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."

Comments

Re:bittorrent

[Thats_Pipe]

yeah, It does suck for those college students who go to a tech school that KNOWS it has to limit ANY P2P bandwidth leaving the school. But of course, if you are going to a tech school, you should already have a linux box setup in someones apartment off-campus and be running the torrents from there.

Arrests

[OzPhIsH]

As a few have already pointed out, War Driving has some murky legal waters surrounding it. I hope that the people involved in the creation of this map don't suddenly wake up with the FBI bursting through their doors and a DOJ lawsuit involving intent to facilitate illegal activities/hacking/terrorism/etc. I really wouldn't put it past the DOJ in this day and age. Personally I think using someones wireless network without their authorization should be perfectly acceptable. These people should have properly configured their networks if they didn't want people using them. If they use the network access to own the hosts box, that's one story, but if you're just leeching their internet access it should certainly not be a crime. You're only partaking in activities that the host allowed through his security settings. If they didn't want to allow it, they should either fix their secuirty settings, or not set up a wireless access point when they obviously had no clue what they were doing. Ignorance of security should be no excuse. If you don't want people piggybacking your wireless connection, configure it properly, don't whine about it to the DOJ. You only have yourself to blame.

Re:Arrests

[OzPhIsH]

Ok, I can agree with you that maybe there should be a big sticker on the box with some warnings, but the fact that Joe Somebody has no time or interest in actually learning about the product he intends to buy doesn't pull any sympathy from me. The fact that he is actually listening, and TAKING the advice of a Best Buy sales rep proves that Joe Somebody's an idiot. The fact that Joe Somebody won't even read the manual just reiterates this point. I have exactly ZERO sympathy for people like this. They are simply lazy and feel that actually learning about whatever it may be will take too much of their precious time and effort. I'm not saying they need to understand the underlying protocols or anything like that, but you simply don't drive when you don't know the rules of the road.

"Never underestimate the ignorance of Joe Somebody."

I have certainly not underestimated the ignorance of Joe Sombody, in fact, I expect it. But these people who put exactly zero amount of effort into undrstanding what they are getting into simply deserve to get fucked. In this case, they deserve to have people taking advantage of their wireless network. I'll say it again. They DESERVE it. Ignorance is simply NOT an excuse, any I refuse to feel sorry for poor ol' Joe Somebody. With a little time and effort, he could have just as easily saved money on internet service and a wireless router by taking advantage of his neighbor's unsecured network, who once again due to his attitude of "I don't want to understand" would have DESERVED to be taken advantage of. Personal responsibility over your domain. It's a simple concept people.

We need a self-localizing map application.

[G4from128k]

Rather that use dead-trees, wardrivers could use the names and signal strengths to nearby stations to estimate their position and calculate movements toward the best accessible WiFi hotspots. Even if the base station is password protected, its broadcast name and existence can help war drivers figure out where they are on the war-driving map. And if each wardriver submits data on stations and signal strengths, statistical combination of all the data could help refine the map further.

It will never beat GPS, but it would be cool to create a city-wide navigation system that works on WiFi -- "just turn left when you get max signal from MAC 00 60 1D 1C B9 0D."

Re:Legality?

[bluGill]

If anyone needs it, I will witness under oath that my access point is open to everyone intentionally.

As a christian I believe it is my duty to give away that which doesn't cost me. (and in some cases that which costs me, but that is a more complex area)