Doing article to protect Open Wireless networks-need data!

[pointius]

Hi all. I'm doing a law review article about your 4th Amendment rights and how they have been construed by the Courts in the context of open wireless networks. Here's a hint--you don't have any. I want to determine how many Americans might be subject to search and seizure based on these decisions, so I need to know how many open wireless networks there are in the US. It would be good to know the total number of access points as well (even encrypted) for comparison. Breakdowns on encryption types would be cool as would any other detail.

I've tried querying the approximate coordinates of the USA. 20 to 50 latitude and 130 to 70 longitude, but the results will only show me 1000 APs at a time. I've downloaded the client, but the map-packs are by state. Can anyone run a query server that will get me the numbers I need?

Thank you,
Trent

[bobzilla]

"US" as lat: 24.4 to 49.4, long: -124.7 to -66.9: 13,026,695
With stumbling clients noting network having encryption: 6,028,246

Last edited by bobzilla on Mon Apr 20, 2009 5:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[pointius]

That's fantastic, but what do you mean by 'noting encryption?'

Thanks again!

[uhtu]

there is no definitive "can haz encryption" just "this was reported as having been seen with encryption" people can turn wep on and off at will.

[pointius]

Roger, so the 6 million figure includes encrypted networks. Thank you. I will post my conclusions here if anyone is interested.

[whitedice]

Roger, so the 6 million figure includes encrypted networks. Thank you. I will post my conclusions here if anyone is interested.

I don't think that is what he meant. Did you not even look at the "Stats" page?

[pointius]

Of course. Is there something I'm missing?

[whitedice]

I just wanted to clarify...

Based on Bobzilla's number he gave you with lat,long range, there are 13,026,695 networks. At the time someone collected those points 6,028,246 had some kind of encryption turned on, but that leaves 6,998,449 which either the software never deciphered if any encryption was turned on or off, or it wasn't turned on. That doesn't stop any of the 13,026,695 from changing one way or the other at any time, before or after they were collected which is over a large time span of several years.

Though assumptions can be made, that people don't typically change their network from encrypted to unencrypted if they took the time to set it up. Also if you are referring to Americans in general, there are new networks added all the time, and most likely millions of networks that have never even been detected just based on the collecting abilities of people's equipment and areas that have been visited. So 6 million is mostly likely nowhere near being an accurate number. It could be multiples higher.

That is all I wanted to point out.