To Whom Does My WiFi Belong?
February 10, 2008 10:24 AM Subscribe
The other day, I brought my new MacBook home and discovered there is WiFi in my apartment. Is there a way to trace the source of this signal, short of knocking on all my neighbors' doors?
My town has free WiFi downtown. The library, which is downtown, has it too. This may be the town's signal. I live three or four blocks from the library, on the cusp of downtown and a residential area. My apartment is on the second floor. Am I within range of these signals?
My town has free WiFi downtown. The library, which is downtown, has it too. This may be the town's signal. I live three or four blocks from the library, on the cusp of downtown and a residential area. My apartment is on the second floor. Am I within range of these signals?
What's the SSID of the network? I assume that the downtown and library Wi-Fi networks would have easily identifiable names.
posted by grouse at 10:31 AM on February 10, 2008
posted by grouse at 10:31 AM on February 10, 2008
You could put this t-shirt on and wander the streets.
posted by JimmyJames at 10:38 AM on February 10, 2008
posted by JimmyJames at 10:38 AM on February 10, 2008
Yes, there is, if you don't mind wandering the halls carrying your MacBook around. Download MacStumbler, a free Mac program for detecting wireless networks. You will be able to read the signal strength of the various networks available. The number will rise as you get closer to the access point, and lower as you get farther away. You should pretty easily be able to determine where it is coming from.
posted by spock at 10:38 AM on February 10, 2008
posted by spock at 10:38 AM on February 10, 2008
PS... MacStumbler will also tell you which wireless networks are "open" and which are "protected" (such as by a WEP access password).
posted by spock at 10:40 AM on February 10, 2008
posted by spock at 10:40 AM on February 10, 2008
Please use KisMAC instead, as it won't spam beacon requests several times a second.
posted by arnold at 10:52 AM on February 10, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by arnold at 10:52 AM on February 10, 2008 [1 favorite]
I would expect that if the WiFi is coming from the city, it would have an easily identifiable name. Your profile isn't explicit about your location, but one would also assume that your town's website should provide info on how to recognize and connect to their free wireless. If the SSID is something horribly generic, like "linksys," then I'd guess it's a neighbor's WiFi.
As mentioned above, applications like MacStumbler or iStumbler will allow you to wander around monitoring and logging signal strength, network names, and other information about the WiFi signals in the air around you. This will help you get a sense of what's going on, but unfortunately you may not be able to pinpoint the source, since interference, metal (commonly within walls), water (in leaves, for example) and other materials will impact reception, and the signal may have lobes.
Q: what is the name of the wireless network your MacBook is connecting to?
posted by mumkin at 10:55 AM on February 10, 2008
As mentioned above, applications like MacStumbler or iStumbler will allow you to wander around monitoring and logging signal strength, network names, and other information about the WiFi signals in the air around you. This will help you get a sense of what's going on, but unfortunately you may not be able to pinpoint the source, since interference, metal (commonly within walls), water (in leaves, for example) and other materials will impact reception, and the signal may have lobes.
Q: what is the name of the wireless network your MacBook is connecting to?
posted by mumkin at 10:55 AM on February 10, 2008
Response by poster: Thanks for the responses. That's helpful. No, I don't have a visual sight line to downtown. The network is called "dlink." Someone might offer some guidelines about the ethics of using such a network.
posted by partner at 11:04 AM on February 10, 2008
posted by partner at 11:04 AM on February 10, 2008
Response by poster: By the way, there is very little metal in my building -- built in 1927 in Pacific coast lumber country. I know this helps with my reception of XMRadio.
posted by partner at 11:06 AM on February 10, 2008
posted by partner at 11:06 AM on February 10, 2008
Both KisMac and MacStumbler allow for GPS mapping, if you have a compatible unit to hook up with.
posted by philomathoholic at 11:12 AM on February 10, 2008
posted by philomathoholic at 11:12 AM on February 10, 2008
Perhaps the person who owns the access point has read this.
Then again perhaps they have not. Should you use it?
I would.
posted by gergtreble at 11:16 AM on February 10, 2008
Then again perhaps they have not. Should you use it?
I would.
posted by gergtreble at 11:16 AM on February 10, 2008
"dlink" is likely the brand name of the wireless router. It appears that someone has turned it on, and the default is engaged. As for the ethics of using it - what are the most probable internet services that this wireless router could be attached to (i.e. in your neighbourhood - who provides internet service?). If many or all of them have some sort of bandwidth cap, you should be more reticent to use this signal for any heavy downloading - also - connect to the signal and run a speedtest site (speakeasy.net or speedtest.net). I would think that if you are going to use this person's web connection (and it's up to you to decide whether your neighbour is likely generous, or uninformed), you should probably limit your usage to no more than 20% or so of the calculated speeds (for any streaming/ p2p usage) since this will have similar impact to high internet traffic, I think.
As for making this your sole internet connection - all you need to realize is that it could be cut off at any time - neighbour moves, neighbour has technically savvy friend come over who secures network, neighbour doesn't pay ISP bill, etc. So, unless you can't afford your own service, and were planning to go to free wi-fi sites to surf (in which case - bonus - no lugging your laptop from home to get a connection), I would recommend not relying solely on this currently free network.
posted by birdsquared at 11:19 AM on February 10, 2008
As for making this your sole internet connection - all you need to realize is that it could be cut off at any time - neighbour moves, neighbour has technically savvy friend come over who secures network, neighbour doesn't pay ISP bill, etc. So, unless you can't afford your own service, and were planning to go to free wi-fi sites to surf (in which case - bonus - no lugging your laptop from home to get a connection), I would recommend not relying solely on this currently free network.
posted by birdsquared at 11:19 AM on February 10, 2008
From a purely engineering point of you, you can sort of approximate where the signal is coming from, but I doubt you'd be able to trace it down to fewer than 3 or 4 potential apartments. Radio signal strength is generally a poor way of locating because of the way radio waves travel and bounce off of objects.
You could always just snoop on their connection for clues, but there are quite a few ethical issues with that.
posted by spiderskull at 11:46 AM on February 10, 2008
You could always just snoop on their connection for clues, but there are quite a few ethical issues with that.
posted by spiderskull at 11:46 AM on February 10, 2008
I am new to Macs since last August, so I must be missing something here... On my macbook there is an icon on the upper right just to the left of the speaker icon, the american flag, and teh battery strength indicator, showing the signal strength of the network I am connected to. If I click on that icon I can select a different network. If it's open, I can connect to it immediately. If it's secure, it will prompt me for a password.
Of course it doesn't tell me exactly who the open networks are in my neighborhood, although my wide-open network has my family name in it, as a courtesy to those who want to use my wi-fi.
posted by thomas144 at 12:31 PM on February 10, 2008
Of course it doesn't tell me exactly who the open networks are in my neighborhood, although my wide-open network has my family name in it, as a courtesy to those who want to use my wi-fi.
posted by thomas144 at 12:31 PM on February 10, 2008
You can get a little extra information out of the wifi item on the OS X menu bar by option-clicking on it.
posted by jbrjake at 1:08 PM on February 10, 2008
posted by jbrjake at 1:08 PM on February 10, 2008
The network's called "dlink"? Then it's probably a D-Link brand router that someone didn't bother naming when they set it up. From this you can deduce two things: One, it's not your minucipal or library wifi or a nearby cafe (those would have names like "Sometown Public Wifi" or "Joe's Coffee"). Two, although it's open, it's probably not intended to be open — its owner just forgot to close it off.
posted by hattifattener at 1:11 PM on February 10, 2008
posted by hattifattener at 1:11 PM on February 10, 2008
(whoops, bad link. D-Link. They make lots of wireless routers.)
posted by hattifattener at 1:13 PM on February 10, 2008
posted by hattifattener at 1:13 PM on February 10, 2008
My intentionally wide-open wireless router was called "dlink" for a couple of years before I changed it to let people know it was mine, just for fun.
posted by thomas144 at 2:14 PM on February 10, 2008
posted by thomas144 at 2:14 PM on February 10, 2008
should you decide to use the network, let me offer you some advice of emminent practicality yet questionable legality.
In my experience, 99 times out of a hundred, whenever you see an open wireless network with a "stock" SSID (dlink, linksys, default, etc...) the owner not only has no clue the network is open, but hasn't bothered to change the administrative password from the factory setting.
Now, if the only network you are seeing is this one dlink SSID, then the following advice is useless. If, however, there are several networks in the area, and you'd like to improve signal strength / lessen interference...
log into the admin interface. It's (almost always) http://192.168.1.1 (I know, I know, it doesn't have to be. again, 99/100). The default username password for the router will be the word 'admin' (no quotes). Leave the password field blank.
Voila! Unless you're very unlucky, you now have administrative access to a network that isn't yours. But since you're wearing your white hat today, you're going to improve things.
Find the wireless setup page (exact directions vary from model to model, but it should be obvious). Wifi functions on one of eleven frequencies (normally referred to as channels). By default, almost all routers ship set to use channel 6. Find the channel setting and change it to either channel 1 or channel 11. Save this change and exit. Your signal strength and reliability should improve dramatically, as you will no longer be competing with neighboring routers for the same frequency band.
Of course, you could also do many damaging things, including locking the owner out of their own device (at least, until they do a hardware reset and undo all your changes). Do not do this as it completely defeats the point of using an open network "undetected".
disclaimer: have no clue as to the legality of these actions (nor, most likely, do the courts) , and present them only as an educational resource.
posted by namewithoutwords at 6:49 PM on February 10, 2008 [1 favorite]
In my experience, 99 times out of a hundred, whenever you see an open wireless network with a "stock" SSID (dlink, linksys, default, etc...) the owner not only has no clue the network is open, but hasn't bothered to change the administrative password from the factory setting.
Now, if the only network you are seeing is this one dlink SSID, then the following advice is useless. If, however, there are several networks in the area, and you'd like to improve signal strength / lessen interference...
log into the admin interface. It's (almost always) http://192.168.1.1 (I know, I know, it doesn't have to be. again, 99/100). The default username password for the router will be the word 'admin' (no quotes). Leave the password field blank.
Voila! Unless you're very unlucky, you now have administrative access to a network that isn't yours. But since you're wearing your white hat today, you're going to improve things.
Find the wireless setup page (exact directions vary from model to model, but it should be obvious). Wifi functions on one of eleven frequencies (normally referred to as channels). By default, almost all routers ship set to use channel 6. Find the channel setting and change it to either channel 1 or channel 11. Save this change and exit. Your signal strength and reliability should improve dramatically, as you will no longer be competing with neighboring routers for the same frequency band.
Of course, you could also do many damaging things, including locking the owner out of their own device (at least, until they do a hardware reset and undo all your changes). Do not do this as it completely defeats the point of using an open network "undetected".
disclaimer: have no clue as to the legality of these actions (nor, most likely, do the courts) , and present them only as an educational resource.
posted by namewithoutwords at 6:49 PM on February 10, 2008 [1 favorite]
To avoid confusion like this, I set the SSID of my wireless network to my street address (e.g. 123-Main). And then of course I encrypt it. And MAC filter it. Go ahead punk, try to break in.
This way, when someone comes across it (usually trying out their laptop for the first time), they'll recognize the address and know This Is Not The Wireless Network You Are Looking For, and they'll try harder to find the right one. Which is usually a simple as a single click on "find next" or whatever.
dlink, linksys, default, these are all SSIDs that I love to see when I'm on the road and my net access plans have fallen through somehow.
posted by intermod at 8:38 PM on February 10, 2008
This way, when someone comes across it (usually trying out their laptop for the first time), they'll recognize the address and know This Is Not The Wireless Network You Are Looking For, and they'll try harder to find the right one. Which is usually a simple as a single click on "find next" or whatever.
dlink, linksys, default, these are all SSIDs that I love to see when I'm on the road and my net access plans have fallen through somehow.
posted by intermod at 8:38 PM on February 10, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by DMan at 10:28 AM on February 10, 2008