Is there a good free wifi sniffer?

[Gadget Daddy]

Visiting relatives over the next week and may need to do a bit of war driving to pickup emails etc, can anyone recommend such a thing if one exists

cheers
pete

[fingery]

Netstumbler

http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

[partyweb]

Yeah. A Nintendo DS.

Perfect for finding open wifi hotspots.

[Steve.J.Davies]

wander over to irongeek and peruse . . .

[Gadget Daddy]

I will give `em a go....well apart from the DS that is

Pete

[ash]

Originally Posted by partyweb

Yeah. A Nintendo DS.

Perfect for finding open wifi hotspots.

How, using Opera?

[LFC_SL]

Yep. DS, PSP, laptop

[Mr Incredible]

Originally Posted by fingery

Netstumbler

http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

Netstumbler gets a vote from me as well.

[LenScott]

Just make sure you have a good lawyer, as connecting to a wifi point without permission breaches the 1999 computer misuse act, and could land you in a bit of bother.

[metalhead72]

A laptop running linux and airsnort !!

[partyweb]

Originally Posted by LenScott

Just make sure you have a good lawyer, as connecting to a wifi point without permission breaches the 1999 computer misuse act, and could land you in a bit of bother.

With a DS or a PSP how's someone going to know?

[WibXL]

Originally Posted by partyweb

With a DS or a PSP how's someone going to know?

An unknown MAC address would turn up in their router logs and and other places in the router settings. Saying that if they haven't bothered to secure their setup then it's not very likely that they'd check those places.

[Mr Incredible]

Originally Posted by LenScott

Just make sure you have a good lawyer, as connecting to a wifi point without permission breaches the 1999 computer misuse act, and could land you in a bit of bother.

Valid point.

5 July, 2005

UK Wi-Fi Freeloader Fined £500

A British court has fined a man £500 ($870, €720) for using a residential wireless broadband connection without permission.

In what is believed to be the first conviction of its kind in the UK, a jury at Isleworth, Middlesex court found Gregory Straszkiewicz, 24, guilty of dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service and possessing equipment for fraudulent use of a communications service.

The case was brought under the Communications Act 2003 with the Crown Prosecution Service saying he was guilty of ‘piggybacking’ a household wireless network.

Police officers nabbed Straszkiewicz after he was spotted by locals wandering around a residential area looking for “free” net connections.

He was reported to have attempted this several times before the Old Bill invited him for a date in the cells.

In addition to the fine, Straszkiewicz was also sentenced to a 12 months conditional discharge and had his laptop confiscated.

[JonnyTester]

Um, isn't discusing this against forum rules as it is an illegal activity? Just because someone is dumb enough not to secure their wireless network, it doesn't give anyone else the right to connect to their network and steal their bandwidth. That would make you a hacker and it carries heavy penalties in the UK.

[alexs2]

I think that this one has run it's course.

Using open access Wifi areas that are designated as such,for public use in public areas such as airports etc is obviously not illegal,but these are widely and clearly marked.

Obtaining access to an unguarded WiFi point in someone's house or private property is NOT legal,and cannot be condoned.