The Renderlab:Wardriving

Wardriving Alberta, Canada


No longer regularly maintained. I still wardrive but I stopped counting after 250,000 networks.


Wardriving (War Driving) - The hobby of searching out and mapping 802.11b wireless networks. Also known as Warwalking, and War-riding, depending on the conveyance used. Originally coined by Peter Shipley of Dis.org


Main Locations: City of Edmonton, Red-Deer and Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Edmonton Metro Stats


Edmonton Metro is defined as everything between Latitude 53-54 and Longitude 113-114
Last updated stats: November 29th, 2005
Note: Data for WEP usage has been skewed of late by the increased use of WPA with shows as 'non-WEP'. I have'nt found a way to seperate it out yet

Total APs found66567100%
APs with WEP enabled1798227.01%
APs without WEP enabled4858572.99%
APs with a Default SSID1824327.41%
APs with a Default SSID and no WEP enabled550624.56%

Maps

Static maps are no longer being maintained, see below for Google Earth interactive maps!

CityDate updated
Total map of EdmontonMarch 19th, 2005
Detailed map of downtown EdmontonMarch 19th, 2005
Detailed map of Sherwood ParkAugust 24th, 2004
Detailed map of St.AlbertAugust 24th, 2004
Detailed map of Spruce Grove and Stoney PlainAugust 24th, 2004
Detailed map of CalgaryOctober 13th, 2003 (not regularly scanned)

Interactive Map Data:
Insteadof generating static maps, I'm making my Wigle data available as a Google Earth .KML file. You need a pretty hefty system to load it as it's over 70,000 points.
Google Earth Data


Other Drives
Defcon X Wardriving contest
Worldwide Wardrive 1 -August 31st to September 7th - Red Deer, Alberta
Worldwide Wardrive 2 - October 26th to November 2nd - Pre-planning and aftermath
Worldwide Wardrive 3 - June 28th to July 5th - Pre planning and aftermath
Worldwide Wardrive 4 - June 12th to 19th, 2004 - Pre Planning and Aftermath


Equipment

Details of my wardriving rig are available here


Writings and misc.

Latest revision of the 'Stumbler Ethic': v.02

The infamous CSIS documents about Renderman and the WWWD1

Renderman's Wardriving Presentation material archive

Analysis of the University of Alberta's Wireless network installation

How do deal with media How-To for wardrivers

WRT54G projects related to wardriving

Teddy-Net the Wifi Teddy bear project

Details on the 'Warpack' mobile warwalking rig built for Defcon

Perl script for filtering SSID's in Kismet


Info for visitors

I recieve alot of mail from people concerned that I might be accessing thier networks (no-one has been hostile yet), I'd just like say that at no time have I EVER connected to a network that was not obviously for public use (coffee shops, hotels, etc). I created the stumbler ethic for the community, it would be very irresponsible of me to break the rules I created.

If you are curious if I've scanned you, you can anonymously check if/when I have scanned you by using Wigle.net. I submit all my data to the site for statistical and housekeeping reasons. Use the online database query and enter your MAC address (usually on a sticker on your access point), or less accuratly, use your SSID. You will be able to see when I first scanned you and what information, including WEP status, I was able to detect. Remember, a question mark in the WEP status is a bad thing

If you have any further questions, just mail render (AT) renderlab (DOT) net and I'll answer them. I also have no problems making myself available to speak at any meetings or events in the Alberta area. I'll take any chance I can to educate people on security

Oh, and in case you are wondering, no, I won't share my raw data with you. Originally it was fear of prosecution, however now it's a matter of managability. My aggregate data is somewhere in the realm of 125,000 records, amounting to a several hundred meg NS1 file. That's not something I want to toss around like a volleyball. I've made my data available as a Google Earth file and all my data gets uploaded to Wigle. Whatever you should need you can get from there.


Return to Main