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Wardriving

Wardriving involves a computer user's search for available wireless networks with his notebook computer or PDA care of a moving vehicle, usually a car. The programs used for this WiFi-related practice is available for free online download, notably KisMac for Macintosh; Kismet or SWScanner for Solaris, DragonFly BSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and Linux; and NetStumbler for Windows. Homebrew software dedicated to the act of wardriving for handheld consoles with WiFi capabilities are also obtainable, and they include G-MoN for the Android operating system, Stumbler for the iPhone, Road Dog for the Sony PSP, and sniff_jazzbox/wardive for the Nintendo DS. The demand for wardriving is undoubtedly big.

The Sony PSP's Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops also has a mode which can be utilized for wardrive-related expeditions (that is, it's the mode wherein the player could search for new comrades by scanning WiFi access points within his vicinity). Moreover, the DS game named Treasure World has game mechanics that are completely devoted to the wardriving concept (that is, it can also help players sniff out nearby wireless online access points by making the practice an actual game objective, more or less).

The idea of wardriving evolved from the much-older wardialing concept, which was something popularized by Hollywood care of the Matthew Broderick film named "WarGames" and was in fact named after that very movie; the main character of the abovementioned motion picture typically "wardials" via a computer in order to connect to as many phones as possible and find an active modem to hack into. Wardriving works under a similar set of rules, only this time the emphasis is on driving around different places in order to locate WiFi hotspots to exploit instead of dialing hundreds of phone numbers in order to find a modem to take advantage of.

Warbiking, otherwise known as wardriving with a bicycle or motorcycle, is basically the same practice. Other wardriving variants include the self-explanatory activities of warjogging, warwalking, and so on.The main factor that all types of wardriving has in common is the need to travel, and the main differences between the modes of transportation a wardriver takes also determines how much area he could cover in a given period of time and how much monetary investment he's willing to give for his amateur hacking venture. Wardriving could also be done by strapping a WiFi-enabled gadget onto the vehicle itself in order to turn it into a satellite dish of sorts for wireless access points.

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