What Is Wi-Fi? War Driving?

The term Wi-Fi (alternately written Wi-fi, wi-fi, wifi) is short for Wireless Fidelity. It refers to a technology that allows physically close computers to communicate with each other without cabling. If one computer in a Wi-Fi network is connected to the Internet, the connection can be shared amongst all of them.

A new type of Wi-Fi network has been created by some cellular phone network vendors. These networks are separate from mobile phone networks and allow enabled PDAs and smartphones to connect to the Internet. A computer/ laptop can then be connected to the Internet via the PDA’s connection.

With the first type of Wi-Fi, a device called a wireless router manages the communications between computers using both broadcast and receive technology. Depending on the make and model of the router, computers in the network can be anywhere within 25-200 feet of the router. However, there are now booster antennas that can be used to increase signal range significantly, and experimental antennas that reportedly can function up to 100 miles.

Because Wi-Fi as a household technology is fairly new, many consumers who have multiple computers at home and set up a W-Fi network often do not know how to set up the security properly. Others intentionally allow their Wi-Fi networks to be accessed. A new breed of hackers are exploiting the mushrooming number of unsecured Wi-Fi networks in an activity known as war driving/ wardriving.

War driving involves pairing up with a friend to drive a vehicle while you use your laptop to scan for Wi-Fi networks. I wardrove with a friend over a year ago, in the downtown core of the small city I live in. To my surprise, I found that 23 of the 31 networks my laptop’s Wi-Fi card found were unsecured. One of the networks belonged to the local Catholic school board, and another appeared to belong to some branch of the local police that I’d never heard of. It might have been a honeypot (fake network to catch hackers), maybe not.

Now lest you think I did something illegal, let me say that despite media coverage to the contrary, there are actually two types of war drivers. One group (includes me) does as entertainment to see what they can find, and possibly even find sources of future consulting work in security. The other group of wardrivers consists of hackers who find Wi-Fi networks, then try to compromise the computer at the other end. Accessing that computer, without permission, is illegal. Scanning for networks is not. Stealing Wi-Fi from your neighbour - that is, accessing the Internet through their Wi-Fi network - is a gray area, and rarely is anyone arrested. But laws differ from state to state, province to province, country to country.

If you are interest reading one person’s account of their wardriving experience, Eric Geier has a two-part tutorial at Wi-Fi Planet. I’ve only scanned the first article, but it appears to be light on jargon.

Technorati Tags: technobabble, techno bable, wi-fi, war driving, wardriving, wireless networks