Angry Robot

WiFi Pt. 2

There’s something fight-clubby about this wireless thing. There’s a whole hidden world out there, a world full of nakedness and hobo signals. Wardriving, warchalking, it sure sounds dramatic.

It’s geek novelty drama, the drama of surfin’ the nerdnet in exotic places – wow. Later, I’m sure it will be: I’m surfin’ the nerdnet in exotic places – big fuckin’ deal. But until then.

Just realized that this is a GeoURL listing of wireless access points in Toronto, assembled by the mysterious wireless bandit (don’t bother clicking, DNS problem means site unavailable). Will have to try some of them – glad to see Second Cup and Lettieri are on the ball.

Tried at my favourite Queen St cafe today, Tequila Bookworm. They have a WAP, but it’s encrypted and just for employee use (what do they do in that back room of theirs?). At my parents’ house, I’m on the fringes of another encrypted net. Now I’m feeling bad that I WEP-secured my own WAP (WEP–WAPpin’ WiFi! WiWiWi!), since what’s wrong with a little wireless bump n’ grind with strangers? Do unto others, and such? Some get it, some don’t. There are concerns, of course, that munchkins and freemasons could get loose in your network, steal your data, and make it look like you’re running a child porn ring. One idea I’ve had is to keep it encrypted and passworded but to add contact info to the network ID, so if anyone discovers it they can ask permission and I can figure out who they are first. Might work.