A mighty fine idea...

Gutter · 04-04-2002, 08:26 PM

A guy I work with suggested that I put a wireless NIC is my player. The idea is to drive around always searching for 802.11b signals. When it finds one, attempt to pull down a DHCP address which would theoretically give me internet access. During the short spurts of internet access, I can download new mail, get weather forecasts, etc. There's a lot of companies in town with WAPs wide open to anyone with a wiress nic.

Around my house, I probably wouldn't get anything. But downtown and in the areas with all of the software companies=wireless orgy. Sounds very plausible.

Anyone else played with this idea?

BSDeality · 04-04-2002, 09:00 PM

its very do-able. friend of my fathers was in a starbucks and found a WAP. he fired off some emails and surfed for a while.

Just remember how much it would suck if you were the one paying for bandwidth.

dscustoms · 04-04-2002, 09:20 PM

Yeah, with you living in Austin and all, shouldn't be to hard to borrow some network time... There has to be something illegal about it, right? maybe? eh, who cares. How would they even track it anyways.
You gotta find or write some software to do some serious packet splitting, if you're driving around, it's going to be dropping into and out of networks in seconds, you'll have to be quick. Maybe you can have your system ship off packets everytime you get on a network to some central server you have waiting for you, let the server assemble them and resend.

CrazyLittle · 04-04-2002, 09:29 PM

Most 802.11 hardware uses a "network key" that's similar in function to a workgroup or domain. Without the key, you don't get in. Now if the person who's setting it up doesn't bother to set that key, then it'll be open like that one in Starbucks was. I should think that around the SF Bay area though, most admins are a bit more hip to the game.

Back when 802.11 was new, I was doing help desk for a dot-com that used AiroNet hardware (now Cisco) for the exec's with laptops. Their (now defunct) hardware refered to it as something weird like "airpath name" to which ours (was) set to "treeline"... If your laptop wasn't setup in the "treeline" group, you wouldn't get any signal.

As for finding rouge networks, I think it ought to be as simple as setting up some keep-alive program to alert you whenever you have a workable internet connection. Then all you have to do is pull over and broadcast your pirate signal into the matrix... *cough* *gack* (sorry... couldn't resist)

*edit* I just remembered... some admins weren't too bright: They left the key empty and were "surprised" to find that people were "hacking" into their unsecured networks over the airwaves while walking around outside.

crazyshaxs · 04-04-2002, 09:41 PM

that is soooo funny! My friend Riley was talking about htis today actually! He called it "wireless fishing"

Gutter · 04-04-2002, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dscustoms
How would they even track it anyways.

Hell, you're already in your getaway car.

You're right about only being in range for a few seconds. That's why I'm not sure how plausible it is. If I parked in front of an office building, no problem. But going 70 down IH-35 isn't going to work.

Still, mighty neat.

Zip-Lock · 04-04-2002, 10:13 PM

I've heard it called "war driving" or "drive by hacking."
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wire...wardriver.html

smashr2k · 04-05-2002, 08:46 AM

Yea, PC magazine had an article. Evidently only 38% of networks in their random testing had the encryption enabled. (they found like 800 total networks) I am definatly thinking of trying this idea out once i get some 802.11b hardware.

Gruneun · 04-05-2002, 09:17 AM

A co-worker when I was working in Reston, VA had a wireless card in his laptop. We would drive around at lunchtime and we could get a connection from just about any parking lot or major street.

"Cool" Factor = High

"Scary" Factor = Even higher

MP3DUB · 04-05-2002, 10:03 AM

I just want you to know that i hate you all

now not only do i have to get a gps reciever, i need a 802.11 receiver, and figure out how to do it all with only two pci slots (for which 4 devices will be vying, wired nic, wireless nic, rocketport serial card, sblive

).

CrazyLittle · 04-05-2002, 11:25 AM

Get a USB 802.11 adapter. They're cheaper, and (obviously) will save you a PCI slot. After all, it's not like you're actually going to get 11mbit unless you're the only one on the air and you're standing underneath the access point.

MP3DUB · 04-05-2002, 12:23 PM

you're not helping me to not spend money i dont have

i know they come in usb, ive got a hrf usb adapter that makes winamp stutter when its enabled, im just trying not to remember that they make usb 802 adapters so i dont have to buy one

(ie if i have to buy a pci ver i probably wont

).

CrazyLittle · 04-05-2002, 01:12 PM

well hey man... you -are- trying to put a computer in your car for entertainment purposes...

As for 4 PCI cards and 2 PCI slots... first of all, dump the wired nic. If you're going wireless, don't half-*** it - commit all the way

Second, you can either drop the serial card or the 802.11 card in lieu of the USB equivalent. Chances are that a USB GPS won't take up much cpu time.

MP3DUB · 04-05-2002, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CrazyLittle
well hey man... you -are- trying to put a computer in your car for entertainment purposes...

As for 4 PCI cards and 2 PCI slots... first of all, dump the wired nic. If you're going wireless, don't half-*** it - commit all the way Second, you can either drop the serial card or the 802.11 card in lieu of the USB equivalent. Chances are that a USB GPS won't take up much cpu time.

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

....hums to him self "im not listening, im not listening"....

ppgt94 · 04-05-2002, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gutter

Hell, you're already in your getaway car.

You're right about only being in range for a few seconds. That's why I'm not sure how plausible it is. If I parked in front of an office building, no problem. But going 70 down IH-35 isn't going to work.

Still, mighty neat.

Haha, right on! I'm not too sure about surfing the net while going 70MPH though