Weird APs

Pyrotechnic · 07-15-2005

First: Sorry, I really didn't know how to name this thread. (if you have any better suggestions I'll change it)

Second: If you don't want to read a long post, stop reading now.

Me and 2 friends went out for a WDrive last night, we were going to use my laptop till the battery ran out (which doesn't take long at all) then switch to one of theirs (which goes for about 3 hours). Well, we set mine up at my house then piled into my car and of we went, but, about 5 miles in we hadn't picked anything up so we turned my friend's on and straight away *ding* *ding* *ding* no kidding, within 5 mins of it being on we had 200+ APs, which in the area we were and the distance we'd gone was VERY strange.
The problem was they were as if they were from a fake AP generator, all on the same channel, same speed, only detected for a few seconds, no SSID but different MACs, we thought nothing of it but eventually turned home as we couldn't get the GPS to work on the new laptop (so the by now ~300 APs were useless)
Get back to myhouse, plug my laptop in to charge, start NS again and it finds my router, so it worked, but I don't know why we didn't pick anything up with it. Turn my friend's on and it got my router too, then again *ding* *ding* *ding* it starts picking up these AP's again all the same channel (3), same speed (48Mbs), not connected for long, no SSID and all different MACs. But, my laptop wasn't picking up any of these. I had a look in my laptop's WLan setting and it was set to CH3, any(all) speeds and I had set an SSID (LapFi). I turned my WLan off and the APs stopped (we're not quite sure if they were coming from my laptop though).
We got the GPS sorted and went out again with only my friends laptop and it worked fine for the whole journey.
AFAIK I don't have any software running on laptop or router to generate APs.

My laptop: Built-in ACER IPN2220 WLan card
My router: Origo
Friend's laptop: I saw it was a Buffalo external card, but not which type.

If you need any more info or something clarifying, just ask. I'd like to hear your theories on this as we are all completely baffled

streaker69 · 07-15-2005

I'm gonna take a wild guess that these weird AP's were in Peer (ad-hoc) mode and not in AP (infrastructure).

beakmyn · 07-15-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyrotechnic

First: Sorry, I really didn't know how to name this thread. (if you have any better suggestions I'll change it)

Second: If you don't want to read a long post, stop reading now.

Me and 2 friends went out for a WDrive last night, we were going to use my laptop till the battery ran out (which doesn't take long at all) then switch to one of theirs (which goes for about 3 hours). Well, we set mine up at my house then piled into my car and of we went, but, about 5 miles in we hadn't picked anything up so we turned my friend's on and straight away *ding* *ding* *ding* no kidding, within 5 mins of it being on we had 200+ APs, which in the area we were and the distance we'd gone was VERY strange.
The problem was they were as if they were from a fake AP generator, all on the same channel, same speed, only detected for a few seconds, no SSID but different MACs, we thought nothing of it but eventually turned home as we couldn't get the GPS to work on the new laptop (so the by now ~300 APs were useless)
Get back to myhouse, plug my laptop in to charge, start NS again and it finds my router, so it worked, but I don't know why we didn't pick anything up with it. Turn my friend's on and it got my router too, then again *ding* *ding* *ding* it starts picking up these AP's again all the same channel (3), same speed (48Mbs), not connected for long, no SSID and all different MACs. But, my laptop wasn't picking up any of these. I had a look in my laptop's WLan setting and it was set to CH3, any(all) speeds and I had set an SSID (LapFi). I turned my WLan off and the APs stopped (we're not quite sure if they were coming from my laptop though).
We got the GPS sorted and went out again with only my friends laptop and it worked fine for the whole journey.
AFAIK I don't have any software running on laptop or router to generate APs.

My laptop: Built-in ACER IPN2220 WLan card
My router: Origo
Friend's laptop: I saw it was a Buffalo external card, but not which type.

If you need any more info or something clarifying, just ask. I'd like to hear your theories on this as we are all completely baffled

I've seen this happen before in Windows. The two cards are interacting with each other and causing false hits. I believe Starpoint had this problem with ac ouple Ipaq's where he had a lock on a certain SSID when actually nothing was in the area and it was the other Ipaq in the car that was causing it. Or something like that.

Thorn · 07-15-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by streaker69

I'm gonna take a wild guess that these weird AP's were in Peer (ad-hoc) mode and not in AP (infrastructure).

If it is an issue with Ad Hoc APs, then look here: Ad-Hoc weirdness - multiplying clients

Starpoint · 07-15-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by beakmyn

I've seen this happen before in Windows. The two cards are interacting with each other and causing false hits. I believe Starpoint had this problem with ac ouple Ipaq's where he had a lock on a certain SSID when actually nothing was in the area and it was the other Ipaq in the car that was causing it. Or something like that.

DING DING DING DING you are correct sir!

when a friend of mine went driving with 2 Ipaq's (his is a 36xx and my is a 38xx series) both with gold classic cards using Mini stumbler .3, what would happen is they would tap each other and suddenly lock onto each other.

We were tracking each other for miles an I do not believe we picked up anything else while they were locked.

Now when Beakmyn and I drove Houston when he was down here (and harvested up enough wifi points to push the Wigle count over 3 million) I was running ms .4 on the ipaq on 1 run and after he got me set up on kismet on one of my laptops never saw that again.

ps, I am planning another drive soon with an old friend of mine I used to work with at an ISP, this weekend he wants to go to a computer shop I know that has an SGI Octane II terminal)

Pyrotechnic · 07-15-2005

Ah, sounds likely, thanks very much all for your help :]

07-15-2005	#1 (permalink)
Pyrotechnic n00b+ Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: UK - Notts or Lincoln Posts: 68	Weird APs First: Sorry, I really didn't know how to name this thread. (if you have any better suggestions I'll change it) Second: If you don't want to read a long post, stop reading now. Me and 2 friends went out for a WDrive last night, we were going to use my laptop till the battery ran out (which doesn't take long at all) then switch to one of theirs (which goes for about 3 hours). Well, we set mine up at my house then piled into my car and of we went, but, about 5 miles in we hadn't picked anything up so we turned my friend's on and straight away ding ding ding no kidding, within 5 mins of it being on we had 200+ APs, which in the area we were and the distance we'd gone was VERY strange. The problem was they were as if they were from a fake AP generator, all on the same channel, same speed, only detected for a few seconds, no SSID but different MACs, we thought nothing of it but eventually turned home as we couldn't get the GPS to work on the new laptop (so the by now ~300 APs were useless) Get back to myhouse, plug my laptop in to charge, start NS again and it finds my router, so it worked, but I don't know why we didn't pick anything up with it. Turn my friend's on and it got my router too, then again ding ding ding it starts picking up these AP's again all the same channel (3), same speed (48Mbs), not connected for long, no SSID and all different MACs. But, my laptop wasn't picking up any of these. I had a look in my laptop's WLan setting and it was set to CH3, any(all) speeds and I had set an SSID (LapFi). I turned my WLan off and the APs stopped (we're not quite sure if they were coming from my laptop though). We got the GPS sorted and went out again with only my friends laptop and it worked fine for the whole journey. AFAIK I don't have any software running on laptop or router to generate APs. My laptop: Built-in ACER IPN2220 WLan card My router: Origo Friend's laptop: I saw it was a Buffalo external card, but not which type. If you need any more info or something clarifying, just ask. I'd like to hear your theories on this as we are all completely baffled __________________ Stumble and ye shall find. www.pyro-net.com

07-15-2005	#2 (permalink)
streaker69 Psychic Amish Stumbler Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Virginville, BlueBall, Bird In Hand, Intercourse, Paradise, PA Posts: 12,239	I'm gonna take a wild guess that these weird AP's were in Peer (ad-hoc) mode and not in AP (infrastructure). __________________ Treat your gun like your genitals, only whip it out when it's absolutely necessary.

07-15-2005	#6 (permalink)
Pyrotechnic n00b+ Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: UK - Notts or Lincoln Posts: 68	Ah, sounds likely, thanks very much all for your help :] __________________ Stumble and ye shall find. www.pyro-net.com

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