RE: [Netstumbler] Browse Networks

["Clarity" <clarity@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Julian
There are lots of AP's in the US that allow you to roam freely after you
have provided payment through credit card or other arrangement. They are
"secure" against your unauthorized access but do not use WEP to protect the
link between you and the AP. There were 4 access points (according to NS) in
the hotel I stayed at last week.

There are more than two sides to your argument. You are entitled to one side
only!
Clarity

-----Original Message-----
From: Julian Bond [mailto:julian_bond@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 16:38
To: netstumbler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Netstumbler] Browse Networks


Julian Bond <julian_bond@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>Notice that I haven't once referred to any legal issues in this post.
>I'm really not interested in these, but rather in practicalities.

Wow. I guess I should have expected the firestorm, after all it's not
the first time.

I tried really hard to be reasonable; to put both sides of the argument;
to point out that a common OS (Win XP) assumes that an open AP with DHCP
is to be used; and to encourage a stumbler to avoid the most obvious
pitfalls. And I all I got was a torrent of abuse. I don't recall saying
anything about wardriving and yet most of that abuse seemed to me to be
about giving wardriving a bad name. Well, there's more to Netstumbler
than just using it for wardriving.

The trouble is we live in a world with shades of grey. As well as
secured APs, there are also accidentally open APs, deliberately open
free APs and deliberately open commercial APs. It's not always clear at
all, at all, which is which. And it's all too easy to sit in a
Starbucks, look for a T-Mobile AP and pick up the open community AP
across the street or the accidentally open AP in the office upstairs.
All my laptop knows is that it connected, got an IP and collected it's
email. Sorry guv, I made the mistake of setting dhcp because that's what
I use at home.

One real world end result was that I sat in a Pret a Manger on Oxford St
London, opposite a Starbucks and used what I thought was a free T-Mobile
link while they were trialling their system. I later found out it was a
free WiFi enabled internet kiosk put up the Westminster city council.

And no, I don't go out of my way to use or hack into APs that are
obviously private or that I can freeload off when that wasn't the
intention of the owner.

I apologise for keeping this going, but I'll defend it on this list
because I use Netstumbler as a tool for trying to work out what just
happened and to try and see what's going on.

BTW. Yes, I'd really like to see some commercial outfit sell a commodity
consumer grade AP that made it easy to safely share bandwidth. With a
captive portal splash page. Just like I'd really like to see a cheap
consumer grade mesh networking AP. But I don't expect to see them any
time soon.

Now where's v0.4?

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