Digital Matrix's Digital MDX - War Driving & War Chalking Page

War Driving and War Chalking seems to be filling the news stories lately. If you don't know exactly what they are you can read all about it at www.WarDriving.com and at www.WarChalking.org. There are people all over the world working for free open Wi-Fi networks: check out www.freenetworks.org. These can be campus wide, neighborhood wide or even city wide. It's a great idea to have these free open networks that mobile users can use to get to their e-mail, internet web services and instant messengers just to mention a few applications. It's pretty cool to be sitting at a stop light and have your Yahoo Messenger come to life and deliver your instant messages and get your e-mail all from the road!

Here is my current setup: 2001 Acura MDX with modified navigation system, Gateway Solo 3450 laptop running NetStumbler on a Avaya 802.11b Wireless PCMCIA card attached to a Lucent omni directional antenna. The laptop video is run through a TVator which runs through a modified Pioneer RGB-1 box to allow a video signal to be displayed on the Acura's Navigation System:

Laptop and NetStumber: The laptop is running the popular NetStumber for Windows to discover new Wi-Fi networks while out on the road (War Driving). When I'm not running NetStumber I associate the laptop to the onboard Linksys Access Point and run a program I wrote called NSSpyglass and do what I like to call WarTrolling (the art of WarDriving to locate WarDrivers.)

Antennas: I have both the Lucent antenna and the FAB Corp. external magnetic mount omni directional antenna to extend the distance a bit. I use the mag mount for the standard wardriving with the Lucent antenna hung in the rear side window which gives it pretty good coverage out the window and a second option for passengers or guests to use.

I also have an Antenex 14.5db Yagi antenna. I don't use it much currently but its a great antenna to get some distance with.

The video side of things: The Pioneer RGB-1 modification started from reading the forums at www.acuramdx.org which pointed to a forum message on the Acura TL forums. Steve, aka SteveStMS, aka VideoNavi had come up with the modification to add DVD movie video output to the navigation screen. I'd like to extend a HUGE Thank You to Steve for all his work and information. You can read the threads at:

Now modifying a $40K car to make it a mobile Windows platform isn't recommended, but if you're into high stress and sweating bullets... this could be an option. (Insert standard disclaimer here: modifying your car's navigation system can kill you, can kill your car and has caused hair loss in laboratory mice! DON'T DO IT.)


The Pioneer RGB-1 module that needs to be modified.	Locate the proper wires on the back of the navigation unit for splicing.	The RGB-1 is installed with the relay and ready for testing.

After all the blood, sweat and tears... you're done! The end result is well worth the effort:


Microsoft Windows running NetStumbler	Local FOX TV via the Icom R-3

Joe Dirt DVD from DVD Player	Standard GPS navigation.

Some other things you could do is: Rear view/backup camera, forward looking infrared or night vision camera, game console... the list goes on and on.

This was an earlier mod of adding an Nintendo 64 for the back seat passengers to game away. (Shown playing Donkey Kong 64).

The current mod is a GameCube and overhead monitor for the rear seat passengers. You can check it out here...

Interfacing the computer to the display (or any display). I'm using one of the TVator models for the interface. I prefer the TVator over direct video out because you can zoom and position the computer image anywhere on the screen which helps with the small display. The other option would be to use the video out on your computer or laptop.

Add a wireless mouse and keyboard and you're all set!

Power... All these techno gadgets need power. This is accomplished by a Jensen JP-30 Dual-Outlet 300 Watt DC to AC Power Inverter.

A variation on War Driving: Cruising for X-10 wireless cameras? While surfing the net reading about War Driving I ran across an interesting article on Tech TV's The Screen Savers site about a variation on War Driving where you drive around "scanning" for wireless X-10 cameras. Well, being the techno-Geek that I am I had to try this also. I stuck my 2.4GHz X-10 wireless receiver on my dashboard and went driving. I was surprised to find several X-10 cameras in my short little drive. (Remember this is only 1 channel in the 2.4GHz range I was looking for). I found a view of a farmer's field, someone's driveway camera (I did wave to myself as I drove by), a convenience store's security camera, an apartment dwellers camera pointing into the street (wow, another chance to wave) and a computer stores security camera complete with audio. I then got to thinking about all the other frequencies out there and tried scanning the 900MHz range with my Icom R-3 for wireless cameras and again was surprised at the number of cameras. If you have a wireless camera in your house you better consider it's view a public broadcasting zone!

The Mobile Access Point was involved in a "War Tag" game. I had thought about a mobile access point to give a "shout out" to other NetStumblers, War Drivers and Wi-Bo's and I had an extra Access Point but then I ran across a user on NetStumber.com's message board who lives in my area. I set the SSID to a "message" for him (see War Plugging). We were going to see how long it took to stumble upon each other. It was fun and he confirmed the "message".

WarTrolling

Now the Mobile Access Point is acting not only as a mobile "shout out" to any stumblers out there by beaconing an SSID message, it is also associated with a PC running NetStumbler detection software that I wrote called NSSpyglass that alerts when it detects someone running NetStumbler. I call this little hobby WarTrolling, fishing for Wardrivers in a sense.

Just something else to do while out stumbling, driving, commuting, etc...

War Chalking

"Find a node, and leave a chalk symbol for others to find the node with a minimum of all that tiresome netstumbler business."

from www.warchalking.org site

War Chalking is a way of marking areas that have wireless access points. Read all about the latest developments at: www.WarChalking.org (nothing much new at Warchalking.org). If you have a wireless access point I urge you to secure the machines on your local network and open up a Wi-Fi path to the Internet for all the Wi-Bo's who happen by your location. With all the firewall technology that is available I hope that people will see the fun and practicality of free open Wi-Fi networks all over the world. Check out the D-Link DI-614+ Router with advanced firewall rules, and many other hitting the market. Worse case, you can always stick a public access point outside of your existing firewall!

The latest move in the Warchalking realm is the Wi-Fi Zone. You can read all about it at the Wi-Fi Zone website.

	Wi-Fi ZONE locations will be allowed to display the Wi-Fi ZONE logo, be included in Wi-Fi Alliance promotional activities, and be listed on the Wi-Fi ZONE Web site at http://www.wifizone.org.
The Wi-Fi Alliance intends to hold participating providers to high standards. They have to provide a minimum connection speed of 128Kbps, as well as set up virtual private networks so users can send and receive data securely. They'll also be required to use Wi-Fi certified wireless equipment.

Open Wi-Fi Networks: What a great concept. When traveling across the country or across town, you make a quick stop (or perhaps not?), get your e-mail and web information and continue on!

People have wondered about the "default" SSID on the above War Chalking mark. It's actually a joke for those that NetStumble onto the Access Point. "tsunami" is one of Cisco's default SSID's, NetStumblers will find that the Access Point they are connecting to is a D-Link. That's all...

War Plugging: "War Plugging is the art of advertising using your SSID to convey a message to NetStumblers and Wi-Bo's who stumble across your Access Point." - Jay DeBoer

AcuraMDX.org Thread	Entire thread
Acura-TL.com Thread	Actual instructions are the 7th post down.(now deleted)
Video on my navi (repost)	Repost of instructions from the Acura TL forums

	Click picture for full size image
My kids enjoying the Internet without wires


Lucent omni directional antenna.	Check out www.fab-corp.com for lots of wireless accessories.


The X-10 wireless video receiver.	2.4GHz wireless camera reception. (This is from my own 2.4GHz X-10 camera)	900MHz wireless camera reception via the Icom R-3 of my kids room.


	And War Plugging