[rescue] speaking of WEP

[Sheldon T. Hall]

Quoth Our Fearless Leader ... 

> My house is surrounded by WLANs.  In an area this big:
> 
> http://www.mrbill.net/wardrive.jpg
> 
> I found almost a hundred wireless networks when I went
> wardriving back in January.

A-yup.

Drive past any college dormitory.  You won't need any neat-o WiFi snooping
software; a hotdog on your car antenna will do.  

About three years ago, when my choice was ISDN or dial-up, I tried to get
someone over in Seattle to partner with me for a cross-Puget-Sound WiFi
link.  In order to find a potential partner, we rigged up an old satellite
dish as a WiFi antenna, mounted it up on the deck, and scanned the far
shore.  We actually didn't find that much, but we did manage to connect to a
passing cruise ship.

We called that exercise "war sitting."

Of course, now, we can see all sorts of networks over there, even without
any special antenna.  WiFi really travels across open water; it's about 9
miles to the commercial service at Shilshole Bay Marina, and I can sometimes
get them on the WiFi rig built into my laptop.  We've even got WiFi on the
ferries.

-Shel