Residential Wi-Fi Mapping Database Revealed

Talaria writes "An enormous database of home wifi routers and their locations has been revealed after the Internet Patrol did some digging following AOL's recent announcement of their new "Near Me" service, which allows AIM users to see which of their instant messenger buddies are geographically near them. The database, containing the unique IDs of more than 16 million wireless routers and their locations, has been compiled by AOL partner Skyhook Wireless, which claims to have mapped the majority of residences in the U.S. and Canada."

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[WindBourne]

Actual wireless makes sense if you are in an apartment or a place that you do not own. But if you own it and your house is less than 50 years old and you run wireless, then the person is either lazy or a total idiot. As it is, the wireless stuff is always undergoing expensive upgrades. I have wired to homes where each had 2300 up and each house had ~10 rooms (and 1 outside drop with an inside cutoff switch) that I wired in a weekend. First one cost me about 200 (10 years ago). The second was less than a hundred.