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Warchalking
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Live at the BBQ
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I was just turned on to this phenomenon (or shall we say, "movement") called warchalking, where computer users would scour a city with their laptops or other wireless devices, and find "open" wireless networks. If someone happened upon an open network, they would mark the location with a specific symbol in chalk or something similar... some say this is theft (Nokia, for example), while warchalkers argue that it is perfectly legal. Some say that it can be used by folks who want to identify their network as open or closed, by including the symbols in the name of the network...
Are there any "warchalkers" in this forum (most likely there are)? What is everyones take on it?
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"Bill Gates can't guarantee Windows... how can you guarantee my safety?"
-John Crichton
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
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the authorities are clueless on this issue and always look to rake up some more arrests and convictions, however frivilous and wasteful. If they catch people warchalking, expect them to be arrested and tried. Stupid, I know.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2001
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The tresspassing might be though.
The issue might be unauthorized use of the networks... if you don't want snoopers hogging your bandwidth and possibly hacking your systems then enable encryption... it'll be a lot less likely then.
Or go whole hog and restrict access by MAC address.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Bloomington
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Speaking of warchalking, is anyone wardriving with their macs? I'm gonna go sometime in the future hopefully with my IceBook but i haven't heard any mac users feedback...
Justin
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Eat, Breathe, Sleep. Macintosh
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Austell, GA, USA
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Me and two buddies have experimented with it using our 3 networks. iceBooks get more range than TiBooks. We drove slowly away from each others houses with our machines to see who could get the furhest away. You can get about 1-2 houses away in either direction, depending on lot size. Pretty cool. We haven't expanded into wardriving. Not enough time.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: In the Forest
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What is wardriving?
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I learned the hard way that you can't use vB smilies in your sig. see --> :cry:
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2002
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wardriving is exploring for open networks with your wireless laptop.
Here is a cool story on Ars Technica about it. It links to a few others too.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Sep 2002
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i went wardriving the first night i had my icebook. Decent sized suburban city and i found 20+ nets about 15 were wide open.
Logged on to a few just to see if i could check my email and it worked like a charm.
try macstumbler thats what i used
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Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
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I've tried wardriving on a couple of occasions. The local store that sells Apple's had an open Airport network and a consulting firm at the end of my street had an open network too.
I'm doing my final Engineering project on 802.11b security and as part of the project I'm going to be completeing a war drive of downtown Montreal and posting the results to the project website.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Apr 2002
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Originally posted by fulmer:
the authorities are clueless on this issue and always look to rake up some more arrests and convictions, however frivilous and wasteful. If they catch people warchalking, expect them to be arrested and tried. Stupid, I know.
Expect to be arrested and tried? Someone has been watching too much Law and Order...
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Smile. It will make people wonder what you're thinking.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2001
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Originally posted by fulmer:
the authorities are clueless on this issue and always look to rake up some more arrests and convictions, however frivilous and wasteful. If they catch people warchalking, expect them to be arrested and tried. Stupid, I know.
For what, vandalism? If that's the case I better run down the block and warn those 3rd grade girls about that hopscotch chalking they did. They could do 7 to 10 easy for it.
Unless you are using the access point to launch an attack against someone or to do damage to the LAN I don't see what is illegal about it. Provided you aren't trespassing on private property. But the chalking itself is not illegal.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Unauthorized use of a computer network, is strait up hacking. That is a crime. In fact under new laws, could even be classified as aiding terrorism if there is reason to believe a terrorist might launch a cyberattack through the network you found.
Be careful.
And if you have a wireless network. SECURE IT!
Damn.
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Senior User
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: california
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i'm trying to think of a relevant analogy here, and maybe it'll explain the (il)legality of the situation.
so what we have here is companies leaving doors to the internet wide open. it's basically the same as if they had unmarked ethernet ports on the outside of their buildings that hooked directly into their network. would it be illegal to plug into these?
so here's something close - many houses are having gray boxes installed for the phone system - the idea is that you can plug a phone into the gray box after disconnecting the phones inside of your house in order to see if any problem resides in your house or in the wires for the phone company to worry about. i assume it's illegal to plug into someone else's gray box and make long-distance calls.
so, i think under the same scope, it's probably truly illegal to use the bandwidth of a relatively open network.
questions, though:
is this gray-box law (if it is in fact in effect) applicable because of the phone company, or due to some overlying law?
and say the businesses implement encryption - who's to say when 'hacking' through encryption is indeed against the law, as opposed to just against company policy?
i wish i actually knew the answers to these questions - hopefully somebody else will :c)
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Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
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Originally posted by superlarry:
questions, though:
is this gray-box law (if it is in fact in effect) applicable because of the phone company, or due to some overlying law?
and say the businesses implement encryption - who's to say when 'hacking' through encryption is indeed against the law, as opposed to just against company policy?
i wish i actually knew the answers to these questions - hopefully somebody else will :c)
Your question about encryption is an easy answer, at least here in Canada, I'm sure the US has a similar law. Here it is illegal to decode any radio transmission that you are not the intented recepient of. So if the network has no WEP, then fine you can receive the signals, but if it has WEP, then you are breaking the law if you 'hack' through the encryption to receive the signals.
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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The "grey box" issue comes down to what is referred to as "theft of services," and is the same thing as stealing cable TV, except in the example superlarry gave, the theft would be from the homeowner as well as the telephone company.
US FCC regulations indeed prohibit interception of and use of any radio signal of which one is not an intended recipient, to include trunked radio, cell phones, and so on.
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 2000
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Originally posted by GHPorter:
The "grey box" issue comes down to what is referred to as "theft of services," and is the same thing as stealing cable TV, except in the example superlarry gave, the theft would be from the homeowner as well as the telephone company.
US FCC regulations indeed prohibit interception of and use of any radio signal of which one is not an intended recipient, to include trunked radio, cell phones, and so on.
Interesting, but by leaving a network open, aren't you implying that anyone is the intended recipient?
Sort of like leaving a bunch of donuts on a table by the sidewalk. If there are no signs/measures to tell people not to touch, would it be illegal to take one on my way to work?
Interesting points though....
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"It's about time trees did something good insted of just standing there LIKE JERKS!" :)
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Nov 1999
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"A "honeypot" trap consisting of a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop is the latest weapon against drive-by hackers. Set up at the London headquarters of consultants KPMG, the laptop looks to the outside world like a simple wireless access point, but contains monitoring software designed to determine the level of illicit activity."
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-961405.html
[props to /.]
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Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: NYC
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When I first went wireless I was war driving a lot. I haven't done it in quite some time..
I think I'm gonna go do it now.
Laters.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: London'ish
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Hmm.. Anyway.. Warchalking.. Only marginally less Geeky and Anorak like, than train spotting.
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The worst thing about having a failing memory is..... no, it's gone.
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