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Large-Format Printable Wardriving Maps of Seattle
drewzhrodague writes "In what is sure to tie up a few print queues, us guys at WiFiMaps.com have released large-format printable maps of Seattle. These were generated during a collaboration with the University of Washington's communications department. This is one of the most comprehensive Wi-Fi mapping project to date, as 100 undergrads swarmed downtown Seattle to collect wardriving data. We've rendered their results at 300dpi, for letter, tabloid, and architectural E sized paper. There is both the standard layout, and the aerial versions available using bittorrent."
You might be hassled, but unless you live in a place with a really weird legal system, listening to an access point announcing itself to the world on a public channel, with unencrypted broadcasts, asking for its services the way you're supposed to according to the standard and then being granted these services by the access point is not illegal. Breaking through access controls (MAC-filters, WEP, login screens, etc) however is illegal. If it is illegal, build a portable access point, do a reverse war-drive and sue the heck out of everyone who connects to your access point because they have their computer in the default connect-if-you-can configuration.