WNAP Saturation in the GTA

In an attempt to more accurately understand the saturation and proliferation of Wireless Network Access Points (WNAP) across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), TWCN participants have begun to combine the results of their "war driving" efforts.

War Driving / War Walking in Toronto

The process of acquiring this information is nostalgically referred to as "war driving" (or "war walking", for some of us). Participants outfit themselves and/or their vehicle with a portable computer, wireless card, antenna, and GPS device. Everything is attached to the portable computer, which runs software like "NetStumbler" to create a file that combines the information gathered from the various component hardware. Participants then drive, ride, or walk down the streets of residential and commercial areas. Each time the antenna encounters a WNAP, all available information about it, such as channel, name, and geographic co-ordinates are recorded in the file.

However complicated all this might sound, the results are quite simple. At the end of the night, you have a record of every WNAP you encountered which can easily be merged with other such files, and imported into mapping software such as "MapPoint". The final product is a map of Toronto which shows the location of all the WNAPs encountered so far.

It should be noted that not all WNAPs encountered are public, or a part of a community network like TWCN. Simply discovering them, or determining they are not secured, should never be interpreted as an invitation to access the WNAP. The point of this study is simply to understand how widely used this technology is in the Greater Toronto Area.

Current Findings

Current findings combine the results of 6 separate excursions by 3 TWCN participants, conducted from mid March to April 13th of 2002. Results show a total of 463 WNAP, and of those about 35% employed WEP encryption.

Please note: due to the resolution of the GIF image file, node markers may represent more than 1 WNAP.

• Current Map of WNAP Proliferation (in GIF format).
• Video Clip of April 11th, 2002 War Drive (18 seconds in AVI format).

Project Status

This project is ongoing. Findings were last updated April 15th, 2002. Call for contributors is open until September 20th, 2002. Updated findings are scheduled for release October 1st, 2002.

Call For Contributors

TWCN participants are encouraged to contribute their findings. At present, contributions are only accepted in NetStumbler format, and collected data must include latitude and longitude for each WNAP. Please e-mail your data to twcn-wnapmap@esoterraka.com, along with information about additional materials (photos etc.) you might wish to send. To be considered for inclusion in the update for October 1st, 2002, your findings must be submitted by September 20th, 2002.

For more information on how to contribute, please contact twcn-wnapmap@esoterraka.com.

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