For those unfamiliar, War Driving is the act of driving around with a PC/Laptop in your car with antenna equipment to find wireless network access points.
I was never real big into it strictly because I had better things to do, but I did take my laptop for a few drives in the past. But this was 2+ years ago and wireless was still not mainstream for home use. But recently I got a new phone with WiFi built in and DAMN! Just driving 3 miles to work t here are 20+ APs along a major road. There is only a handful that even have the most basic security measures in place. I’m not just talking about houses either. About half of them are businesses! Now from my phone I can’t really do much with their networks other than possibly hop onto their internet, but it sure as hell would give me a target if I was out driving. But it also gave me an idea. I am going to make up some business cards and go around to some of the local businesses that I see are wide open and offer my services. Even if they don’t hire me for the job, I hate to see such blatent security problems and would want to let them know.
Just curious who else is fascinated with wireless technology and what experiences you have with it…
we use cisco wireless points… they blow just like any other wireless… it’s a mediocre medium for people to use… i’ll take a gb wired connection thank you.
i do see tons of shit wide open… from my desk i can get starbucks, the hotel across the street, wrong-aide and the bar down the street… only the hotel has a password but it’s router is 192.168.1.1 and blank / password
i doubt it’s worth your time to piss around with wireless routers, but you never know! i have the site linked on my laptop with the access point maps… can’t remember what it is… but its a ‘blog’ of sorts and poeple go out find spots, report them and the security and update it daily, like the gas price website.
Hell, If I could make enough cash off of it to pay for my own home’s internet connection and gasoline to get around to do the work it’d be worth it to me.
Theres a few truck stops in and around the louisville kentucky area and wisconsin is huge with wifi. I havent found a decent area besides pittsburgh in pennsylvania. Ohio has some good spots near columbus
What you should do is introduce a virus that takes the fractions of cents from the companies and deposit them into an account. What could possible go wrong?
Well, I don’t forsee a total business out of it. I do a lot of side work now for small businesses through word of mouth. I’d just be expanding on that through some basic advertising.
I prefer transmitting data over copper as well, but you can’t discount the usefulness of WiFi. Of course to use it - you should have a basic understanding of how it works and the possibilities of what can be done if you are transmitting a signal XXX feet away. I think I mentioned it to you the last time you were here, Sonny, but I use APs all through my neighborhood to share my internet with my family. There is no way I’d be able to string a cable across the street, then across the yard to my cousins house. I did this for 2 buildings at work and it was thousands of dollars to run 3 cables in the ground. Luckily, we do the engineering and PA One call stuff in house or who knows what it could of been. Just to have the permits to dig up the road, and the contracters come and do it was more than the $50 I spent on the AP.
As for making money off of this - like JackedUp said, if I even make a small amount its worth it. I won’t be driving out of my way, as my target customers are already on my daily route. For me to setup a security policy on their APs and clients is a peice of cake. And if they refuse… I password protect their router and cut them off their own network! hahahaha
