Roaming / Autoconnect 802.11b

greenwire · 04-11-2005, 01:22 PM

okay, lets start with the rules:

I DO NOT GIVE A DAMN IF WHAT I'M PROPOSING IS ILLEGAL OR NOT, besides, i'm in canada so the laws are different here anyways. I DO NOT want this thread to turn into a freaking legal debate.

That said, everyone that's doing this should already understand the ethical implications of borrowing bandwidth. Don't be an *******, be nice to the kind people that leave their networks open.

Now, with that out of the way...

Is there any software out there that can do this under Winblows XP?

a) Automatically connect to any open, keyless access points without ANY user input.

b) Automatically connect to any secure access points for which profiles have been created, again without any user input

c) Upon request from the user, give directions to the closest available (open, or secured w/profile set up) access point based on GPS log information.

That would be the ideal solution for a car. It's such a dead simple problem with so many possible applications i can't see it not existing. Maybe c) would be difficult to do, but the first two criteria should be easy.

By connect i mean make google/msn/e-mail work, nothing less. I don't want to have to release/renew, i don't want to push buttons.

If the software doesn't exist for a) and b) then what the hell, who's going to write it and when?

Change · 04-11-2005, 01:55 PM

Unfortunately it won't be truly seamless, as the IP address you're connecting through will change at each access point. TCP sessions will not persist through that. Any site that requires you to log in with a username and password (Hotmail, Gmail, etc) that's worth anything with security will require you to re-login when your IP changes mid-session.

greenwire · 04-11-2005, 04:24 PM

Of course it wouldn't be totally seamless, but i still haven't seen anything that works well enough on the wireless side to worry about the roaming issues with IP.

Also, would it not be possible to route traffic through say, your home computer, and run a client on the mobile system.

Use the server as a sort of pass-through for traffic that can cache the packets going to your mobile system so say, if you loose your connection temporarially when you're switching AP's, you can still get all the data you asked for.

Change · 04-11-2005, 06:48 PM

So, run some kind of proxy on your home computer, and run a tunnel to it from your mobile setup. That could work.

contaygious · 04-11-2005, 07:40 PM

my hawking software auto connects to the best/most reliable network around and reconnects upon new networks being discovered. it came with my g usb adapter...

greenwire · 04-11-2005, 10:22 PM

so, if you park within range of an open, unsecured access point with the internet plugged into it, you can go www.google.com and it pops up and works? you don't have to release/renew or push any buttons?

xBrady · 04-11-2005, 10:25 PM

You can use WINC.
http://www.cirond.com/winc.php

greenwire · 04-11-2005, 11:04 PM

WinC does that automatically? for sure? tested and everything?

dave2 · 04-12-2005, 03:47 AM

WinC is the most popular way to do it. I've had pretty good success with it.

The proxy server idea is a good one, or you could have your carputer VNC to your home one. Only problem I see with that is... and I hate to bring it up... But without the control over what your car connects to, it might snap into a bank wifi system or something and try to access your home system. Then they have a log of your home IP and some strange access attempts. That's like, giving them your address when you rob the liquor store. (read my other posts, I hate the friggin legal debates too, but I want to stay out of trouble

)

Dave

greenwire · 04-12-2005, 04:09 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by dave2

Only problem I see with that is... and I hate to bring it up... But without the control over what your car connects to, it might snap into a bank wifi system or something and try to access your home system. Then they have a log of your home IP and some strange access attempts. That's like, giving them your address when you rob the liquor store. (read my other posts, I hate the friggin legal debates too, but I want to stay out of trouble

)

Dave

Would it be possible to make the passthrough run through HTTP only? like, make the data look like a webpage with a big binary file or something, running on port 80 or whatever?

I'm a hardware d0rk, i have no clue what to do about this. Anyone that knows what kind of software i would need for this and what the configuration i want to do is called, that would be helpful

greenwire · 04-12-2005, 04:10 AM

Also: Any "trusted" computer system won't be running an access point with no key on it.

dave2 · 04-12-2005, 04:15 AM

LOL!!! HAHAHAHHAHA hey, go drive around town with netstumbler running, you would be surprised. I have connected successfully to many banks and other large businesses. It might not be into their main network, but they still can see the logs.

greenwire · 04-12-2005, 04:34 PM

are you serious!?!?!?

that's all kinds of sad, pathetic, dangerous, and kind of scary considering what kind of information is going over that kind of network...

dumb dumb dumb.. but yeah, what about just running it on port 80?

wi77iam · 04-13-2005, 11:46 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by greenwire

WinC does that automatically? for sure? tested and everything?

I think with Winc any access point has to be on your preferred list. Then it will automatically connect to the first one it can in that list. It won't connect to newly discovered APs.

greenwire · 04-13-2005, 02:30 PM

okay, so i STILL have to **** around and push stupid buttons to connect to a network.

WTF.