On Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:01:44 -0700, Bryant Smith
<bryantthesmith@lycos.com> wrote:
>Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>> On 7 Nov 2006 12:55:56 -0800, nondisclosure007@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks! I'll play around w/ what they suggest here and let y'all know
>>> how it went.
>>
>> Yeah, you can even play "Evil Twin" and take over the world.
>>
>> Some dingbat is making my life interesting. He's got a high power
>> access point at apparently a very high location running a software AP.
>> I can hear it almost anywhere in Santa Cruz County. It advertises an
>> SSID of "Free Open Internet" or something like that. The problem is
>> that he also has a random MAC address generator running that's ruining
>> my WarDriving logs and crashing some of my customers wireless client
>> software by overflowing the "Show available networks" feature. I
>> guess I get to go on a search and destroy mission shortly. Anyway,
>> please use the SoftAP wisely as there's considerable potential for
>> intentional and accidental abuse.
>This could actually not be a single AP running. It could be a flaw in
>Windows XP WZC rearing its head. I heard about it on a podcast the
>other day. It seems that if once you try to connect to the Adhoc "Free
>Open Internet" you can connect and somehow your machine will start
>broadcast itself as the same thing. Apparently this guy was on a flight
>and noticed this connection while using his computer inflight. By the
>end of the flight there were over 10 differnent MACs (not Macs)
>broadcasting "Free Open Internet". It could be that you are actually
>seeing many different "infected" computers that have begun spewing out
>"Free Open Internet." I don't have a link to this story, but the
>Podcast was "This Week in Tech" <http://www.twit.tv>
>
>Here is a blog about it:
><http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2006/09/free_public_wif.html>
Amazing. Yes, that's what I've been seeing literally everywhere (so I
assumed that it was a high power or high altitude xmitter). I never
considered the possibility that it might be yet another Windoze XP
bug. There is one difference with what I've been seen. The author
claims that what he was seeing were all Ad-Hoc networks. The stuff
I'm watching are all infrastructure mode. I'll dig deeper if I can
find the time. I should run strings on some of the Windoze wireless
DLL's and see if "free public WiFi" appears.
Thanks for the explanation and saving me a futile transmiter hunt.
Incidentally, I do have a MAC address generator that I used for
testing wireless access points, router, and bridges. (It's
proprietary so I can't give out copies). It will generate random MAC
addresses until the access point gives up. I usually use my phone
number for the SSID so that if I'm bothering someone, they can phone
me and complain. So far, in about 6 years, nobody has called. It
looks almost identical on a sniffer or Windoze Wireless Zero Config.
--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
#
http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
#
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
WAP on a windows machine 
Linear Mode
