3 ms·

... which reminds me of an experiment I keep meaning to run: Can I do a quick wifi survey (somewhere) and then replicate the SSIDs and channels in a completely

by rsync 3y ago

... which reminds me of an experiment I keep meaning to run: Can I do a quick wifi survey (somewhere) and then replicate the SSIDs and channels in a completely different location and fool one of these SSID mapping functions ? What are these functions scanning for to perform the geolocation other than SSID and frequency and MAC addresses ? Relative or triangulated signal strength ?

viraptor 3y ago
Most routers these days default to auto channel assignment. And the triangulation near any thicker wall will break down anyway. I'd be surprised if they looked up more than SSID for a match and then adjusted the location slightly based on signal strength.
toast0 3y ago
Almost certainly. I'd guess most of these services are usinf BSSID (more or less mac address of the access point) instead of SSID and not using channel number or signal strength. If you report GPS position and BSSIDs anytime you see them, you can probably approximate a location when you only have a BSSID. IIRC, precision is fairly low for wifi approximated position, but maybe it's gotten better since I last looked. If you want to do a test, I'm happy to send you BSSIDs or whatever you need by email (address in profile) and you can geospoof to my house. I run too many APs, so it should work with just mine, but I can sometimes see neighbor APs as well. Google's api documentation [1] has only the macAddress as a required field, and that you need at least two addresses; but it does accept a signal strength measurement, as well as channel and snr. Other apis may vary. [1] https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geolocation/requests-geolocation#wifi_access_point_object https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geolocation...
- viraptor 3y ago
  You can find bssid and other details from around the world at https://wigle.net/map https://wigle.net/map
jcul 3y ago
Yes I think that would work. I remember moving house before withing the same city and moving our wifi router with us. For a while my phone kept placing me at my old house, when it didn't have a GPS signal.

by rsync 3y ago

viraptor 3y ago

Most routers these days default to auto channel assignment. And the triangulation near any thicker wall will break down anyway. I'd be surprised if they looked up more than SSID for a match and then adjusted the location slightly based on signal strength.

toast0 3y ago

Almost certainly. I'd guess most of these services are usinf BSSID (more or less mac address of the access point) instead of SSID and not using channel number or signal strength. If you report GPS position and BSSIDs anytime you see them, you can probably approximate a location when you only have a BSSID. IIRC, precision is fairly low for wifi approximated position, but maybe it's gotten better since I last looked. If you want to do a test, I'm happy to send you BSSIDs or whatever you need by email (address in profile) and you can geospoof to my house. I run too many APs, so it should work with just mine, but I can sometimes see neighbor APs as well. Google's api documentation [1] has only the macAddress as a required field, and that you need at least two addresses; but it does accept a signal strength measurement, as well as channel and snr. Other apis may vary. [1] https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geolocation/requests-geolocation#wifi_access_point_object https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geolocation...

viraptor 3y ago
You can find bssid and other details from around the world at https://wigle.net/map https://wigle.net/map

jcul 3y ago

Yes I think that would work. I remember moving house before withing the same city and moving our wifi router with us. For a while my phone kept placing me at my old house, when it didn't have a GPS signal.