Good complete rig - Expert opinions?

The gear needed for wardriving

26 posts • Page 2 of 2

Postby 007osint » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:05 pm

I am not bragging about using an expensive software package that you can't use... or afford. I didn''t know the pricing on it, and don't care, to be honest. I looked it up after your post and you are focusing on the expensive version, anyway. There are others available. The fact that someone made it so simple for wardrivers was my point. People are always asking me what software to use for what... and I thought it would be helpful. I am sorry I brought up this topic. Just trying to be helpful.

The point of MANY wifi cards is to make sure you can cover as many channels as possible for most of the drive. Channel hopping with a single card can miss things, over the range of channels. I am expecting to have an 11 card rig together by weekend end, which will allow me to cover all channels at all times (in U.S.). This way I don't have to worry about missing a network due to channel hopping.

The company I work for wasn't using the software to locate our access points in our building... there is another purpose for it... the plan is to help places like wigle have updates on a daily basis if desired. A city could be covered in a small amount of time and many people could be deployed with a working solution. We are testing the Gold version for another purpose in house... but that is outside of the original desire for the wigle forum. Someone else brought up the expensive version...

Trying to be helpful to a community is harder than I thought. I just was trying to make people aware that solutions exist which could make just about anyone a pretty good wardriver, quickly... and rather than needing to spend a lot of time on the software (which is what I see a lot of people doing), the hardware can be the main concern, which it should be.

Best of luck to all the wardrivers out there.

Peace.

Postby themacuser » Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:28 am

I am not bragging about using an expensive software package that you can't use... or afford.
By the looks of it, some of us seem to be in a way using this package already.

I had a look at WhirlWind, I don't see what it can do that KisMac/Kismet and combined with other tools can't.

On second thoughts, it seems to be Kismet running on a custom Linux LiveCD...

One of the main selling points of the software is that it can export to Google Earth. So what? Kismac can. There are scripts to support that in Kismet. It's really not hard.

It generates a HTML report. That doesn't even look nice by the looks of it...

"All you'd need to do is sit around and wait until the SSID is revealed" -> It doesn't support deauth does it?

I don't see how it's worth anywhere near the amount of money it's sold for.

Postby whitedice » Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:12 pm

The point of MANY wifi cards is to make sure you can cover as many channels as possible for most of the drive. Channel hopping with a single card can miss things, over the range of channels. I am expecting to have an 11 card rig together by weekend end, which will allow me to cover all channels at all times (in U.S.). This way I don't have to worry about missing a network due to channel hopping.
I have one final thing to say about the software, and then I'm moving on.

I'm focusing on the expensive version, b/c what you have is the most expensive version. It is even more expensive than the Gold version. It's common sense. The Gold version is $2500, and you are using the Platinum version. It is the only version that supports multiple devices. The lesser versions (even Gold) only support 1 device which makes them worthless as far as I'm concerned. More worthless than free software. Dragorn better be getting a piece of the action, too.

The subject of the software has gone far enough.

Besides the software, you aren't posting anything new. Disregarding the software, your setup will probably not pick up as much as it could potentially pickup. If you're going to have antennas they need to be in a good position to actually receive a signal. Putting a box in your trunk or on the floor of your car, with no antennas near a window or on the roof, you are definitely going to miss APs. You say you don't care about using equipment that you should be using, but then you're gonna go out and get 11 devices? I don't even use 1 device per channel. Unless you run 11 antennas down the middle of the roof of your car, it won't be effective. Even I wouldn't do that, because yes, that would draw attention.

...THE BOTTOM LINE...

I would put money on a 2 amp, 2 antenna rig using free software beating your 11 device rig with software worth thousands of dollars. If you had searched before starting to post about the software, you would have seen, there is no need to buy software when free software is just as effective. Downright more economical if anything.

If I was given a copy of the software I would use it, but telling others to get it is retarded. Horrible advice!

One more thing, have you submitted any data to Wigle?

Postby 007osint » Thu Oct 11, 2007 4:11 pm

I am the member of a 5 person group that performs wardriving quite extensively while on travels for work, etc. I don't directly contribute to wigle, but the data I provide is put into a group file (from everyone) and one of my teammates submits the information to wigle and other sites. In 18 months we have identified 3,000,000+ (probably approaching 4 million now) wireless networks around the globe. So the answer to your question is "yes", but indirectly.

Postby littledave » Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:35 pm

I am the member of a 5 person group that performs wardriving quite extensively while on travels for work, etc. I don't directly contribute to wigle, but the data I provide is put into a group file (from everyone) and one of my teammates submits the information to wigle and other sites. In 18 months we have identified 3,000,000+ (probably approaching 4 million now) wireless networks around the globe. So the answer to your question is "yes", but indirectly.

And that user is?

Postby Dutch » Fri Oct 12, 2007 12:43 am

I am the member of a 5 person group that performs wardriving quite extensively while on travels for work, etc.
ACME BS-VUMETER
||
I don't directly contribute to wigle, but the data I provide is put into a group file (from everyone) and one of my teammates submits the information to wigle and other sites.
ACME BS-VUMETER
|||||
In 18 months we have identified 3,000,000+ (probably approaching 4 million now) wireless networks around the globe. So the answer to your question is "yes", but indirectly.
ACME BS-VUMETER
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||(insert small cloud of burntout LED smoke here)

Dutch
(yeah, I'm back)
[url=http://www.wigle.net/gps/gps/StatGroup/listusers?groupid=20041206-00006][img]http://home19.inet.tele.dk/dutch/netstumblerwigle.gif[/img][/url]

Postby littledave » Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:22 am

Glad to see ya again.

Postby whitedice » Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:48 pm

I am the member of a 5 person group that performs wardriving quite extensively while on travels for work, etc. I don't directly contribute to wigle, but the data I provide is put into a group file (from everyone) and one of my teammates submits the information to wigle and other sites. In 18 months we have identified 3,000,000+ (probably approaching 4 million now) wireless networks around the globe. So the answer to your question is "yes", but indirectly.
What other sites are there? The only other sites I know of is Petzl's Belgium website (wardrivers.be), and wifimaps.com which says it is "rebuilding from scratch"?

Postby WiFido » Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:43 pm

Well its about time the OP had a say in all this. When I first came to the site and read 007OSINT's post I watched the youtube video. Reading the posts He summed up what’s been going on:

Finished testing the pre-release test version of whirlwind platinum on 01 Oct 2007.
Admits He is no guru at war driving but is always extensive in whirlwinds features.
Did hear unconfirmed rumors of new features in the software.
Have been however working on getting a lot of folks together to perform war driving.

The next day obtained and started testing the Gold version of WhirlWind.
The next day he got a little bit off topic and started talking about his war walking build.
He does know how to operate Yagi's pointed at high rises along with interpolating those missed coordinates.

During the weekend just past of the 6-7 of October He built a new 4 card rig.
Now refers to whirlwind as a specialized build He has been using.
His company is planning to use Whirlwind (I guess they brought it).

This is where things get a little complicated.

He advises the tool will help him out his sys admin monitoring role.
The company wasn't using the software to locate their own access points.
They are working on something so city could be covered in a small amount of time and many people could be deployed with a working solution.

Are they selling war driving kits? Virtual machine wireless bots? It's getting a bit War of the Words / Matrixy here.

However he is part of an extensive war driving group that’s been around for 18 months and has a buddy that is doing military network auditing.
So there has to be some credibility right?

Then I saw He and WiFiWhirlWind signed up about 9 days apart on youtube. I think to myself nah… talking out his a$$ either working for them or just telling BS.

Now who has some insane ideas for my build? I need software and hardware lists folks. Forget about whirlwind I saw it posted on the newsgroups about an hour ago, looks like its freeware now (joking).

BTW Whitedice that is one insane build. I'm thinking PVC pipe pimping here I come. Theres no real limit to my hardware budget within reason. I need wireless card brands/chipsets models and compatibility info. It's got to fit into a PC.

Did you check out my car? Totally covert.
http://www.swiftowners.co.uk/modules/ga ... temId=1698

WiFido
I'm looking for help building a good complete rig.

I'll list what I have so far:
500W Power inverter / LCD screen / Keyboard with mouse

Small form factor Desktop Intel Pentium 4 PC consisting of:
2 Free PCI slots
4 Free USB 2.0 connections
Shock mounted 2.5" HDD plenty of space
DVD/CD player

I have access to Linksys WMP54G Wireless B/G PCI cards I do not know if these would prove suitable or not but they are my card of choice.

My requirements:
Powerful Antenna(s) and GPS suitable for car use
Quality components is a must. I have no specific budget in mind but I need something reliable

I have no problems with soldering and cabling. However I'm concerned with signal loss and gain problems so will need assistance there.
Dual antenna rig is no problems.

Software I would prefer free. Windows or Linux software (whatever is more flexible). A bootable CD/DVD solution will work but maybe something that I can automate the loading as I'm going to remote wire the power switch of the PC into the dash of the car. It would be nice if the software would just start up and be good to go.

If it could all be done in Windows XP I guess that would be a perfect scenario just due to the fact I want to automate data upload when parking the car (shutdown script when pressing the power button). I know it can all be done in Linux but will be easier in Windows (just toying with ideas).

If you have a desktop rig running I'm especially interested in knowing what you got or problems you had.

Any ideas on this very welcome.

WiFido
Sorry WiFido,

BU-353 is a good choice for GPS.

a PCI to miniPCI card with miniPCIs is probably the best. I was using dual PCMCIA laptops before building a PC with miniPCI cards. If you have PCMCIA cards already, I would look at getting PCI cards that contain PCMCIA slots. I used those before switching to miniPCI cards, too.

I have never used USB devices, so I'm not much help with that. Couldn't get USB devices to work with kismet in linux back when I started. So I have multiple ways to use many PCMCIA cards.

I use BackTrack 2.0. Free linux distro. I knew nothing about linux when I started, and was able to learn all I needed to know searching their forum.
I got to be honest, I stick with something once I know it works well. Kismet in Linux is what you want to use, cause you can have multiple devices save to one set of logs. When it comes to transferring logs, now I use a crossover cable to a laptop fat32 partition, and take the laptop into the house to upload.

Antennas & Pigtails - A good place to look is Fab-Corp.

Postby 007osint » Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:57 am

I promised to put a snapshot of my test rig... here it is.

Image

The system, currently has 8 miniPCI cards in it. I know.. only 4 antenna. The other 4 holes need to be put on the chassis, still.

Image
The back of each PCI-to-miniPCI card has 4 holes for the connectors, but I want them on the side for laying the system down to save space and get a better antenna position. Now, with the 8 internal cards, I have used wifi USB devices. In total, I have had 14+ cards (mix between miniPCI and various USB devices) working within this system at the same time, but no need to exceed 14. With the setup, it is very easy to change the antennas for better ones, if desired. Depending on the system, I don't recommend exceeding 2 USB devices per USB port when using a non-powered USB hub.

I agree with whitedice... the BU-353 is a good choice for GPS. The most important thing about the GPS device is the internal chipset it contains. The forum needs to work on a table of chipsets to quality of information, if anyone is interested. Might save some people from paying for an expensive GPS device with a poor chipset in it.

WiFido: I recommend you use Linux over Windows. Easy to setup power button being pressed to signal power off. Also, easy to use a USB storage device and create a headless setup which lends itself to your cause, very nicely.

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