[geeks] WiFi WarDriving

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Sun, Aug 03, 2008 at 03:34:39PM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> Honestly, I'm suprised how easy/quick it was to set up and do.

It gets worse. Here we have a similar situation with "siemens". The local
telephone company had a deal where you could get a siemens wireless router
for 10 NIS ($3) a month for 2 years, and if you were a good customer, free.

They came out of the box with no encryption or authentiation. While I
don't recommend that your average user use any authentication, I do
recommend any encryption, even 40/64 bit WEP. 

The problem here is due to the construction of buildings, concrete with
rebar and stone facing, WiFi signals tend to get lost even in your
own apartment. 

Usual Wifi client software will assume if an access point has the same SSID
(network name) and encryption/authentication, it is the same network. This is
intended to allow you to roam across a network with many access points. If
a new access point appears for the same network, with a stronger signal,
you computer switches to it.

Often people roam on to other people's networks without even knowing it.

BTW, I know that 40/64 WEP is easily cracked, but with your experience
being the same in any large city, and most other places, it is enough
to convince a "war driver" to move on.


Geoff. 

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM