Actually, I think that's a pretty ingenious idea... if you were to stand at the access point and block sections of the antennae around a 360 degree path, you could see where his signal drops and get a rough line towards where he is. If you move the access point (or antennae)...probably a hundred feet or so and do the blocking scheme again, then you could take these two "lines" and correlate them to an approximate position. Of course the access point and/or antennae have to be easily movable, and there is the possibility that it might arouse suspicions.
And... just for more free info :-) Water is actually the best insulator for radio waves that I am aware of, followed by some metals. Chisholm Wildermuth Systems Engineer dbWebNet, Inc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. -----Original Message----- From: Bryan Allerdice [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 12:51 PM To: Johnson, Wayne; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Wireless LAN question Here is a crazy and untested idea. Suggestions from readers as to how it WOULD work or WOULDN'T work are encouraged... Maybe what you could do is get a fix on the intruders data transfer rate while he is happily stealing your access. With that base value known, you could do something to block the signals being sent / received by the wireless access point (the router or whatever) on a directional basis. Imagine walking around the device with a shield that stops the signals from flying out to the intruder. At some point in your circle around the device, you will be standing between the device and the intruder, and his signal will drop down or out. By watching the data transfer rate I imagine you'd be able to tell when you are standing in the right place. This could give you a rough directional fix in the intruder. Now I know that the radio signals bounce around, so you couldn't really expect to drop an intruders access total by shielding in the manner I just mentioned, but surely you can interfere with the signal enough to notice a drop in transfer rate? Perhaps an expert on the propagation of radio waves can speak up and talk a little more about whether this idea has merit. Also, what would the best kind of shield be, or is there something around the house / office you could use, like a frying pan or trash can lid. (Sorry, I've been watching too much MacGyver) BRYAN ALLERDICE -----Original Message----- From: Johnson, Wayne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 10:15 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Wireless LAN question I doubt it. A GPS device is a receiver, not a transmitter. Unless he sends his GPS data over your network :) It occurs to me that you could do a little preparation work with a wireless laptop. By walking around your wireless coverage area you could identify public areas that have good signal strength. That might reduce the number of places you have to look. While the technique is probably useless in a large campus environment, it might be useful in a smaller single building environment. -Wayne -----Original Message----- From: David Laganière [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 10:05 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Wireless LAN question Hi! Say an intruder connect himself to my wireless LAN, is there a way with a GPS and it's signal to know where he is physically? Where can I get more documentation on that? Thanks. -- David Laganière Network/System Administrator www: http://www.securinet.qc.ca/ email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
