this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2025
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Wardriving is the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks as well as cell towers, usually from a moving vehicle, using a laptop or smartphone. Software for wardriving is freely available on the internet. Warbiking, warcycling, warwalking and similar use the same approach but with other modes of transportation. Etymology War driving originated from wardialing, a method popularized by a character played by Matthew Broderick in the film WarGames, and named after that film. War dialing consists of dialing every phone number in a specific sequence in search of modems. Variants Warbiking or warcycling is similar to wardriving, but is done from a moving bicycle or motorcycle. This practice is sometimes facilitated by mounting a Wi-Fi enabled device on the vehicle. Warwalking, or warjogging...

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[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago

I used to have a lot of fun doing this with buddies back in the day, before encryption was common.

[–] Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Aren’t street view cars doing exactly that as well (for offering the possibility to get your approximate location prior GPS signal was found using identifying bits of access points)

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week ago

I am too lazy, so here a GPT screenshot