Site Surveys: An Introduction

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Site Surveys An Introduction

• PersonalTelco- Play Date VIII
• June 4th, 2005
• Matthew West

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What is a site/node?

• Usually consists of
• 802.11x Radio Transceiver(s)
• Antenna(e)
• Network Connection
• Can include
• Authorization (nocatauth)
• Splash Page (nocatsplash)
• Server (http, ftp, smtp, ssh, telnet, etc.)
• Content (music, movies, etc.)

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What is a site survey?

• Usually includes
• Visual map of location
• Where the wireless cloud exists
• Type of wireless signal (a, b, g, etc)
• SSID/WEP of wireless signal
• Time/date of survey
• Can include
• Strength of signal
• GPS Coordinates
• Photo of/from location

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Basic Site Survey Example
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Basic Site Survey - Driving
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Complex Site Survey
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Hardware Tools for Surveying

• Optimal
• Laptop with 802.x capability
• External directional antenna
• GPS Receiver
• Car
• Acceptable
• Laptop with built-in antenna /omni antenna
• PDA
• Keychain with display
• Bike or on foot

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Software Tools for Surveying (sniffers,
stumblers, etc.)

• Linux
• Kismet
• APRadar
• THCWardrive
• Windows
• Netstumbler
• Mac OS X
• MacStumbler
• Kismac
• PDA
• NetChaser (Palm)
• PocketWarrior (PPC)

Kismac Screenshot
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Before your survey

• Web Tools
• Wigle
• NodeDB
• Online maps (satellite, aerial photo, topo, etc.)
• Portlandmaps.com

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The Way of the Warrior

• Wardriving
• Use your device and software to drive around and
  collect data about sites and locations of sites
  to compile a large site survey
• Warbiking
• Wardriving on a bike

• Single site survey
• Less complicated
• Usually done manually on foot
• Plot wireless cloud by hand
• Not as much need for GPS and logging
• Take photos of site

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What info do you get from a survey?

• SSID (name)
• IP Address
• Signal Strength
• Channel
• Noise Ratio
• WEP Status
• GPS Coordinates

Kismet Screenshot
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More to think about

• Survey outcome depends on what you use to do the
  survey
• PDA vs. big antenna
• Sites are dynamic
• Which 802.x?
• WEP?
• Combine 802.x data with GPS data
• Post it!

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Thank You!

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