catchy to call the SSID on the WAP I put at her place, so I chose something vile:

"56k AOL dialup"

Nobody will ever bother with it now!

Bad Poodles

[Whomever]

I saw one called "Bad Poodles" while war walking around a University Campus I was a network admin for.

Mine

[heezer7]

NoWifiForYou Yes has wpa/mac filtering....

I like mine...

[fdawg]

GetOffMyNetwork

Mine's called

[citizenklaw]

TeleTranNet. after the transformers 'bot which restored them. Seriously. I only use MAC filtering since where I live i'm surrounded mostly by old people. I don't expect to be hacked any time soon. My signal goes as far as the end of the street (Linksys WiFI router). L33T equipment for L33t folk. Now, if I can get my cable modem to behave i'll be a happy camper.

wardrivingislame

[spoonyfork]

I have a wireless network with WEP and blah blah blah. When a hacker (classical) inlaw came to visit over the holidays he asked if I had a wireless network. I started to describe it to allow him to connect and he said no, that he'd rather do it on his own.

A couple minutes latter I heard chuckling from the living room. He finally managed to find my "wardrivingislame" SSID.

Neighbor

[AviLazar]

I had a neighbor once (kinda weird--45 and lives with his mother, and just weird). And the first time he met me he started chatting about computers boasting how great he was (I just was creeped out by this guy...and hell I am a guy). He was telling me how there was this "honey pot" in the neighborhood that he was thinking of breaking into because it didn't have any security. First I had no idea about the term "honey pot" and it took me five minutes to shut him up to get an answer about what that meant. So, I was thinking it odd about this "honey pot" because I had never detected another wireless connection in the area except my own. Then he mentioned the name of the SSID, and I realized he was looking at mine. I told him to go see if he could hack it. A week later I saw him and he said he had been trying to hack it and for the life of him could not...so much for absolutely needing WEP :) Long live MAC address. I prefer MAC address since I do not have to worry about writing down my wep key (typos) in case of hard drive reformatting. And I have an extra wireless card for friends.

dont_hack_us

[9re9]

Saw this ID yesterday, but couldn't connect. I guess they'd been hacked one too many times.

HotMama

[Metroid72]

I'm new in the neighborhood and I constantly pick this network.... Gee... I wonder who the hot mama is...

Lame AP SSID Names:

[evillamer]

SSID FBI CIA NASA Monica Lewinsky Osama Bin Laden Password to my AP is password Check out my P0rn collection Windows XP Microsoft Slashdot Eat my shorts

mildly funny one

[Alapapa]

TheGSpot -- it was 802.11g keke

Er...

[brunes69]

Umm....let's see how hard it is to figure out who is running an AP.

Step 1. Get laptop or $20 Wifi strength meter.
Step 2. Walk around.
Step 3. Use publicly available sources to find out who lives there

And if you really think someone gives a shit if you like LOTR, I think you need a bigger tinfoil hat buddy.

How about contact information.

[joel2600]

I have my SSID set to "im me joel2600". For awhile before I moved away from college i'd always get instant messages from random people telling me they saw my access point while wardriving.

What really suprised me was the amount of people out there actually looking around, but one good side effect was that it became an easy way to attract some awesome friends.

brilliant ssid

[dmoorhouse]

I just had to post this one.... My favorite SSID was one I saw with the full street address of some brilliant guy. I guess if he gets lost in town he just has to go wardriving and find his AP. Dar

My fave

[TrippTDF]

I saw this once in Brooklyn- "Get the fuck off my shit"

Toronto wardriving results

[Anonymous Coward]

Warwalking in a small section of downtown Toronto, I recently found:

Catapult's House of Meow Meow
Change_ur_password_:)
Microtubulez Domain
Narnia
RockNRollHighschool
Scaramanga
T rampy Trampstein
xxxpornserver

A couple I remember

[sremick]

Perhaps my favorite was "drunkchicks" :)

There was another along the lines of "wanttosharethis5551212" or something.

Re: MAC spoofing

[183771]

MAC spoofing is so easy as running from your command line, if your driver support it:

ifconfig {eth0|wlan0} hw ether CA:CA:CA:CA:CA:CA

For a valid list of MAC addresses you can check IEEE list, anyway anybody who is trying to avoid your MAC address filtering is going to use an address from your filter list so you have to check for valid traffic but when you are not connected

Netstumbler

[York the Mysterious]

Mine is NETSTUMBLER with WEP and Mac filtering. I figure someone is cracking up out there when they drive by my house.

supaghetto!

[Morgion]

"supaghetto" used to be in my apt building.

"HackedByChinese" used to be there too. It was unsecured, and did have a default name... I thought I'd help them out.

We have a high turnover in our apt building. Possibly because people think it's a dump filled with computer nerds. Maybe.

Test Answers as SSIDs

[Anonymous Coward]

When Maine rolled out their iBooks for seventh and eight grades program a few years ago, the IT folks did everything they could think of to lock them down - non-admin IDs for students, firewalls, proxies, chat blocking, etc.

However, during open-iBook tests, the students found out they could create ad hoc AirPort networks with test answers as SSIDs. They had to get Apple to create special versions of AirPort software to block this sort of thing. Ingenious, really.

Re:Test Answers as SSIDs

[X0563511]

Ah. One of my friend's sisters has one of those. Can't do anything with them.

I am certain i could get around all that security crap, but it's been a long time (Since Color Classic II) since i have played with a mac.

"netstumblersbringbeer"

[Jerk City Troll]

Sounds like a fair trade to me.

I use NOWARDRIVERS

[drsmack1]

All my customers are set up this way unless they are technical enough to notice.

Re:I use NOWARDRIVERS

[Anonymous Coward]

Now Ard Rivers? I don't understand. What does Ard Rivers have to do with your network?

Re:I use NOWARDRIVERS

[MemoryAid]

Who's Ward Rivers?

MAC vs WEP

[AviLazar]

Which do you think is better and why?

My vote is for MAC:
1) Don't have to worry about wep keys (and typos)
2) Don't have to worry about formatting my hard drive and then trying to find that piece of paper with my WEP
3) I have been told that WEP slows down the computer signal since it has to utilize the WEP. SInce MAC is always being utilized there is no real extra step (am i right about this)?
4) I give a spare wireless card to when I have a guest over with a laptop - and thusly take it back when they leave - so I don't have to reconfigure my router.

What do you guys think

Re:MAC vs WEP

[jrushton]

Use MAC filtering with AES WPA, run an IPSEC VPN and then hope noones very interested in the network :)

Re:MAC vs WEP

[Jewcatur]

its a dumb idea cuz I can see your packets still and if I want on your network I just have to change my MAC to a valid MAC on your network

Re:MAC vs WEP

[BillGodfrey]

(whispering) "psst. whats the password?"
(shouting) "12:34:56:78:90:12 Hope no-one heard me shout that."

Re:MAC vs WEP

[AviLazar]

how does this effect the networ speed - having all of these security features? Though I suspect if someone can spoof my MAC it wouldn't be hard to break the rest.

Re:MAC vs WEP

[AviLazar]

how easy is it for someone to spoof a mac?

Re:MAC vs WEP

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just a network setting in Linux, no harder to change than your IP, netmask or gateway. You just change it using ifconfig. For example "ifconfig eth0 hw ether 01:01:01:01:01:01" does the trick.

Re:MAC vs WEP

[Ash-Fox]

and in windows you open the network connection settings, click "configure" which should be next to the name of your device (ie: mine is PLANET WL-3560)

Click advanced tab -> network address. Key in your new network address without the :'s

Note: Some wi-fi cards (I noticed cheap ones) don't allow you to change the mac addy.

Re:MAC vs WEP

[RandomJoe]

I used both for a while, but the problem of keeping track of the WEP key was annoying. And I didn't care for using MAC addresses, since I had to then get into my AP's configuration and add/remove computers as needed. I also wanted something more secure at home (for liability reasons), so now the AP uses neither, it's wide open. But it is on its own NIC in my firewall, and the only way to do anything at all with it is to use VPN. I chose OpenVPN since it was vastly easier (for me, anyway) to figure out, and supports all the OSes I use. (I never could get IPSec working on the Win2K work laptop...)

I also have an AP at work, tied to our DSL line. (This is NOT the corporate network, we got it because the corporate network was too restrictive for some of our needs.) That AP is also "wide open". If you associate, you get an IP and can resolve domain names all day long. But by default you can't go anywhere, except VPN to our corporate network. I add MAC addresses to the firewall rules for those who are allowed to have open access. I'd be more concerned about it here, but I've done some checking, and I can hardly get to all parts of the building wirelessly, and there is no signal outside the building.

Considering the ease with which WEP keys are crackable nowadays, I wouldn't bother with them anywhere. But I also am unwilling to leave a wide open connection anywhere, at least not permanently. At home, setting up an OpenVPN client takes a bit of time, but once it's done it's done. And it is unique to that computer/individual, so if necessary I can revoke their access easily without having to reconfigure all my other machines (like I would when changing WEP keys).

How about...

[Murf In Wyoming]

"IfUcanReadThisUR2Close" ?

"Gitrdone"

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you, Larry the cable guy. Security provided by the fact that no one can seem to even see the AP at the end of our property line. There's probably lead paint on the walls.

- R

At the airport in Amsterdam....

[CFD339]

after standing in line to get a pass to use the wifi a couple of years ago, the women at the counter looked at me and said simply "You are elephant?" -- of course, I had no idea how to reply to this. I said "no, I am not Elephant." to which she repeated "Elephant? You are elephant?"

It took me a few seconds to figure out, they were reading the name of people's PC's off the wifi so they could assign the ID. That way, the didn't charge people who had broken configurations and couldn't use the system -- avoiding all the return issues. Clever. The guy in front of me had a PC named "Elephant".

The funny thing is, my initials are "AP" and at the time I had an eMachines box. For whatever reason I'd named my laptop that after restoring some data, so the actual machine name was:

APeMachine (or APEmachine)... ;-)

Re: MAC spoofing

[Tim_F]

So...

If I'm MAC address filtering how are you going to be able to figure out which MAC addresses I'm allowing to connect to my network?

First you'r have to know the manufacturer of the network cards. And then what? That page only seemed to list manufacturers, and not the complete MAC address.

My favorites.

[rincebrain]

One of my friends and I got bored one night, so we went driving...

I think the funniest SSID I saw was "bigfloppydonkeydick"...and that was BEFORE I found out it had default settings.

Other notables include:
linkgoatse [mine; I should configure it to reroute all queries to the obvious, as a poster above did...]
Linksys [note the case change!]
dont_touch
Sniff My Dump

Of course, I personally love "insecure"...you'd be surprised how many of the APs around me have that as the default.

My favorite was my friend daring me to connect, claiming he had a "secure" access point...and then, a day later, discovering the lack of encryption and default password.

I'll have a better list to post later; my ipw2200 outputs to dmesg every time an AP is detected.

mine is...

[TekZen]

BeNiceOrIBanMac

"The Lady"

[greendoggg]

My brother's SSID is "TheLady", and it is broadcast in his suburban, residential neighborhood (although it is locked down with wpa as well). Something feels kind of good about logging in to "TheLady"....

Mine usually gets a laugh

[finkployd]

lynksis

About as clever (or not) as my nick now that I think about it.

Finkployd

Re:Mine usually gets a laugh

[Anonym1ty]

Ha

I named mine to Linkski

I helped a friend once, so I set all his stuff up the same as mine. He still can't say linksys he always calls it a linkski.

MoosecockAP

[graphicartist82]

At home I use "MoosecockAP". Some friends thought the joke below was really funny, so I felt obliged to name my Cisco AP350 after it.



Two Canadians are sitting in a bar, and getting bored. They decide to play 20 questions.
The first Canadian tries to think of a word and after a little pondering comes up with the word: moosecock.

The second Canadian tries his first question, "Is it something good to eat?"

The first guy thinks a moment then laughs and replies "Sure, I suppose you could eat it."

The second Canadian says, "Is it a moosecock?

Someone's street address

[hqm]

I was sitting in a car in a residential neighborhood Palo Alto, looking for a wireless AP to read me email. Someone's AP was labeled with their street address, which made it easy to drive up in front of their house for better reception.

Seinfeld...

[Griffin518]

My SSID is "Mulva" ;)

Oh.

[rincebrain]

Also, I wandered around my neighborhood one day, on bike, because I was bored...

I live in a suburban neighborhood in the middle of the woods.

I found in excess of twelve access points.

Only two had non-default settings.

Needless to say, I don't need to worry about my broadband bill...

ANY

[Mephie]

That's my fave. This was actually the default SSID on one of IBM's early accesspoints.

VIRUS * BROADCAST

[lucidvein]

Found a secured AP in my building with an SSID of VIRUS * BROADCAST which made me chuckle.

My own SSID is LO-FI.

Lots of great SSIDs at wigle.net

[Stavr0]

WIreless Geographic Logging Engine

Some good ones:
Dog
Sesame
851-JERK
greekfreak
My penis

I kid you not...

[Shrug]

I read your email.

as a take off the thinkgeek.com sticker.

FBISurveilance-Omaha

[KlomDark]

That's my current SSID. On my old 11 MB AP, I had it set to RealmOfTheElectricDog. Had one neighbor ask me about that one. :)

Re:FBISurveilance-Omaha

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm thinking the FBI would spell correctly.

surveillance

Re:FBISurveilance-Omaha

[KlomDark]

Sorry, it is spelled right in my SSID, I am typically a (silent) spelling nazi myself, just didn't cut and paste, and really don't give a shit.

Now please go have yourself a big old bowl of STFU!!

but for us normal folks

[cinnamon colbert]

the software user interface for most wireless hardware is so bad, so poorly written, so intimidating, that I pray to god that the defaults will get me thru the day. This is clearly a case where customer service is a zero priority. Maybe the avg /. geek, who is clearly a log or two off normal, can deal with this stuff, but I would bet 10 dollars that a survey of avg users would find a lot of frustration.

false sense of security with MAC filtering

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize once your WEP/WPA is broken, we can pluck a MAC out of the air, and then by spoofing, still compromise your network, yes?

Not that this is your problem, you're doing far more than most and I applaude such - but do blame the vendors for giving you substandard encryption/encryption options.

Re:false sense of security with MAC filtering

[bill_mcgonigle]

99% of people with wireless cards don't know how to spoof a MAC.

It doesn't keep any wardrivers out but it keeps your dumb skeevy neighbor from freeloading.

Re:false sense of security with MAC filtering

[AK Marc]

You do realize once your WEP/WPA is broken, we can pluck a MAC out of the air, and then by spoofing, still compromise your network, yes?

Then you are a complete moron (or have a personal grudge). Why bother, when you can move one house down the block and pick up another? Wardrivers don't look for a good place to break in, they look for the already open places. MAC filtering is not secure at all, but it should be enough alone to get a wardriver to move on. You don't have to be secure, you just have to be more inconvenient than your neighbor.

Re:false sense of security with MAC filtering

[jschrod]

Na, one just has to combine it with other measures. E.g., my setup: Connect the AP to a special NIC; use iptables to block everything on that NIC except IPsec, set up a road-warrior VPN. (My notbook is also running firewalls both natively and in all VMwares.) No WEP, no WPA. SSID is broadcasted, it doesn't matter.

If somebody will compromise my network, it will probably not be over my no-WEP/no-WPA Wifi setup. You can connect to my AP as long as you like; but you won't come further.

Re:false sense of security with MAC filtering

[geeksdave]

Yeah, like the "Chased by a bear" analogy: You don't have to run faster than the bear to escape, just faster than your slowest buddy.

Re:false sense of security with MAC filtering

[Dun Malg]

You don't have to be secure, you just have to be more inconvenient than your neighbor.

Two guys camping look out the tent and see a bear tearing up their stuff. "What'll we do?" asks the first. The second says nothing, but starts putting on running shoes. The first says "You're crazy! you can't outrun a bear!" The second looks up at him and says "I don't have to outrun the bear, I only have to outrun YOU."

Mr. Weasel

[Kevoco]

I keep my own (above named) AP closed, but the neighbors are wide open, default admin passwords, etc.

I carry a Canary Wireless AP detector and am amazed by the number of wide open APs I find. I am a bit concerned that my MAC address remains in their DHCP table after I'm gone.

I recently downloaded the eval release of SMAC, which allows me to spoof my MAC address, otherwise it is possible that my WiFi card's MAC address could be used to track me down, being a unique number and all.

BTW, SMAC just automates an otherwise manually doable process, basically tweaking a couple registry settings.

Re: MAC spoofing

[Lehk228]

actually it's easier than that, just sniff the traffic for a while.

Not always.

[abb3w]

is "linksys". From that point, I know that the AP is unsecured, and has a default admin password.

Usually. A rather nasty neighbor of mine configured his AP with the name "linksys", but it's quite well secured, with WEP, MAC restriction, and the other manufacturer bells and whistles turned on.

Said manufacturer being NetGear.

sniffer

[ZoneGray]

"sniffer"

Mom's Network

[ZeroVerteX]

While scanning in my home town, in a residential area, I found "Mom's Network".

'linksys' default name sometimes necessary

[francisew]

It may seem dumb to have it named linksys, but at the same time, it's only possible to use some of them when the SSID is still linksys. I can't remember the details, but I think that with WEP on in some models, you aren't able to connect to the AP unless it is still named linksys.

Retarded? Yes.

That's what we live with when friends and family think Futureshop really does stock good products at decent prices (no matter how hard one tries to dissuade with explainations).

Re:'linksys' default name sometimes necessary

[greed]

friends and family think Futureshop really does stock good products at decent prices

Futureshop exists in my world because of their return policy. Prior to Best Buy buying them, they were the only high-tech shop with a "Satisfaction Guarantee" in my area (that I know of).

I can get a much better price at the College St shops, and hardly ever any screwing around with mail-in rebates.

But if I don't know if the widget is going to work with my system, it's off to Futureshop....

Mine is named...

[sc0ttyb]

My home machine is named "Sh0dan" and my work machine is named "Xerxes". I thought it only fitting to name my WAP "Citadel", being a wireless base station and all. :)

NothingToSeeHereMoveAlong

[Anonymous Coward]

= my personal SSID.

Now, 100 points to whomever finds it!

Save our Souls

[Anonymous Coward]

A wireless network near me has the SSID of "SOS". Not sure if I should track it down and call emergency services.

Some of mine

[5n3ak3rp1mp]

"goaway"
"iliketrafficlights"
"monkeypoo"

and someone's open wifi in my building is now called
"penisforbreakfast"

Definitely opportunities for some creativity here...

Tolkein Ring

[the_rev_matt]

That's what I called mine, at least.

Linksys

[Anonymous Coward]

I leave mine as Linksys.

Why? Legal reasons (hence the anonymous coward post here). "But officer, It wasn't me. I didn't know what AP stood for, let alone that I needed to do anything. It just worked out of the box so I thought there was nothing else for me to do."

I should add that I'm not employed in any IT/tech field, and have no formal training. Plus, my only home machine is a Mac! Not prima facie incriminating evidence.

They might trace activity back to the AP, but not to my machine.

My network's SSID:

[jpt9]

Ansible For those of you who don't get it, it's a faster-than-light communications device from the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. -- J.P.

SSID

[techster3599]

Some great ones I have seen are : allyourpasswordsarebelongtous, 1ink$y$, and an unsecured one with the name of CANT_HACK_THIS

Re: MAC spoofing

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't have to be associated with the AP to sniff from it.

Even if you card doesn't support rfmon, alot of the AP's I have seen with so-called MAC filtering will still let you associate with them (just will not send any of your packets out) which is enough to fire up Ethereal and grab a MAC.

Callsign!

[Entropius]

I have a friend who is planning on using her ham license to set up a wifi point on Channel 1 (which, apparently, overlaps an amateur band).

To satisfy the amateur requirement that all transmissions must identify themselves by callsign at least every ten minutes, she's going to use hers as the SSID (broadcast).

Re:Callsign!

[Anonym1ty]

We have a few hams around here who are setting up an entire network around town using D-Link 900AP+ and just passing the network.

HSMM, or High Speed Multimedia, is the name of an ARRL sponsored technical project to introduce high speed data radio to amateur radio. ARRL HSMM Link

The license free 802.11a/b/g services operate on bands that overlap amateur frequency allocations, giving us cheap hardware that can be used under FCC part 97. Hams though can boost the power quite a bit beyond FCC part 15 regs.

GoAheadIDontMind

[Kevin DeGraaf]

In Grandville, MI there's one (on 44th St. between I-196 and Canal Ave. if anyone cares) called GoAheadIDontMind, presumably coming from one of the apartment complexes next to the road.

Use Your Address!

[Bondolo]

My access point's SSID is "819 Peralta" which, not coincidentally, is my house's street address. I leave my access point wide open to anyone who wants to use it. I've only had one person admit to using my access point though my MACID log has shown that 65 or so people have connected.

The only downside to having an open access point is that I have to be a little more cautious what network services I have exposed.

Re:Use Your Address!

[evansvillelinux]

What will you do if someone uses your wireless connection to access illegal/illicit materials and the authorities come knocking at your door?

"Echelon"

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to have "Go Away" for mine; until I decided to leave it wide open with "echelon" for the ssid. Of course, everything is locked out except for ssh and openvpn. I need to change it so that there is some kind of "echelon" homepage when you try to access it...

if I was living somewhere with religion/churches

[jonwil]

If I was living somewhere where there are a lot of religious nuts (i.e. bible belt religious conservatives etc), I would think of the most blasphemous thing possible that is still a valid SSID. (perhaps something like GodSucks or ThereIsNoGod)

willisahairytart

[Anonymous Coward]

Curiously, I know someone called Will who lives in the vicinity of this AP ...

Damn Leeches

[DavyByrne]

For some reason making my SSID "stopleeching" didn't prevent my neighbor from using it to download DVDs over BitTorrent 24 hours a day....

Re: Best Wireless SSID's You Have Seen?

[SpinJaunt]

0xFEEDFACEDEADBEEF
0x53.0x65.0x63.0x75.0x72.0x65 (S.e.c.u.r.e)

...lol

tsunami

[kuyttendaele]

Wonder if Cisco is going to change their default SSID name :-)

Al Qaeda

[Cross_ _Flame]

My favorite was "AL_QAEDA". It freaked out several of my friends when I told them a terrorist network was operating near our house, in secret.

It's OK to use default names - of another make ;-)

[cheros]

I mean, what's wrong with a little bit of deception? For good measure you could think about using Fred Cohen's Deception Toolkit (DTK) on the firewall adjacent and make it look like a really attractively leaky box. Add a LaBrea tarpit as secondary MX and you're ready to make friends.

Yeah, I know. I didn't bother either .

= Ch =

Mine is....

[bigBlackSabbath]

eatmyjunk - the neighbors don't know what to think...

Default password and renaming SSIDs

[phorm]

I think there are several layers of stupidity. Around my gf's place, not are there a few of the standard "linksys" and "default" gateways... but upon trying to connect to the gateway itself I was able to login with the "admin" username (no password) which is generally default.

I didn't do anything, but the temptation was there to play around. Perhaps a good slashdot poll would be for what one should rename such open gateways to?

Re:Default password and renaming SSIDs

[Anonymous Coward]

How about "SetYourSecuritySettingsNextTime" ?

Bad Neighborhood

[fire-eyes]

I live in a very bad neighborhood, so mine is a variance of "WhoreHouse".

Stealthy

[kwalker]

The best one I saw was at my friend's condo. Someone closeby has an ap which is broadcasting the SSID "Stealthy".

Secured

[RoundTop-VJAS]

At home I have a router being used as a WAP, on a 10. domain, with an odd IP address, 128-bit WEP, MAC filtering, an SSID of SHINJI, changed password, and SSID broadcast off.

Oh yeah, and running all the latest firmware.

get your network on

[steak]

thats the best ssid around my apartment

location SSID

[dirvish]

I worked for a university and one of my tasks was to track down rogue wireless routers (ones not setup by the school's NOP department). My favorites were the ones that had the building and room number for the SSID, they made it really easy to find them. There was always the concern that someone would get smart and use the same SSID as the what the official APs used, but if they did I didn't notice...

Don't know if it was a request or a dare

[ozonator]

"steal my wireless"

802.11b is soooo last year

[tomreagan]

That's both a thought for the day, a way of life, and the SSID on the AP in my apt.

Strange that even though it's soooo unfashionable, I still found about 8 leeches hanging off it last week.

Siemens AP

[shumacher]

I have a Siemens AP/Router/Print Server. My SSID is chairman_meow, but I think the camp has faded - it's time for a new SSID. It supports group-based access control, so I allow Everyone access to DNS, HTTP and HTTPS. My personal machines are unrestricted on another group. I also run 128-bit WEP. I might ditch the wep for a day or two, change the SSID to default or something, just to see what bubbles up. I'm curious about wardrivers in my area.

SSIDs I have known

[IbeUID0]

All time favorite: MonkeyCheesePants - Funny, but hopefully no more than that - I wouldn't want to know. Runnerups: Bring beer for password (university campus) nowerenotStarbucksmovealong - near a coffee shop

Neighborhood SSIDs over time...

[Junta]

I see two SSIDs at my house aside from my own, one is a venerable 'linksys', never protected...

The other (WEP protected and such), changes ever so often...
It was 'Voltron', then it was 'MyLittlePony'. I sense a theme....

Fear works!

[yetanothermike]

Mine is Homeland_Security_Dept.

When I came online my neighbor flipped out. He had just started working on an export contract with some Arab parties. He was convinced that The Man was checking up on him because the guys were on a watchlist. He was very relieved when I told him it was me.

It's that incident that keeps me from disabling broadcast - I love thinking that my less-than-savvy neighbors are a little uneasy because of that.

You'd understand if you knew my neighbors.

Not Available

[bbambrey]

My buddy uses names like Not Available for all of his ssid.... pretty good.

mine

[gazeux]

"The Internet Is For PORN"

Address

[Leroy_Brown242]

I like te ones where people have thier address or apartment number.

It's like saying,"Hey criminals, I'm over here and I likely have a laptop!"

DialupAP

[ev1lcanuck]

DialupAP: That's what I call mine. No security whatsoever and I've been hacker-free since 2002!

RE: remote access not a default

[King_TJ]

The thing I don't understand about this is, by default, most Linksys (and other) wireless access points default to not allowing remote comfiguration?

Best AP Name

[Anonymous Coward]

GNAA.

mine is....

[chicagozer]

whybother

So you are guy...

[Anonymous Coward]

So you are the guy who did that eh?

Well...what dya' say ? Atleast i chewed out comcast for no fault of theirs...felt good BTW.

Mod parent up Re:false sense of security with MAC

[IO ERROR]

You do realize once your WEP/WPA is broken, we can pluck a MAC out of the air, and then by spoofing, still compromise your network, yes?

Oh yes, I know. I've done it before.

Mine is the "Neverland Ranch"

[mgbaron]

I think thats pretty good...

Re: remote access not a default

[so1omon]

Except that he wasn't configuring them remotely. He just switched over to their network because it was open. 192.168.0.1, and you're in.

Re: remote access not a default

[aventius]

Remote configuration is only if you aren't connected to the AP. Anybody can configure a router if they are connected to the LAN. I think Linksys uses 192.168.0.1 but if remote configuration is enabled, then you can log in through the IP that your ISP gives.

i used to have a pic of this

[Anonymous Coward]

I was using netstumbler to check the strength of my own AP in the apartment. One of the other AP's I saw came up as "AT_LEAST_CHANGE_THE_DEFAULT_ADMIN_PW"
someone got owned..

Why a crime?

[fishbowl]

I have an AP, named "linksys" and a fairly efficient antenna located high up. If anyone wants to use it, they are my guest. Abuse it, and it'll be gone. What's wrong with opening bandwidth for people in your vicinity to make use of?

Re:Why a crime?

[Anonymous Coward]

There have been a lot of cases already of people performing illegal acts on unsecured wireless networks.

Won't you feel stupid when the FBI shows up at your door and wants to know why you've been uploading all that child porn

Oops!

[CrazyTalk]

I accidentaly renamed a neighbors unprotected network, thinking I was renaming my own. When I realized my mistake, I wanted to rename it back but I couldnt remember the exact spelling of the name they had used. So, I renamed it "oops". That was 6 months ago, and the "oops" network is still around. I wonder if they are continuing to use it under the new name I gave it...

Retarded Moderators Again!

[Anonymous Coward]

This post isn't offtopic.

Dumbfuck morons.

SSIDs

[drspin2003]

"Tsunami"
Come on, people.

h37p m3

[mushupork]

Only hax0r SSID in my "linksys/default" subdivision.

Seealltheprettycolors?

[Anonymous Coward]

Strange, but true. In Cambridge, MA.

Getting the job done...

[IANAAC]

I will agree that my methods are not rewardable but they got the job done.

No you "didn't get the job done". All you did was satisfy your own sanctimonious self by locking them out. As you say earlier, they most likely went back to exactly the same way they were operating before.

Nice job.

Do you have many friends? Dates?

Re:Getting the job done...

[aventius]

No they did get the job done. Within a day they had a new SSID, password, and WEP.

This is not the wlan you're looking for...

[Anonymous Coward]

A friend's last name is Smith...He went to name it after his name, but had a typo...it turned out to be:

Sithlan

The dark side of the force is here.

I_am_not_a_slut

[sckeener]

When I go to game paper & dice rpg, I take my laptop. It makes keeping track of the game easier...anyway, my friend's SSID is I_AM_NOT_A_SLUT

In reality, I guess he's not an easy slut (WEP&MAC filtering), but still a slut to the right wardriver.

Funny, but kind of Racist...

[Zebulah]

When I first got a wireless card for my laptop I ran out into my backyard to see what networks I could pick up. Right at the top of the list of available networks was "Kill_the_White_Man". As I moved closer to my African-American neighbor's house it got stronger.

He's a nice guy, so the next day when I ran into him I asked if he had wireless. He flinched and said "No". That afternoon the network had been renamed something innocous.

My network is called "Kill_the_Who!?"

Haven't seen these, but . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

I always thought it would be amusing to change the SSID on any of the dozens of unsecured routers in my apartment complex to something like "drugs4sale" or "kidpr0n" just to see the SWAT team in action!

Ender's Game reference

[MooseGuy529]

Mine's called Ansible. I guess that makes a bit of a promise about lag, or lack thereof. (It's open...)

My favorite thus far:

[millennial]

"2206 Swede". Yes, an unsecured AP, named after the person's address.

0wn3d :-)

[Kymermosst]

Found as an SSID in Eugene, Oregon during a wardrive. No, it wasn't my doing.

Incidentally, a kind neighbor with "linksys" provides me with free broadband. Wonder how long it'll be before someone discovers it and actually changes the password on the AP.

At IU...

[AgentAce]

I encountered the SSID "MyBallsHurtFromTheHerpes"

"use_a_password_bitch"

[darco]

saw this one as I was driving around the u-district in seattle.

My SSID is...

[jamesgomez]

"I Wardrive too!" So far, I have seen one other access point in Bakersfield CA. with a similar SSID like mine. A buddy and myself went on a wardriving craze this time last year and these are all the access points we found. http://wirez.wxcs.com/images/bakersfield.jpg I can only imagine how many APs there are now.

A geek house

[dcclark]

Our (rather secure) network in this house of 4 people and 7 computers is: nerdmobile. Problem is, nobody can remember if we meant it to be nerd-mobile (like Mobile Home) or nerdmobile (like a thing a nerd would drive).

if only...

[Anonymous Coward]

"cowboy_neal_is_gay" Just thought that that would be an interesting one.

Totally useless and ineffective.

[Otto]

Disabling SSID broadcast doesn't prevent somebody from seeing your SSID. The SSID is in every frame, so it's not like you're preventing anybody with a sniffer from seeing the SSID. Furthermore, they don't even need your SSID to connect to you, as on most systems, the "ANY" SSID will allow association unless your AP had the ability to disable that.

All disabling SSID broadcast will do is to prevent your SSID from showing up in Windows little list of "available networks". This might prevent the little old lady next door from connecting to your system by accident, but it does absolutely nothing in terms of security.

Re:Totally useless and ineffective.

[cpeterso]

Actually, you WANT your SSID to show up in your neighbors' lists of available networks. When your neighbors see your SSIS on channel 6 or whatever, they (if they care) can set their wireless network to use a different channel.

Unfortunately, my NetGear SuperG 802.11g only works on channel 6, so I have to share the channel with a bunch of neighbors on the same channel.. :(

GANGBANG

[Anonymous Coward]

No, really.

Fun with old AP Hardware - Wireless Graffiti

[Tattva]

With the rate of change of wireless technologies, there are probably a lot of people like me who have old 802.11b AP's they no longer need.

Has anyone ever considered configuring an old AP with an SSID like "Starbucks SUX0RS" and plugging it in and hiding it in said establishment? I have not done it personally and I am not advocating doing this, just curious.

South Park reference...

[ca1v1n]

My old roommate moved into a large house recently, and was having some reception problems in the upper floors, so he hacked his firmware to boost the power to 150 mW. Then he added an antenna that he calculates should amplify it to over 4 Watts. We're fairly sure that he should be getting reception for 1/4 mile to a mile horizontally now, so he decided to play with the wardrivers trying to figure out where his base station is, and name it "clitoris". I'm personally waiting to see how long until he gets a knock on the door from the FCC.

Requires some back story

[Omega697]

At Robocup 2004 in Lisbon, there were a lot of teams that arrived late to the competition. Many of us had booked our flights on Continental, and we had all been delayed by bad weather in Newark. Thus, when I was setting up our team's wireless network and noticed that there was already one called "FuckContinental", I nearly died laughing.

How about

[cheezit]

"StopLookingAtMySSID"? I've seen it, no lie.

I'm a bit of a football nut

[NYTrojan]

My SSID is Hail Mary (flyin through the air). The home network is Gridiron. The main PC I use is HeadCoach, the Linux Web Server is PlayBook. The Laptop is WideReceiver, and the secondary PC is QuarterBack. I plan to set up a cluster named after O linemen.

AlienAnalProbeDepotOfTexas

[Anonymous Coward]

I use AlienAnalProbeDepotOfTexas.
Yes, I'm just here to show off my witty name like everyone else ;)

Re: sniffing traffic

[183771]

You just need to sniff some traffic with some tool for sniffing traffic, link Ethereal, and you will get a valid and allowed MAC address.

TadCockjockeysWirelessBonanza

[UNOStudent]

My mom recently asked for a wireless setup at her house - I thought the SSID "TadCockjockeysWirelessBonanza" was interesting enough. The network is as secured as it can be, and I'll admit I'm a little disappointed that it doesn't appear that anyone has even tried to access it - I suppose there aren't enough Bible quotes in it to attract the attention of central Nebraska residents.

I have found several funny ones....

[fatboy]

americans are stupid
blairbitches (They are one Blair Street)
useme4free
Pimp Shack
FuckOFF

"TripAndFall".....

[chudgoo]

I swear my neighbors were watching me move into my apartment when they named their AP. The stairs were VERY icy and I was lucky to not DIE falling down them. The first thing I did was look for free wifi (of course) and found it rather amusing when the first AP was "TripAndFall"

I've seen two good ssid in the last week.

[AntonOlsen]

ElectricLadyLAN pooppoint Neither had WEP. I got an IP from the first, but didn't keep it long enough to try surfing.

The inverse

[awtbfb]

I was staying with a guy who lived near a large computer company's regional office. He secured it and set up the SSID to look like one of theirs -14A253 or something like that. He thought it would be fun to see who tried to break in.

"Minimal effort" example

[Espen]

There is one around here which probably represents the barest minimum of efforts as the SSID set to: asdf-ghjk

It is WEP-protected, but I'm not holding my breath on key security.

Re: Zl snibhevgr

[Anonymous Coward]

Vs lbh pna ernq guvf, ybt bss abj. Tb bhgfvqr. Syl n xvgr.

V gevrq, ohg gur xvgr fgevat xrcg trggvat nyy gnatyrq hc nebhaq zl naxyrf. Gura V tbg areibhf orpnhfr V'q yrsg zl rne zrqvpvar ng ubzr, fb V qrpvqrq gb tb onpx.

I use "PUBLIC" in SSID for my public hotspots

[adrenaline_junky]

This doesn't really count as an interesting SSID, but I think its a good idea at least:

I use "PUBLIC" as part of the SSID for my public hotspots. So, for instance, one of them is "SYMBIO-PUBLIC". That is to make it clear that it is a public hotspot that I have freely made open and available to anyone to use.

My ISP allows me to share my bandwidth, and I've taken precautions to limit the use of my public hotspots to low-priority bandwidth levels as well as limiting access to safe ports and such (don't need anyone setting up a spam machine via wifi!).

If everyone with the intention of giving away free bandwidth did this then it would help clarify whether open-hotspots are that way intentionally or (as is much more often the case) the hotspot provider is just a clueless newbie.

WARDRIVERSAREASSHOLES

[Willis Wasabi]

my fave...

ssid

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine is knobjob_2005.

political speech

[sacrilicious]

I have a friend who lives in a Texas neighborhood in Bush country. He can see several wireless networks from his house alone, so there's a fairly high usage ratio there. He said that the few pro-Kerry signs that people put out before the elections were usually stolen within 24 hours... but then somone put up a wireless network called "GeorgeBushSucksDonkeyDick". People have sorta scratched their heads and tried to figure out who has put it up, but nobody there is technical enough to propose any methodical detection approaches (political Darwinism, anyone?).

The network continues to be up, well exceeding the average 24-hour lifespan of the yard signs.

Some I've seen

[Arcturax]

My own is shaddupfoo. The mexicans down the street use "Paco" and one of the local churches uses praisejesus. Some of the local buisinesses are rather amusing too, such as "circlek" at a dairy mart, a nod to the mart in Bill & Ted's Excellent adventure. Then there are several ones called "secure" which are anything but.

Netgear seems to have the shortest average ranges, picking up only when I'm almost on top of them. Spectrum has the longest, with a Spectrum24 my former roomate got off of ebay going almost two blocks from the house.

Must admit...

[Anonymous Coward]

...that I've never seen such a thing. I even fail to visualize it due to a seeming overabundance of thighs. Honestly!

Best ssid ever

[discoking]

The best SSID I have seen while war driving waa in dimondbar CA was ILIKEANALSEX Probably someone messing with an insecure access point.

Linksys

[Anonymous Coward]

I named mine linksys ... but it's a d-link router.

Mine is named "smell"

[Anonymous Coward]

I like it.

Kismet users

[detritus.]

Using "" on my AP seems to leave kismet users frustrated as to why they can't sniff out any broadcast association requests :)

damn slashdot filter

[detritus.]

what i meant to say was,

<no ssid>

Why broadcast?

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I just don't broadcast my SSID. Why bother?

Re:"uSniffMyAP_ISniffUrWife"

[Run4yourlives]

um... how the hell is that offtopic?

2 more

[OrbNobz]

I use '***ERROR***' on mine, and a wardriving friend found 'Close_the_POD_bay_doors_HAL!'.

I wonder if you can use some combination of NULLs, spaces, and backspaces... hmmmm

- OrbNobz
"My walnuts!!!" - GIR

My favorite...

[Mr. Spleen]

One of my friends recently moved into a brand-new, massive condo development. The condos themselves are pretty big, but everything is really crammed in. In the first days of moving in, he set up his WAP with the SSID of "parking sucks". A few days later, another network popped up called "NO_KIDDING".

Mr. Spleen

SSIDs I've used...

[Anonymous Coward]

My first was Pimpville, my second was KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!

ssid of "ANY"

[Anonymous Coward]

forget where i read this, but i saw some reference to using an SSID of "ANY"
this makes it difficult for most people to connect to you, because when they tell their card setup client to connect to "ANY", most of them use this as a keyword to connecto to any access point that is 'advertising itself'.
pretty clever i thought

My Wireless SSID...

[jnapalm]

I named my wireless network "Can't touch this"

call it "The Prom"

[el_gregorio]

that ought to make sure there's no hackers to be found anywhere near it...

SJC AP...

[TheTitan]

FuckOffYou, unsecured residential AP

like this?

[MasTRE]

SSID: hacmeidareu

SSID: 'YourMom'

[Anonymous Coward]

Currently the SSID for the wireless router that I run for me and my three room mates is 'YourMom.'

I get comments from them like, "YourMom is down", "I can't connect with YourMom." You get the picture.

Mine are:

[angst_ridden_hipster]

"ACCESS DENIED" for the 802.11b

and

"NETWORK UNAVAILABLE" for the 802.11g

0\\'n3d!

[supabeast!]

Shortly after I moved in, I noticed a wireless network named "Glenn" running totally open and unencrypted. I joined it, hit http://192.168.0.1, and sure enough the login and password were "admin" and "1234" respectively. Eight months later, that network is still named "Glenn-please-secure-me."

My Email

[Anonymous Coward]

My SSID is my email, best social network ever.

SSID - midearth

[slpalmer]

Doh! Did I just see my SSID on /.'s front page? Time to change it I guess.

UK wardriving

[Anonymous Coward]

SSID "Bugger Off" - after wardriving and then connecting to an open AP regularly.

--

Best "honeypot" SSID

[Anonymous Coward]

DallasPDNarcoticsDiv

SSID

[Anonymous Coward]

You broadcast your SSID????????

Virus Infested

[Froboz23]

This name works great for my SSID. People avoid like, well, the plague.

Re:My neighborhood - may not be open

[netringer]

The access points could have been designed to be secure without anyone ever needing to RTFM. Print the serial number of the device on the case of the box, use it as the default password.

You'll be happy to know that the 2Wire DSL modem/firewall/AP "Home Networking Kit" that SBC now ships to new customers is setup exactly like that - WEP is on by default and the WEP key, based on the serial number, is on a sticker on the bottom of the case.

So when you see a fairly new SSID of "2Wire" in nieghborhood it shouldn't be open unless the owner went out the way to make it that way.

Alas, it's only 64 bit WEP and it doesn't have WPA or MAC address filtering that I could find. It'll do for the GF until she gets her new iMac and AirPort this week after which I'll disable WiFi on the 2Wire.

my proposal:)

[timelady]

my now husband proposed by getting me to demonstrate an ap he 'set up for me'. i showed people kismet, and wham, up came ssid "will_you_marry_me". i look at him, and hes holding a ring, and saying, yep, its for real....:)
ok, i'm so geek i think it was romantic:)

Open networks aren't good.

[SanityInAnarchy]

Open networks mean more spam, more viruses, and more "admins" (who don't know the first thing about security) getting blamed for all of the above.

What they know now is that they weren't secure and that they should care about it. There is NO other effective way of telling someone these things. They will either ignore you, assume that you're wrong about them being insecure, or assume that being insecure isn't a bad thing.

Remember the slashdot article about someone's dad who didn't care about any of the reasons for using firefox, including security? I'm sure he didn't understand why that is socially irresponsible.

My SSIDs

[dissy]

I have two access points, one fully open, no wep, NAT over one public IP, and fully firewalled from my network except for my dns servers (dhcp runs on the access point)

SSID is :)

The other access point is closed via LEAP, different private IP block, also firewalled as above except this one allows access to the IP address of my VPN gateway machine, and does not do NAT.

SSID is :(

Both SSIDs are broadcast out of course.

Funniest i've seen

[JoelC101]

Was out w/ my laptop about a week ago, and saw a SSID that was "S3CuR3N3TW0RK". Needless to say, it wasn't WEP encrypted

Recent Ones

[sscottsci]

LAN_Ho
Dirty_Sanchez
LAN_DownUnder

My SSID

[KenFury]

I had a ssid for a while of A205_$key. My Apartment was A205 and the $key was my WEP key. I did have my wireless on a seperate VLAN and VPN'd back if I wanted to check something on the wired VLAN. I did not care if someone used my wireless as I had most traffic ACL'd off. All you had was recieveing mail, web, ssh and telnet open for public use.

I use my SSN

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that a bad idea?

why protect it?

[Mars Saxman]

My SSID is "mars network, open for all". I have more bandwidth than I can use; why not share it?

My SSID...

[biafra]

is 'thereisalotofwifihere' since from my couch I can see 15 other AP's on a good day and 5-7 on a quiet day. A few months ago I noticed a new AP in my building 'youknowit' and most recently 'yeaitssilly'.

MOD PARENT UP

[anakin357]

I agree with you on free access.

Broadband is no longer something that I could live without. DSL is not offered in my area, which is right outside downtown Salt Lake City.

The response from teleco was that I am "40 feet too far away, but you can get IDSL (128/128) for $130 a month."

If I could not get Comcast Cable service here, I would be getting a high gain antenna, and a 802.takeyourpick network card, and connect to an open access point, sniff some traffic to determine the owner, send them an email or stop by their door and ask if I can use it.

My House

[dampjam]

I get better reception to the people next door than through my floor downstairs. Hence I find myself connecting frequently to "SlapABitch"

SSID: Palantir

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesnt quite have the range of a palantir, but I swear, if you stare at the router long enough, you just might see a burning eye (which could be your own).

Best for me:

[cbiltcliffe]

That's a good one...

My best, obviously set up by the teenage male in the family:

ssidisgayashell

128 bit WEP, but the encryption key was 'ssidisgayashe', so it wasn't hard to break into....

Here it comes....

[falconfighter]

Once I saw a wireless access point named... yes, Uranus. I can actually post the netstumber log if anybody cares.

On a trip to USENIX in Philly in 2001

[waa]

While riding next to a limo, kismet picked up "limoman" To this day I wonder if that limo company offered some sort of wireless access in their limos.

On the same trip I found "IPROSECUTEFORWIFITHEFT" or something pretty close to that. I can not remember anymore it was 3 years ago, but I laughed when I saw it. BTW, it was OPEN, no WEP. :)

GirlsGoneWireless

[skywalker404]

Found while walking around a housing complex at my university.
--
SuperCalendar.com - Web calendar with RSS, AIM/SMS notifications, and more.

LOGGED

[Linux_Bastard]

It is surprising how effective it is.

I actually have 2 set up, One named "HAVE_AT" on the old "b" gear, with wide open http ftp, ... access to my isp, but blind to the internal network.
I also have a wide open "g" ap named "LOGGED" over which I run a real VPN for my internal network. I allow open access on the HAVE_AT to anyone as long as the bandwidth isn't in the way. If it is, I just shut it off. Besides, the
logs make interesting reading.

So far, no-one has had more than a passing interest in the LOGGED network.

It works for me.

So what's the most unlikely-to-be-probed name?

[Anonymous Coward]

W32.Klez.C
closed
Pretty Soldier Sailor Encryption
honeypot
StumbleLogger
NO CARRIER
tarpit01
(long, random string of characters to piss off the wardrivers with text-to-voice)
[][][][][][][][][][]
SeeYouJimmy
*******************
disconnected awaiting repair
boring
" " (without the quotes)
Sorry, the network is down right now.

Any others?

im browsin' the SphinctorNET!

[Foktip]

I like my own SSID: "SphinctorNET". It used to the name of my dialup connection at home. We all used to say "its so crappy and useless!", and thats where the name started.

"allyourbaseare"

[tminusnetwork]

Had to laugh hard stumbling upon that one...

mine

[signingis]

hay what's going on in this ssid

:)

Re: remote access not a default

[King_TJ]

Ok, I gotcha.... Yeah, for some dumb reason, I forgot all about that possibility.

Again, I may be wrong here, but I *think* most of these routers still issue IPs in a different range via DHCP to their wireless clients than to their wired ones? I recall mine giving my wireless connections IPs in the 192.168.1.x range while actual wired LAN connected clients were given 192.168.0.x range IPs.

Not like it'd be hard to just set up a static address on your PC for the purpose of hacking in, but at least it wouldn't happen by pure accident with this configuration.

Re:Wish I had mod points today

[Fallingcow]

Wow, remind me never to make obscure Kurt Vonnegut references on here ever again. One AC with no mod points seems to have gotten it, and two people thought the base "1" rating for my post was overrated :(

Reply to .sig

[dossen]

Wouldn't

fortune -m 'All wars are civil wars'

be simpler, and more robust?

Re:Reply to .sig

[anagama]

Yes it is - thank you. ;-)

Re: Best Wireless SSIDs You Have Seen?

[evansvillelinux]

I was setting up a wireless laptop yesterday and immediately found "JPs Bitchin' Broadband" which was secured and "linksys" which was not.

Allen Tate Computing Services
http://www.allentatecomputing.com/

How much tinfoil

[SmacKing]

would it take to cover my entire house?

Perhaps you want to read this

[frog51]

The myth around broadcasting SSID's

The SSID will be found anyway. I would not advise anyone to rely on hiding it for any form of security. C'mon - lots of sensible progress in wireless security these days, or go that wee bit further and use IPSec or something strong.

You guys do all use a firewall to segregate wireless networks from your home network, right?