About this site and data
How?
I collect this data using WiFiFoFum on an iPaq rx3715 which has built in 802.11b and bluetooth. Connected to this I have a bluetooth GPS device. Due to the small size of the equipment I can discover wifi networks whether I'm in my car, on my bike or walking.
Why?
I was interested in seeing what the results of just leaving a Wifi scanner on during my normal day-to-day walks and commutes would be. Specifically I was interested in:
- The density of access points (APs) in certain areas
- The proportion of APs which appeared not to be secured
- The proportion of APs which appeared to have their default settings still set
- The most popular AP manufacturer
A live summary of this information can be seen on the Stats page.
Wireless security is becoming a big issue, especially in Britain where it appears that the general public has a curious but dangerous combination of an enthusiasm for the Internet plus a complete ignorance of how any of it works.
Having attempted to explain why a network needs to be secured to non-techies, with limited success, I decided to follow the Maxim "A picture paints a thousand words" and get some illustrative evidence of how easy it is to discover wide open networks.
In the same week I built this site, the BBC's The Real Hustle did a feature on Wireless network abuse with a fairly convincing demonstration. This is now on Youtube and is recommended viewing.
Why do you have to be logged in to see the AP locations?
Initially the locations of APs were available for everyone to see. A day or so into the map being Live, friends recommended that I hide the location data due to how easy would be for this data to be abused. Logins for this site are controlled by me. I only give out logins to people who I know in person.
Are you a hacker?
In the traditional sense of hacking devices and software to make it do cool things, yes. In the Hollywood sense of cracking security for illegal means, no.
If your network is completely open and allows anyone in, it's not really hacking to connect to it, is it?
Why can't I see all the Access Points?
In order to stop your browser completely ceasing up, the map will only render 100 randomly chosen points from your selected criteria. If you want to view info on a specific AP, zoom right in and choose some options to narrow down which APs are displayed.