This really was one of the cooler assignments I’ve had to do so far for my Master’s program. I was required to go wardriving in my neighborhood and write-up my findings on “conducting the wireless survey,” which is just PC-speak for wardriving. So without further adieu, here is what I submitted for the assignment, with some minor edits, plus a bonus mention of a possible business venture/idea.

A couple other things to mention before starting in on the meat of things…

• This certainly isn’t ground-breaking research into the world of wireless network security. Other than the statistics from my survey, all of the information here has been widely known for some time. In fact, I could very well even have made some errors in my statements. Please let me know if I did by leaving a comment.
• I’ve added some more info via links at the bottom of the article. Feel free to check those out if you want to know learn more about wireless networks and/or wardriving.
• Until the end of post, the headings below are just the questions that needed to be addressed as part of my assignment. I could probably make them sound better for a blog post, SEO, etc., but I didn’t. Deal with it.
• In case you happen to be interested in copying my content for your own use, please don’t. I’m posting this here after the assignment deadline so at least no one from my class can plagiarize, but I really hope that won’t happen for any subsequent sections of the class or any other reason. Feel free to use it as information, but don’t do a copy+paste on it for your own purposes.

Describe your survey area in a short paragraph.

The area survey covered an approximately 2.7 mile stretch of the northern portion of the Groesbeck Neighborhood of Lansing, MI. The survey was conducted by driving the route shown below.

The path can be followed by a combination of the arrows and letter-based “destinations.” (The starting ‘A’ is behind the ‘G’ towards the lower right.) The survey included driving through the two noted apartment complexes indicated on the map, as well as on Lake Lansing Road, which has several businesses along either side.

Open VIStumbler on your mobile computer and determine how many wireless access points are found in your survey area and how many are active. Include a screen shot of the VIstumbler screen showing most of the found access points.

The screenshot does not indicate any of the active access points from the survey due to safety concerns of creating a screenshot while driving. However, several of the APs were noted as active while conducting the survey. A full screenshot of all the APs detected during the survey can be viewed at:

http://www.screencast.com/t/YTA1YWMx

How many access points did you find?

A total of 156 access points were detected while conducting the survey.

What percentage, or number, of the wireless access points was unsecured?

Of the access points surveyed, 39 (25%) had no security setup at all.

What percentage, or number, of the wireless access points was secured by encryption? (WEP is displayed even if it is secured by another method.)

The remaining 117 (75%) of detected access points had at least some form of encryption. The breakdown of encryption types is as follows:

Please recommend what the users should do to their wireless access points.  Include recommendations for securing the access.

In order to ensure proper security for a wireless access point, some form of adequate encryption should be turned on in order to gain access to the network. Adequate encryption no longer includes using wired equivalent privacy (WEP). Using WEP for wireless security can be cracked in minutes, allowing malicious attackers to easily gain access to the network. At a minimum, WPA encryption should be used, with WPA2 providing the highest grade of wireless encryption for general residential use. In either case, Personal WPA/WPA2 encryption using a pre-shared key (PSK)/personal mode requires a pass phrase of at least 20 characters to ensure adequate protection from cracking.

A final note is that if the user is not making use of wireless connectivity for their home network, either the wireless transmission from the router should be turned off or the AP should be entirely shutdown. This can be done either on a temporary or permanent basis.

What can the owner do to maintain open access and protect their home networks from this open access?

There are some methods of obfuscation that can be put to use on home networks in order to prevent light attempts to gain network access while maintaining an open access point. The first is to hide or not broadcast the service set identifier (SSID) for the AP. Any client trying to gain access to a wireless network needs to know the SSID in order to connect. However, the SSID, even if it is not broadcast, can still easily be discovered. Secondly, wireless APs can often restrict access to devices with approved/known MAC addresses. Any device without an approved MAC address will be rejected from authenticating on to the network. Again, any sophisticated attacker would be able to readily discover an approved MAC address and spoof it in order to penetrate the network. Just about any contemporary access point should have software that allows both of these features.

There are slightly more rigorous methods of protecting the network with an open access point. Using a virtual private network (VPN) is one of those methods. With a VPN connection, security is independent of the transmission path. Even if an attacker has gained access to the network, it would not be able to decrypt any of the traffic across the network. Another method would be to use a separate virtual LAN (VLAN) for the wireless devices. This would prevent any wireless connections from being able to communicate with any other devices outside the VLAN. This would allow any switched/hardwired connected devices to remain free of traffic interception from the open wireless network. Both of these methods usually require more sophisticated AP management software than what is typically provided by home use AP manufacturers. One recommendation would be to replace the AP’s firmware with DD-WRT software to enable this functionality. See http://dd-wrt.com for more information.

Amazing Business Idea!!!11oneone111

After seeing so many open/unprotected wireless networks lying around my ‘hood, I think there is a business opportunity for someone to improve the security situation. Chances are there would be a bit of education involved in getting people to understand the importance of proper security on their network and the risks of not using decent encryption. However, in the interest in making sure my neighbors are adequately protected from anyone wishing to get access to their networks, I think it would be worth the effort… for a small fee, of course.

Additional Information

As mentioned above, I used VIStumbler as the software tool of choice for conducting the survey. It works on Vista and Windows 7. It’s older cousin, NetStumbler is what I used a while back on Windows XP. If you need something for Mac or Linux, try KisMAC or Kismet respectively. There also plenty of other free wireless survey tools.

There are certainly ethical implications of wardriving that you should be aware of before attempting to detect wireless networks. If you really get into it, you should learn warchalking to share your findings with others.

As noted above, hiding the SSID for your wireless access point is NOT an adequate form of protection from attackers. Be careful and make sure to protect your data, privacy and sanity.

Has anyone else gone wardriving recently? Share what you found in your neighborhood by making a comment below. Thanks for reading!

Amsterdam was a bit chilly and rainy, but we managed to see the Anne Frank House as well as the Van Gogh Museum. The house was a very moving experience and the museum had a lot of special artwork that. After hearing a lot about both places before arriving, it was pretty amazing to get to see them. We also wandered through the streets around Central Station and had some pretty tasty meals.

Morning in Cairo started at 11:30 for us. We’ve arranged to have a driver in a van at our disposal for the week, so we got picked up by Jill and grabbed some breakfast-lunch on our way out for the day. We then went to see an ancient, but still very active, Coptic (original Egyptian Christian) church that was built in the 3rd century. It’s known as the “Hanging Church” because it’s actually built on one of two old towers, so the majority of it is suspended about 20m above ground. I love heights!

We then went to a park where we could see the Citadel, watched the sunset behind the mosques and listened to the 6:00 call to prayer being sung throughout the city. Pretty cool to hear it in surround sound like that. We then went to a very authentic Egyptian restaurant for a delicious meal. Dinner ended with us all taking turns puffing on a couple of shishas… that is… hookahs. We were up in smoke.

Tomorrow is going to be a trip to the Egypt Museum and/or the Pyramids of Giza. If we miss one, we’ll catch it on Sunday. Then, Monday starts the flight to Luxor and cruise to Aswan. Should be very exciting. Hard enough to believe we’re just in Cairo.

All right, I should join the crowd again. There are already lots of photos to share, and we’re only a day into it. Many more to come!

Now that my brain is full of all sorts of neat ideas to save time, money and sanity while enjoying it all, I need to share some of these with you my loyal readers. I recommend the following for all three of you. Some of these go to other sites, but I found them first on Lifehacker.

• Google Calendar goodness (and stop the no scheduled events emails)
  Good read on making use of Google’s handy Calendar application.
• Top 10 Network Utilities
  Fun list for the geekier crowd. Coming in at #2, DD-WRT router firmware is something I’ve been meaning to try on my wireless router for some time. And earning the #1 spot, I’ve been making use of Hamachi for nearly 2 years now and highly recommend it for extremely easy and secure VPN connections.
• Mastering the Windows Key
  This is a good one for any computer user. Despite debate and evidence to the contrary, I’m a firm believer in the keyboard being faster than the mouse at least in such cases as covered in this short video clip. I already use all of these shortcuts to save time navigating Windblows (aka, Windows).
• Use Google Calendar for Long Term Memory
  Another Google Calendar article, but with a twist. This covers recording stuff in the past for future reference.
• Retirement Savings: Setting up a Roth IRA
  Some good info on getting your Roth IRA going. (from Get Rich Slowly)
• Apply the 80/20 Rule to Your Life
  It’s a widely held economic theory that 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. That theory has been extrapolated to many different areas. This article applies it to your life.
• Launch: Parallels v3.0 Now Available
  I’m still not a Mac fan, by any means, but this Parallels software keeps pushing me. To have a solid Unix based system with a professional GUI AND be able to easily run the obligatory Windows apps sounds very appeal. Oh, wait… they’re still outrageously expensive. All the same, it’s interesting to read what’s going on there.
• Delete a Locked File in Windows
  I’ve wanted/tried to do this on numerous occasions. The Geeks Are Sexy blog tells you how.
• Da Vinci’s Streamwriting Technique
  I haven’t read through all of this one yet, but I think this is supposed to help you get your thoughts out on paper (or text editor) to help you achieve your goals. Let me know if it works!
• Simple Way to Save: The 60% Solution
  This article isn’t quite as drastic as it sounds. It’s a good read on how to avoid over-managing you finances and still have plenty for savings, retirement, plus some fun money even after all the bills are paid.
• Finances: Devote 15 Minutes a Day to Frugality
  Megan would probably claim that I spend hours on frugality everyday, but these are some good money-savings tips. Check out the rest of The Simple Dollar for more great financial tips.

Okay, those are some recent highlights. Head on over to Lifehacker.com to read more fun tips.

I must confess, the whole process of shopping for plane tickets happened much faster than I would have liked. It all took place within about 24 hours; definitely not my style of doing most things. But it was good for me, because that means I’ve already accepted that I’m not really going to be in the driver seat at any point in the planning of this. I’m just along for the ride… er, flight. All the same, we have the tickets now, and that’s extremely exciting. A trip to see the pyramids, the Sphinx and all the other ancient history and art located in that region has been on my list of “things to do” for quite some time. And having a “local” tour guide (Jill, and, more likely, her boyfriend Ali) for most of it will make it all the more enjoyable and flexible. Jill is already shopping for cruise ship tours that run down the Nile River to see the Valley of the Kings, Luxor and the like.

With a trip such as this, the plane tickets are usually the largest expense. However, my frugal mind is already tallying the other costs that are sure to incur. And, actually, I’ve already made the next purchase towards the trip: a small but hefty book on Egyptian art and architecture. Additionally, I’ve also begun researching new digital cameras, since we’ll certainly need to replace our now long outdated Canon PowerShot S40 before going. If I can effectively use my powers of negotiation, there might even be two cameras in our future. But that might be as likely as the Sphinx asking me a riddle while we’re over there.

The highlight of the evening (besides an awesome dinner at BD’s Mongolian BBQ) was Evan performing at a coffee house in downtown Ann Arbor. As she calls it, she plays with an Alternative/Pop/Rock style. Just over a year ago, she seriously launched her music career and has already had some great successes in both San Diego and Los Angeles.

Now I’m not at all in to this music generally, but I guessing knowing Evan already makes it much easier for me to listen to her perform. Both her CD and live performances I can actually tune in and listen to what she’s singing. I honestly can’t easily do that with any other group (okay, it’s just her). I guess one of the cool things is that the CD has the same songs as what she performs live, but the recordings have a bunch of extra instrumentation and her live shows are just with acoustic guitar, so they end up being very different listening experiences.

So, I suggest you start with her CD, since that will be a lot easier than finding her at your local coffee shop. You can find out more by going to EvanBethany.com or you can listen to some of her tracks on Evan Bethany’s myspace page.

Well, here I am again after a rather lengthy hiatus. (I haven’t blogged since last year!) I had a pretty decent streak of postings within about a month this summer, but I apparently fell off the blogging deep end after that. So, to get back on track, here’s a quick rundown of the rest of my 2006 with photos when available.

Megan’s 10-year reunion in Billings

My last post was actually from Billings, but we had only been there a day at that point. We got to see all of Megan’s family who still live in town and hung out with her high school clan. It was nice and relaxing for me since I didn’t partake in all the happenings (thankfully, not enough estrogen in my system). I read George R. R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords during the course of the trip. Trip photos here.

My 10-year reunion in Duluth

Just a few days after returning from Billings, we loaded up the car and drove 650 miles to Duluth for my high school reunion. What a blast! It was hilarious watching the reactions of people who initially gave me blank stares then looked at my name tag. So many people I hadn’t seen in such a long time. It was great to catch up with everyone, if a bit crammed for time trying to get all the visits in. Also was hoping to see a few folks who didn’t make to the reunion, but I guess there’s always 2016. See you then! Trip photos here.

Megan’s family visits

Over Labor Day weekend, most of immediate Megan’s family came to visit us for the long weekend: Megan’s mom Vicki and husband Lionel from Billings, brother Kyle from Columbus, OH and sister Jill from NYC. We went to a Lugnut’s game, watched some movies and even had a Lebanese feast one night. Good times were had by all. Weekend photos here.

Marriage Encounter weekend

At the end of September, Megan and I went up to Arcadia, MI for a Lutheran Marriage Encounter event. It was an amazing experience and we learned a ton about each other and our relationship. I highly recommend this for any married couple, no matter what state your marriage is in. We were treating it as a tune-up weekend, but it was so much more than that for us and way more for several couples. Trip photos here.

Pinke wedding in Fargo

At the end of October, I was an usher for the holy matrimony of Nathan Alan Pinke and Kathryn Lukens which took place in Fargo, ND. Pinke is a good friend from college and it was great to see him finally find true happiness with a wonderful woman like Katie. And if you flip through the photos, you’ll see the giant reason why Pinke will never do her wrong. I also got to see a few Concordia faculty, my mom, Ken and 60% of the Bentley clan for about 24 hours. Yet another too fun but too short of a trip. Trip photos here.

Thanksgiving

Megan’s brother Kyle and his girlfriend Kylee (no joke) came up from Ohio to join us for Thanksgiving. We had a great time hanging out, eating, lounging, playing games and eating some more. We tried going out Friday night, but I think we just barely made it to 11:00 before calling it a night. Besides, there was more eating to do.

Christmas

Megan had a rather crazy 5-6 weeks leading up to Christmas preparing for and playing in various music performances at church. But that all ceased on Christmas Eve after being at the church at 3 different times that day. Kyle (minus Kylee) joined us again and he wasn’t feeling 100% so we lounged an extra ton the whole weekend. I gave Megan a printout of our itinerary for our Florida trip in February as gift, so I scored some major points there. I did cash them all out later that week when I bought myself a Nintendo Wii, but boy, was it worth it!

Ringing in the New Year

Our friends Robin and Ramon hosted a smashing New Year’s Eve party at their place this year. We had some tasty appetizers, a massive bowl of sangria and a delicious turkey dinner for sustenance. We then played Guitar Hero and the Wii was a big hit until midnight. In the early hours of 2007, we played Apples to Apples followed by a Texas hold ‘em tournament (I won!). I got a ride home at about 5am. I can’t remember the last time I’d been to a party for nearly 12 hours. Good times.

And that sums up the remainder of 2006. I hope you enjoyed. Look for more posts from me in 2007.