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rotuts · Jul 15, 2004, 04:26 PM

A while ago there was an article in the Wall St. Jounal on maping the wifi spots in SF.

I of course lost the article and it costs $$$ to search the WSJ

does any one know of WiFI locator software, freeware or shareware that does this as you travel around with you airport poerbook? some was mentioned in the article I believe

thanks rotut

mindwaves · Jul 15, 2004, 04:42 PM

MacNN front page: http://macnn.com/rd.php?id=21362

mdc · Jul 15, 2004, 05:14 PM

macstumbler is software that can find wireless networks.

kcmac · Jul 15, 2004, 05:22 PM

I don't understand the need for third party stuff.

I travel a lot and easily, automatically find wifi connections in airports, retail shops and professional offices.

Just today I was in an Architect's office and when I opened up my PB, I found 3 different connections that I could open. One was the Architects connection which was password protected and the other two must have been another firms connection(s) in the building. I just selected one of those and was instantly on the internet.

This is all done with an airport card. Am I missing something here?

cpac · Jul 15, 2004, 06:20 PM

Originally posted by kcmac:
This is all done with an airport card. Am I missing something here?

Yes - only that some networks don't broadcast their existence - they're there if you happen to know their name, but they won't show up in your airport menu otherwise.

programs like iStumber (my personal favorite) find even those networks not broadcasting their name, and give you info about which networks reception is best without having to switch between them, wait, and count the little bars....

clam2000 · Jul 15, 2004, 09:21 PM

http://binaervarianz.de/projekte/programmieren/kismac/ is probably the most well known, it's a well done port of the linux origional.

All of these work better with card other than the airport extreme, because there are no specs on how to put the airport extreme card into passive mode (where it will only listen, rather than sending out request packets).

--will

madmacgames · Jul 15, 2004, 09:41 PM

Originally posted by cpac:
Yes - only that some networks don't broadcast their existence - they're there if you happen to know their name, but they won't show up in your airport menu otherwise.

programs like iStumber (my personal favorite) find even those networks not broadcasting their name, and give you info about which networks reception is best without having to switch between them, wait, and count the little bars....

I have a linksys router (on campus) and am not broadcasting my SSID. Then the other day, my one friend got a laptop (Dell). She lives just downstairs and asked me to come help her with something on it. So I go down there and this thing pops up that it found a wireless network to join... and it was mine! Man did that p*** me off. Not that she could get on my wireless (it is protected, but I gave her the key so she could get on it). But that Windows did not respect me not broadcasting the routers SSID. I understand there are ways around it, but don't personally think it should be built right into the OS.

philm · Jul 16, 2004, 07:02 AM

You can check out this site which carries a big database of WiFi sites aroud the world. They also have a nifty off-line client which you can download and put on your laptop so you can see where there are local Hotspots when you are travelling.

Holigen · Jul 16, 2004, 09:19 PM

I use MacStumbler on my new PowerBook to find wireless networks. It even picked up the one that my stepdad's ThinkPad was making, a very slow one called 2WIRE or something.

Oh, and also, I dont care if I broadcast my presence, no one without a supercomputer is gonna be able to get into it with my 128 bit encryption and 13 key password

.

I hope...

madmacgames · Jul 17, 2004, 01:15 AM

Originally posted by Holigen:
Oh, and also, I dont care if I broadcast my presence, no one without a supercomputer is gonna be able to get into it with my 128 bit encryption and 13 key password .

I hope...

hmm... I thought 128bit required a 26 character key. Or at least that is how it is on my linksys.

Holigen · Jul 17, 2004, 02:30 AM

Well, I have a 13 letter pass so maybe I just enabled 64. Ill check later...

GENERAL_SMILEY · Jul 17, 2004, 04:09 AM

There is a network near where I live which is, according to Kismac, 'unprotected'; however when I try to join it I get the message 'there was an error trying to join ****'s network'. Is this the error you get when somebody has enabled MAC address filtering? This is the only thing I can think of.

f1000 · Jul 17, 2004, 07:24 AM

iStumbler 87 + Bluetooth

http://www.istumbler.net/

madmacgames · Jul 17, 2004, 11:30 AM

Originally posted by GENERAL_SMILEY:
There is a network near where I live which is, according to Kismac, 'unprotected'; however when I try to join it I get the message 'there was an error trying to join ****'s network'. Is this the error you get when somebody has enabled MAC address filtering? This is the only thing I can think of.

Might be that they have set a limit to the number of people that can connect. I know I can go into my linksys wireless router and set a max # of simultaneous connections.