We consolidate location and information of wireless networks world-wide to a central database, and have user-friendly java, windows, and web applications that can map, query and update the database via the web.
Via WiGLE – Wireless Geographic Logging Engine – Plotting WiFi on Maps.
An RLNC transmission can recover from errors with neither sender nor receiver retaining and updating transmission-state information and requesting lost packets to be retransmitted. This is because RLNC can recreate any packet lost on the receiving side from a later sequenced packet. In over-simplified terms, each RLNC encoded packet sent is encoded using the immediately earlier sequenced packet and randomly generated coefficients, using a linear algebra function. The combined packet length is no longer than either of the two packets from which it is composed. When a packet is lost, the missing packet can be mathematically derived from a later-sequenced packet that includes earlier-sequenced packets and the coefficients used to encode the packet.
Since the RLNC encoding sender doesn’t need to listen for acknowledgements of successful transmission and perhaps retransmit, the sender can continuously transmit at near-wire speed optimized for latency and network throughput.
via How MIT and Caltech’s coding breakthrough could accelerate mobile network speeds.
Update: After posting this I remembered I had read about an algorithm recreating earlier lost packets from future packets. So I clicked on the mit tag and on 10/25/2012 I posted this blurb: A Bandwidth Breakthrough
… The technology transforms the way packets of data are sent. Instead of sending packets, it sends algebraic equations that describe series of packets. So if a packet goes missing, instead of asking the network to resend it, the receiving device can solve for the missing one itself. …
That must mean they’re still working on it.
It’s hard to imagine a single smartphone or tablet needing to receive more than 433Mbps of data. But the fact that MU-MIMO-powered Wi-Fi will be able to serve more users simultaneously could bring huge benefits to large-scale wireless networks, like those in airports, convention centers, and sports stadiums. Real-world throughput will end up being something lower than 433Mbps to each user because of networking overhead and other limitations, but given that a high-definition Netflix stream is just 5Mbps, there isn’t much reason to worry about that yet.
via Wi-Fi networks are wasting a gigabit—but multi-user beamforming will save the day | Ars Technica.
The first 11ac products implemented single-user beamforming, sending one transmission to a single receiver. Multi-user beamforming, coming in the next wave of 11ac products this year and next year, enables MU-MIMO and its simultaneous transmission to multiple devices.
What you’re looking at in the image above is a little device about the size of a cigarette packet running a piece of firmware known as “Jasager” (which over in Germany means “The Yes Man”) based on OpenWrt (think of it as Linux for embedded devices). Selling for only $100, it packs Wi-Fi capabilities, a USB jack, a couple of RJ45 Ethernet connectors and implements a kernal mode wireless feature known as “Karma”.
via Troy Hunt: The beginners guide to breaking website security with nothing more than a Pineapple.
But why on earth would a victim connect to the Pineapple in the first place?! Well firstly, we’ve become alarmingly accustomed to connecting to random wireless access points whilst we’re out and about. When the average person is at the airport waiting for a flight and sees an SSID named “Free Airport Wi-Fi”, what are they going to do? Assume it’s an attacker’s honeypot and stay away from it or believe that it’s free airport Wi-Fi and dive right in? Exactly.
Ubiquiti Networks (NASDAQ: UBNT) is closing the digital divide by building network communication platforms for everyone and everywhere. With over 10 million devices deployed in over 180 countries, Ubiquiti is transforming under-networked businesses and communities. Our leading edge platforms, airMAX™, UniFi™, airFiber™, airVision™, mFi™ and EdgeMAX™ combine innovative technology, disruptive price performance and the support of a global user community to eliminate barriers to connectivity.
via About Us | Ubiquiti Networks, Inc..
Ubiquiti is a competitor of Ruckus wireless. Here’s an interesting review using some of Ruckus’ products.
Another competitor is Xirrus. And also Aruba and of course Cisco.
The researchers behind an earlier version of Snoopy that tracked only Wi-Fi signals have already used it to track more than 42,000 unique devices during a single 14-hour experiment in 2012 at the King’s Cross train station in London. They have also unleashed Snoopy in a variety of other environments over the past two years, including at several security conferences. By taking careful notice of the Wi-Fi networks the devices have previously accessed (and continue to search for), the researchers were able to detect likely relationships among users. Four devices that hailed an SSID that the researchers geolocated to a London branch of one of the UK’s largest banks, for instance, were presumed to belong to coworkers of the financial institution.
via Meet Snoopy: The DIY drone that tracks your devices just about anywhere | Ars Technica.
This is why devices should default to wifi being off and only turned on when a user wants to use a public wifi. Devices with wifi on will try and get an IP address via DHCP from any open wifi or wifi with a well known SSID — which can be spoofed by anyone. This usually isn’t a problem. The most they get is the layer 2 MAC address of the device which is unique. This could be put into a database and used for tracking.
Sometimes devices will spill IP addresses through ARP requests on networks they think they are still on and this can be problematic.
Meanwhile, the underlying tasks of assigning client devices to particular channels and access points are centrally controlled to make the best use of the infrastructure. Where separately owned and managed APs may make poor use of the unlicensed frequencies available in the building, the centrally controlled network can use its universal view to arrange the resources most efficiently.
via Stanford team tries for zippier Wi-Fi in crowded buildings – Network World.
Sports venues used to be a prime market for carrier WiFi deployments, until the business case started to get murky. Whereas carriers used to write off stadium deployments as the cost of doing business, now they are losing interest. And, if they are involved, most are opting for tried-and-true distributed antenna systems (DAS), rather than WiFi or small cell deployments.
via Carrier WiFi’s Not Winning in Sports Arenas | Light Reading.
Experts say that probably included many Canadians whose smartphone and laptop signals were intercepted without their knowledge as they passed through the terminal.
via CSEC used airport Wi-Fi to track Canadian travellers: Edward Snowden documents – Politics – CBC News.
The above statement is misleading. A smartphone does not have signals that can be “intercepted,” a smartphone actively seeks out and asks for an IP address so it can check in wherever some app wants to check in. A lot of apps want to phone home and have access to a device’s network. Smartphones are always active participants in a network. The user of a smartphone has chosen to leave wifi active which means that user *wants* his device to scan for and connect to available bandwidth resources. This scanning is a feature not a bug.
The document shows the federal intelligence agency was then able to track the travellers for a week or more as they — and their wireless devices — showed up in other Wi-Fi “hot spots” in cities across Canada and even at U.S. airports.
They simply store and key off the device ID or MAC address. Every device has a unique MAC address, the layer 2 address used by local routers in the final leg of a route to send packets to the right device. This address does not leave the local subnet unless through surreptitious means like a malicious app.
This kind of sweep probably captures browsing metadata all keyed by device id. Not sure how useful any of that data will be to anyone. End to end encryption using SSL can protect content of a message data but not metadata, the where and how long one communicates. This kind of metadata could be useful nuggets in corporate espionage for all kinds of reasons. If you’re just using the open wifi at the airport to pass time none of this matters as long as they’re not attempting Man In The Middle attacks or 0-day exploits against you.
The way Telefonica has made this happen in a practical way is to build its own routers that can be installed in houses within a neighborhood. So far these have had to be installed by engineers, but the next generation are plug-and-play, and eventually all that will be needed is an over-the-air software update to customers’ existing routers. According to Rodriguez, the software “creates a mesh to aggregate the capabilities [of the routers].” Pooling all of the bandwidth from these routers allows anyone within the network to take advantage of it at home, and they can also connect to any BeWifi network they come across on their mobile devices when out and about.
via BeWifi lets you steal your neighbor’s bandwidth when they’re not using it | Ars Technica.
The title is a bit dramatic using the term “stealing” as if something as ephemeral as unused bandwidth, which disappears never to be used by anyone ever as time passes, is an asset that could be considered “stolen” if taken or used by someone else. The victim of this kind of “theft” does not wake in the morning and see something missing unless they’re subscribed to some kind of data cap. Most home installations do not have caps.
Telefonica is currently looking towards developing economies and its huge customer base of over 200 million households in 14 countries in South America as the places in which BeWifi could have a real impact.