WAP on a windows machine

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com hath wroth:

SoftAP.

Intel drops their SoftAP product:

This can be accomplished by creating an "ad hoc" network. Steps can be found in Windows help or at the end of this article:

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

I don't mean to nitpick, but "WAP" stands for Wireless Application Protocol. Using it as shorthand for "wireless access point" tends to cause confusion. Instead, use "infrastructure mode" or "access point" or "AP" or "base station".

Yeah, you can even play "Evil Twin" and take over the world.

Some dingbat is making my life interesting. He's got a high power access point at apparently a very high location running a software AP. I can hear it almost anywhere in Santa Cruz County. It advertises an SSID of "Free Open Internet" or something like that. The problem is that he also has a random MAC address generator running that's ruining my WarDriving logs and crashing some of my customers wireless client software by overflowing the "Show available networks" feature. I guess I get to go on a search and destroy mission shortly. Anyway, please use the SoftAP wisely as there's considerable potential for intentional and accidental abuse.

Also, there are similar packages for Linux but you asked for Windoze.

The local Mexicans refer to someone "Without Any Papers" as a WAP.

What will we do when we run out of TLA's?

This could actually not be a single AP running. It could be a flaw in Windows XP WZC rearing its head. I heard about it on a podcast the other day. It seems that if once you try to connect to the Adhoc "Free Open Internet" you can connect and somehow your machine will start broadcast itself as the same thing. Apparently this guy was on a flight and noticed this connection while using his computer inflight. By the end of the flight there were over 10 differnent MACs (not Macs) broadcasting "Free Open Internet". It could be that you are actually seeing many different "infected" computers that have begun spewing out "Free Open Internet." I don't have a link to this story, but the Podcast was "This Week in Tech"

Here is a blog about it:

Amazing. Yes, that's what I've been seeing literally everywhere (so I assumed that it was a high power or high altitude xmitter). I never considered the possibility that it might be yet another Windoze XP bug. There is one difference with what I've been seen. The author claims that what he was seeing were all Ad-Hoc networks. The stuff I'm watching are all infrastructure mode. I'll dig deeper if I can find the time. I should run strings on some of the Windoze wireless DLL's and see if "free public WiFi" appears.

Thanks for the explanation and saving me a futile transmiter hunt.

Incidentally, I do have a MAC address generator that I used for testing wireless access points, router, and bridges. (It's proprietary so I can't give out copies). It will generate random MAC addresses until the access point gives up. I usually use my phone number for the SSID so that if I'm bothering someone, they can phone me and complain. So far, in about 6 years, nobody has called. It looks almost identical on a sniffer or Windoze Wireless Zero Config.

Here's a bit clearer explanation of the "Free Public WiFi" problem.

For what its worth, you can try a Hawking USB unit that can be used as an actual AP.

On Wed, 08 Nov 2006 03:04:51 GMT, Jeff Liebermann wrote in :

The basic problem here is the failure to set a unique SSID, not a Windows issue.

Expand to FLA's :)

I increasingly have to use

On another note, in Ontario they were running out of license plate numbers, so they moved from the 3-letter 3-digit (and vice versa) scheme that's used (or has been used) pretty much all over North America, to four letters and three numbers. That was about 10 years ago, and they're only just running out of the A sequence now. I reckon that gives them at least another 200 years of license numbers before they have to change the scheme again.

Off-topic, well, yeah, but it's a wet day and I'm putting off getting to work on the Mac Pro.