IP's / War Driving / AutoAP

I am curious about BHW member's thoughts on a war driving approach to posting in general and to CL in particular to resolve the postings per day / per IP limitation.

I have in my vehicle, for totally legitimate purposes, a Linksys WRT-54G router running DD-WRT with AutoAP.

For those of you who don't know DD-WRT is a third party implementation of Linux that runs on the router and gives it all sorts of added benefits such as increased power output, Tx and Rx antenna selection and the ability to run custom commands and scripts and work as a repeater.

One of the more popular scripts is one called AutoAP. It has a lot more functionality, but basicly when the script runs every XX seconds it scans for wireless networks, picks the strongest ones, checks for internet connectivity and connects to it automatically.

For more information search that really big auction site Exxx for DD-WRT and you should find one listed for $65 with all of the bells and whistles (No affiliation, but I have bought a couple from him in the past).

So, as I drive around the router in my car is constantly searching for open networks to connect to which I then re-broadcast (encrypted of course).

By virtue of the $50 7db gain external antenna in the middle of my car roof I can pick up a decent signal from several hundred feet away from the source router and re-broadcast it for a thousand feet or more.

Which means if I can park within a couple hundred feet of an open wireless connection I can wander several hundred feet from my vehicle with my laptop and still be online. (Clients are thoroughly impressed by this).

So my question is, ethics aside, how effective do you think this would be for posting ads on CL if you had the ability to take your 'show-on-the-road' and have a virtually unlimited number of local IP addresses at your disposal.

I do a lot with macros so it would only be a matter of seconds in any one spot for the router to connect, hit a hotkey that would clear all of my cache and history (Active@Eraser), change my MAC, open a browser, populate the post from a spreadsheet and bring me all the way to the captcha.

Rinse and Repeat.

Thoughts on how to best monetize this would be greatly appreciated.

If you are getting geoblocked, it means nothing. If the IPs aren't geoblocked, then go make a killing.

Also:
If you want to be a bit crafty, you could go into their router control, and just reset it, to get a new IP.

Why would you have to change your mac? Wouldn't you be connecting ultimately through their IP? This sounds like a frikkin great idea though. Aside from the fact that you could only post in your city. You could also get lots of pva's through payphones. Sounds like a good plan.

Thanks for this information. I think this is an excellent way to get fresh IPs.

skylark516 said:

If you are getting geoblocked, it means nothing. If the IPs aren't geoblocked, then go make a killing.

Also:
If you want to be a bit crafty, you could go into their router control, and just reset it, to get a new IP.

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Geoblocked posting outside your local area? i.e. posting ads in L.A from Chicago?

Or, geoblocked inside your local area? i.e. your whole local block 24.169.xxx.xxx is blocked?

The first one the only obvious solution would be to move.

The second one could help someone post 'locally' that otherwise can't.

By being a bit crafty do you mean release/renew the IP of the 'donor' router? That could be done.

I would have to look at the DHCP settings and see if 'My' router can get it's IP dynamically. As I recall that is a hard setting, so you would have to set up a macro to change it to the more common defaults with the push of a hotkey to be on the same block (192.168.0.1, 192.168.0.2)

thetafmann said:

Why would you have to change your mac? Wouldn't you be connecting ultimately through their IP? This sounds like a frikkin great idea though. Aside from the fact that you could only post in your city. You could also get lots of pva's through payphones. Sounds like a good plan.

Click to expand...

My MAC changes everytime I reboot my machines, enable any of my network devices, or whenever I click the icon on my desktop just as an added layer of security/obscrurity.

The DD-WRT firmware also has a section for MAC cloning so if one were so inclined a simple hotkey could change the MAC and device name of 'my' router.

I considered the PVA approach but it was a failed attempt at my local mall. Then I didn't have any quarters to call my cell from the payphone to get the caller ID, and my cell has collect calls blocked...

hammerz said:

Resetting someones router is taking it a bit too far IMO..

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I agree. That would be akin to trespassing.

E. Fudd said:

I agree. That would be akin to trespassing.

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Something about that is funny to me. How is it that just using their router to piggy-back to the internet isn't akin to trespassing all by itself?

Seems kinda like stealing someone's cable. I wouldn't exactly call that non-intrusive.

FYI, I've done this many, many times to get around IP blocks. If you live in a big city it's extremely easy, but even living in a small town it's pretty simple, especially if you have a high gain antenna and you can find an area with a lot of apartment buildings (condensed living == more wireless networks).

davers said:

Something about that is funny to me. How is it that just using their router to piggy-back to the internet isn't akin to trespassing all by itself?

Seems kinda like stealing someone's cable. I wouldn't exactly call that non-intrusive.

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It's nice to share.

It is a grey area: One side of the argument calls it 'possession of a device for the theft of communication services'.

Others argue 'then keep it out of my space'.

I leave my connection open all of the time. Usually with a big high gain antenna on the roof, even though my machines are connected by wire.

There are places you can go where most people leave their connection open and can wander most parts of the city or area and have access.

Where I live now of the half that encrypt almost all of the connections have WEP (which is about as secure as locking a screen door), where as 10 miles away (in the big city) almost every connection is encrypted and the majority of people run WPA 2.

At my other residence about 90 miles away, on a cold winter morning you will find half of the cars parked on the street running with no one in them while they run into the store or whatever and few people lock their doors.

Justified or not, I think it has more to do with one's sense of community than legal or ethical considerations.

iirc by the books your allowed to crack someones wifi but the legality issues of using it are iffy, but a great way to defend it is the owner of wifi has the knowledge and power to encrypt there network but didnt. So you could argue that point


I personally run an open connection called 'free wifi' next to my encrypted one. Nuthing better than logging all the traffic or redirecting the traffic

offtopic:
dd-wrt / *-wrt is the best thing you can do to your router, opens up your routers options, with a lot of extra packages aviable to build

I agree with the 'ability issue' I think it is in BIG BOLD LETTERS in the instruction manual about how to set up the encryption. Most routers these days have 'one-button-setup', but it is still easier in my opinion to avoid the hassle altogether by flying under the radar.

You can also make an argument for intent, like me leaving mine open and the free wifi at the public library, the coffee shop, the village hall...

Most of my clients have the DD-WRT routers, one of the options is to set up multiple virtual networks, i.e. one encrypted for internal use and one open for public/customers with a single device.

You can do stuff with the splash page so people know they are using your connection and have an opportunity to advertise and get a few impressions that way as well as a couple of 'internet cafe' options hard coded into the firmware, but I don't do much with those.

One of the things that I am interested in, but have to wait until I am eligible for Jr. VIP is CS and the 100's of add-ins and scripts for OpenWRT (on which DD-WRT is based).

There are better ways, when i was newber i used to drive around in my car with a long usb and the antenna on the roof with one of those adapters for my cig lighter. Trust me, there are easier ways and you will run out of networks/gas in your area unless yu are in a ciy