fun with wireless networking...

[katster]

I need to get some program that will scan for wireless networks and tell me where the base is.

Seriously. Right now, I'm sitting in the main lounge of College-Durant, the apartment complex where I live. I'm on somebody's wireless network. It's not a campus network, because I'm familiar with all of campus' addresses. It's a pretty marginal signal, and I've learned through experimentation that the best range of an 802.11b network isn't very big at all. (the distance from Heller to Golden Bear, which is maybe 500 feet, I'm not good at guesstimating distance.)

And I'd like to be able to play with this power, and see what's around in places. The ultimate goal is to sit in some outdoor location with the laptop (nicely placed in 802.11b network range) and just cause somebody to wonder in horror how I am managing to surf the net with no cable and no visible wireless card. (mini-PCI card in the computer case *rocks*)

Any help?

Comments

[fb.livejournal.com]

If I can remember I'll ask a couple people I know, one of whom has with a group constructed a map of San Francisco showing areas with wireless networks that are lax on security. And yeah, I think 500 feet is the outer range Apple lists for Airport, which is just their fancy copyrighted name for 802.11b, I've never tried moving my parents iMac around to find out.