[wplug] On the subject of wardriving...

[Richard Farina]

At 03:55 PM 3/29/2005, you wrote:
> > So if I am in my car outside your house with my hand held scanner, and I
> > find your cordless phone's freq, can I listen all I want.  Hay I have
> > not entered into your house, YOU are broadcasting outside your walls, so
>
>         Ah-HA! A good question!
>
>         This violates federal laws, because the transmissions are not
>intended for you.
>
>         Why this is different from wardriving, is that the beacons sent
>out from the AP are destined for ALL clients that can hear them -- the APs
>advertise their existance, as part of the protocol.
>
>         Rich, can you tell us more about the beacons, what's in 'em, and
>how they work?

I have already stated my feelings about this topic in the paper and on this 
list.  At the request of Drew, however, I will explain what a beacon is so 
that those not familiar with 802.11b/g may continue their arguments in a 
slightly more educated manner.

As Drew said, a beaconing access point is best described as a loudspeaker 
on top of your house, shouting in all directions, "I'm an access point!!!" 
This is what a beacon does.  If you card is in monitor mode, it will see 
this shout, identify the contends, and potentially map the location.  If 
you have Windows XP (and therefore cannot really use monitor mode)[1], then 
Netstumbler will respond to the access point as all wireless cards do by 
yelling, "I'm a wireless card!!!"  At this point an association is made 
between the card and the access point, however, netstumbler (unless 
configured otherwise) will stop the conversation there.  It is worthwhile 
to note that Windows XP by default does the same thing as netstumbler[2], 
except it continues and asks for an IP.


[1] There are ways to get into monitor mode in windows, but they don't work 
too hot yet.
[2] Netstumbler logs all the happening events and Windows does not, but we 
are talking about the access to the networks...

-Rick Farina



>--
>
>Drew from Zhrodague             http://www.WiFiMaps.com
>drew at zhrodague.net              Location Based WiFi
>
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