100+ Hot Spots During A Short Drive Around Town
Last Friday my 8-year-old son and I looked for a wifi hotspot to work from while my 11-year-old son was at band camp for the day (I didn't want to waste gas by driving all the 25+ miles back home, and then driving into town again to pick him up at the end of the day). We discovered the IHOP close by actually has free wireless access...I did not know that! So, we had lunch there and I did work while we ate.
However, after we were finished there were still three hours to go until it was time to pick up Noah. As we drove around the area close to the school, Heath had his macbook turned on and was watching the available wireless networks. This is an area with a lot of strip-mall type of businesses, a large mall, and many stand-alone business buildings, and some residential.
While we were driving around, probably within a 4- to 5-mile radius of the school, Heath counted up to 100 wifi hotspots, and then stopped counting...so there were over 100 hotspots in this small area. Heath also counted only 12 of them that were secured based upon seeing the lock on the network. He found at least three government networks, based upon the names, unsecured. He saw many Linksys networks, many by business name, some Belkins, and one called "Zach's Network."
I have since signed up for a 1-month subscription to a wireless service so I can use it at a coffee shop this week while in town for the 2nd week of band camp, and then next week while in town for the week days while Heath goes to basketball camp.
Heath and I will do some more experimenting...with wireless issues and hopefully with disposal security problems...this week while Noah's playing in the band...and then next week Noah will get to do some security sleuthing!
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Comments
Teaching your kids wardriving at 11 and 8 yrs old! Excellent vocational training :) Way to go Rebecca!
Posted by: Kees Leune | June 17, 2008 9:01 AM
Well, Kees, they actually figured it out on their own! :) They keep their wireless "on" all the time, and as we neared town, they started seeing the hotspots and calling the network names out from the back seat.
We got into some good discussions about how it is not okay to use wireless networks just because they are not protected, whether or not we should tell those businesses with unsecured networks of their security risks, etc.
Rebecca
Posted by: Rebecca | June 18, 2008 12:52 PM