any idea why my portables "see" the mumblemumble AP, when it's 500 mile

Every so often, when I check a location for available 802.11 access
points, I'll see (made up name) "east-coast-coffee" in the list.

However, the east coast coffee shop is 500 miles away.

When I have the laptop "refresh", it'll still show up.
(As do a half dozen "real" APs down the block).

And it's not restricted to just that one SSID. THere
are a bunch of other names I'll see around.

This happens with both a windows XP laptop, as well as
a Mac OS X unit.

I haven't had both with me at the same time to see if they're
showing identical findings, but they do both have this
general issue.

As best as I can recall I've never been able to actually get
a usable connection to these APs (except at their original
and real location). But I might be misremembering.

It's rare, but does repeat peridocially.

Any ideas as to why/how/why?

Thanks muchly.




--
__________________________________________________ ___
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

In article <j1el13$4fr$1@reader1.panix.com>,
danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote:
>
>Every so often, when I check a location for available 802.11 access
>points, I'll see (made up name) "east-coast-coffee" in the list.
>
>However, the east coast coffee shop is 500 miles away.
>
>When I have the laptop "refresh", it'll still show up.
>(As do a half dozen "real" APs down the block).
>
>And it's not restricted to just that one SSID. THere
>are a bunch of other names I'll see around.
>
>This happens with both a windows XP laptop, as well as
>a Mac OS X unit.
>
>I haven't had both with me at the same time to see if they're
>showing identical findings, but they do both have this
>general issue.
>
>As best as I can recall I've never been able to actually get
>a usable connection to these APs (except at their original
>and real location). But I might be misremembering.
>
>It's rare, but does repeat peridocially.
>
>Any ideas as to why/how/why?
>
>Thanks muchly.

Could it be related to the phenimenon described here?

http://www.npr.org/2010/10/09/130451...ee-public-wifi

On 8/5/2011 7:21 AM, Mike S. wrote:
> In article<j1el13$4fr$1@reader1.panix.com>,
> danny burstein<dannyb@panix.com> wrote:
>>
>> Every so often, when I check a location for available 802.11 access
>> points, I'll see (made up name) "east-coast-coffee" in the list.
>>
>> However, the east coast coffee shop is 500 miles away.
>>
>> When I have the laptop "refresh", it'll still show up.
>> (As do a half dozen "real" APs down the block).
>>
>> And it's not restricted to just that one SSID. THere
>> are a bunch of other names I'll see around.
>>
>> This happens with both a windows XP laptop, as well as
>> a Mac OS X unit.
>>
>> I haven't had both with me at the same time to see if they're
>> showing identical findings, but they do both have this
>> general issue.
>>
>> As best as I can recall I've never been able to actually get
>> a usable connection to these APs (except at their original
>> and real location). But I might be misremembering.
>>
>> It's rare, but does repeat peridocially.
>>
>> Any ideas as to why/how/why?
>>
>> Thanks muchly.
>
> Could it be related to the phenimenon described here?
>
> http://www.npr.org/2010/10/09/130451...ee-public-wifi

Interesting. I've seen hpsetup often.

I wonder if these XP systems out there not running service pack three
had some sort of authentication issue, i.e. they couldn't get the
service pack from MS?

In <j1nt0o$rrn$1@speranza.aioe.org> miso <miso@sushi.com> writes:

>> Could it be related to the phenimenon described here?
>>
>> http://www.npr.org/2010/10/09/130451...ee-public-wifi

>Interesting. I've seen hpsetup often.

>I wonder if these XP systems out there not running service pack three
>had some sort of authentication issue, i.e. they couldn't get the
>service pack from MS?

Don't think my specific issue is related to the "zombie network". The
SSIDs I was asking about are singular enough that the chances of
seeing an infected local computer with that ID are pretty slim.

But it does explain a whole bunch of "linksys" and "hpsetup"
and other popular, ubiquitous, ones where I try hooking up
and get nowhere.

Thanks


--
__________________________________________________ ___
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

On 8/8/2011 5:25 AM, danny burstein wrote:
> In<j1nt0o$rrn$1@speranza.aioe.org> miso<miso@sushi.com> writes:
>
>>> Could it be related to the phenimenon described here?
>>>
>>> http://www.npr.org/2010/10/09/130451...ee-public-wifi
>
>> Interesting. I've seen hpsetup often.
>
>> I wonder if these XP systems out there not running service pack three
>> had some sort of authentication issue, i.e. they couldn't get the
>> service pack from MS?
>
> Don't think my specific issue is related to the "zombie network". The
> SSIDs I was asking about are singular enough that the chances of
> seeing an infected local computer with that ID are pretty slim.
>
> But it does explain a whole bunch of "linksys" and "hpsetup"
> and other popular, ubiquitous, ones where I try hooking up
> and get nowhere.
>
> Thanks
>
>
The "linksys" you see are probably real access points.

If you set up windows to automatically connect to a certain WAP, it will
probe that WAP. Smart phones do the same thing. This is a bit of a
security breech since the probes are visible to sniffer programs. I did
a post on this regarding my own smart phone leaving a history of all the
two star hotels I've stayed at, plus revelations of my coffee addiction.

I'm not saying this is the problem you are having, since I assume you
have removed all references to these WAPs you have accessed in the past.