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WiGLE

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A map of Wi-Fi nodes in the world collected by the WiGLE project, 2019

WiGLE (Wireless Geographic Logging Engine) is a website for collecting information about the different wireless hotspots around the world. Users can register on the website and upload hotspot data like GPS coordinates, SSID, MAC address and the encryption type used on the hotspots discovered. In addition, cell tower data is uploaded and displayed.[1]

By obtaining information about the encryption of the different hotspots, WiGLE tries to create an awareness of the need for security by running a wireless network.[2]

The first recorded hotspot on WiGLE was uploaded in September 2001. By June 2017, WiGLE counted over 349 million recorded WiFi networks in its database, whereof 345 million was recorded with GPS coordinates and over 4.8 billion unique recorded observations. In addition, the database now contains 7.80 million unique cell towers including 7.75 million with GPS coordinates.[3] By May 2019, WiGLE had a total of 551 million networks recorded.[4]

Mentions in books

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From Hacking for Dummies[5] to Introduction to Neography,[6] WiGLE is a well known resource and tool. As early as 2004, its database of 228,000 wireless networks was being used to advocate better security of Wifi.[7] Several books mentioned the WiGLE database in 2005,[8][9] including internationally,[10] and the association with vehicles was also becoming widely known.[11] Some associations of WiGLE have been positive, and some have been darker.[12][13][14] By 2004, the site was sufficiently well known that the announcement of a new book quoted the co-founder, saying “This is the ‘Kama Sutra’ of wardriving literature. If you can't wardrive after reading this, nature has selected you not to. This is the first complete guide on the subject we’ve ever seen (it mentions us). Don't quote me on that.” –Bob “bobzilla” Hagemann, WiGLE.net CoFounder" and a shortened quote appeared on the book's cover.[15][16]

Mentions in academic papers

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In early days, circa 2003 the lack of mapping was criticized, and was said to force WiFi seekers to use more primitive methods. "The most primitive method disseminated is warchalking, where mappers inscribe a symbolic markup on the physical premises to indicate the presence of a wireless network in the area." Regarding WiGLE in particular, it was said, "The Netstumbler map site and the Wireless Geographic Logging Engine store more detailed wardrive trace data, yet do not offer any visualization format that is particularly useful or informative."[17] By 2004 others felt differently, however, and a WiFi news site said about "the fine folks at wigle.net who have 900,000 access points in their wardriving database," "While the maps aren't as pretty, they're quite good, and the URLs correspond to specific locations where WiFiMaps hides the URL-to-location mapping."[18] In late 2004, other authors stated, "that war driving is now ubiquitous: a good illustration of this is provided by the WiGLE.net online database of WAPS." They also said, "The motherload of WAP maps is available on the Wireless Geographic Logging Engine Web site (wigle.net). Circa late September 2004, WiGLE’s database and mapping technology included over 1.6 million WAPS. If you can’t find the WAP of interest there, you can probably live without it."[19] In 2005, using WiFi databases for geolocation was being discussed, and WiGLE, with approximately 2.4 million located access points in the database, was often mentioned.[20][21][22] In 2017, data from WiGLE was used as a source for WiFi router locations and encryption frequencies.[23] In 2018, data from the WiGLE database was compared against the data collected by the authors.[24] The WiGLE Android app was compared against other wardriving tools in a conference in 2021.[25] In 2024, data from the WiGLE database was compared against Apple's location services and Erik Rye and Dave Levin found that the vast majority of networks in their sample from the WiGLE database were within 1km of the Apple database.[26]

Licensing

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Although the apps used to collect information are open sourced,[27] the database itself is accessed and distributed under a freeware proprietary license.[28] Commercial use of parts of the data may be bought.[29] The Android app to collect Wi-Fi hotspots and their geographic correspondent information is available under a 3-clause BSD license.[30]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "WiGLE FAQ". Archived from the original on 2017-10-10. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
  2. ^ "Wigle.net: The 411 on Wireless Access Points". Archived from the original on 2012-06-25. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  3. ^ "WiGLE Statistics". Archived from the original on 2021-02-26. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
  4. ^ WiGLE Statistics (archived)
  5. ^ Beaver, Kevin (December 16, 2015). Hacking for Dummies (5th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. pp. 372, 389. ISBN 9781119154693. Archived from the original on August 7, 2024. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  6. ^ Turner, Andrew (Dec 18, 2006). Introduction to Neography. O'Reilly Media, Inc. p. 21. ISBN 9780596529956. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  7. ^ Field, Dave; Brandt, Andrew (Oct 27, 2004). How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking: Keeping Your PC Safe. McGraw Hill Professional. p. 140. ISBN 9780072258097. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  8. ^ Proceedings: The Twentieth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Seventeenth Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference. American Association for Artificial Intelligence AAAI Press. 2005. p. 20. ISBN 9781577352365. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  9. ^ Hong, Jason I-An (2005). An Architecture for Privacy-sensitive Ubiquitous Computing. University of California, Berkeley. pp. 123–125. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  10. ^ Gellersen, Hans W.; Schmidt, Albrecht (Jun 23, 2005). Pervasive Computing: Third International Conference. Springer. pp. 122, 139. ISBN 9783540260080. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  11. ^ Stolarz, Damien (2005). Car PC Hacks: Tips & Tools for Geeking Your Ride. O'Reilly Media, Inc. p. 293. ISBN 9780596008710. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  12. ^ McClure, Stuart; Scambray, Joel; Kurtz, George (May 10, 2005). Hacking Exposed (5th ed.). McGraw Hill Professional. pp. 664, 690. ISBN 9780071493666. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  13. ^ McPherson, Tara (2008). Digital youth, innovation, and the unexpected. MIT Press. pp. 85, 88, 95. ISBN 9780262134958. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  14. ^ Wang, Wally (2006). Steal this Computer Book 4.0: What They Won't Tell You about the Internet. No Starch Press. ISBN 9781593271053. Archived from the original on 2024-08-07. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  15. ^ "Syngress Publishing Announces the Release of "WarDriving: Drive, Detect, Defend"". helpnetsecurity.com. Help Net Security. 27 April 2004. Archived from the original on 10 August 2022. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  16. ^ Hurley, Chris (Apr 2, 2004). WarDriving: Drive, Detect, Defend: A Guide to Wireless Security (1 ed.). Syngress. p. Cover. ISBN 1-931836-03-5. Archived from the original on 2024-08-07. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  17. ^ Lentz, Chris; Kotz, David (June 1, 2003). "802.11b Wireless Network Visualization and Radiowave Propagation Modeling" (PDF). Dartmouth College Computer Science Department Senior Thesis. Technical Report TR2003-451: 2, 3. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  18. ^ Glenn, Fleishman. "WiFiMaps Encompasses the World of Wardriving, April 27, 2004". WNN WiFi Net News. Glenn Fleishman. Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  19. ^ Berghel, Hal; Uecker, Jacob (December 2004). "Wireless Infidelity II: Airjacking" (PDF). Communications of the ACM. 47 (12): 15, 19. doi:10.1145/1035134.1035149. S2CID 14235023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  20. ^ Roto, Virpi; Laakso, Katri (2005). "Mobile Guides for Locating Network Hotspots" (PDF). Workshop on HCI in Mobile Guides: 2, 5.[permanent dead link‍]
  21. ^ Letchner, Julia; Fox, Dieter; LaMarca, Anthony (2005). "Large-Scale Localization from Wireless Signal Strength" (PDF). AAAI. 05: 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  22. ^ King, Thomas; Kopf, Stephan; Effelsberg, Wolfgang (June 2005). "A Location System based on Sensor Fusion: Research Areas and Software Architecture" (PDF). Proc. of the 2. GI/ITG KuVS Fachgespräch Ortsbezogene Anwendungen und Dienste: 3, 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  23. ^ Kavak, Hamdi; Padilla, Jose J.; Lynch, Christopher J.; Diallo, Saikou Y. (2018-04-15). "Big data, agents, and machine learning: towards a data-driven agent-based modeling approach". Proceedings of the Annual Simulation Symposium. ANSS '18. San Diego, CA, USA: Society for Computer Simulation International: 1–12. ISBN 978-1-5108-6014-8. Archived from the original on 2024-08-07. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  24. ^ Bandong, Arvin; Felizardo, Christine; Festin, Cedric Angelo M.; Tan, Wilson M. (2018-11-03). "Opportunistic Wardriving Through Neighborhood Public Utility Vehicles as an Alternative to Crowdsourcing and Dedicated Wardriving for Wireless Network Data Collection". 2018 IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things and Intelligence System (IOTAIS). IEEE. pp. 66–72. doi:10.1109/IOTAIS.2018.8600890. ISBN 978-1-5386-7358-4. Archived from the original on 2024-08-07. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  25. ^ Thomas, Aju Mathew; Kumaran, Gowtham Akshaya; Ramaguru, R; Harish, R; Praveen, K (2021-12-10). "Evaluation of Wireless Access Point Security and Best Practices for Mitigation". 2021 5th International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Communication, Computer Technologies and Optimization Techniques (ICEECCOT). IEEE. pp. 422–427. doi:10.1109/ICEECCOT52851.2021.9707914. ISBN 978-1-6654-3272-6. Archived from the original on 2024-05-10. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  26. ^ "CSDL | IEEE Computer Society". www.computer.org. arXiv:2405.14975. doi:10.1109/sp54263.2024.00239. Archived from the original on 2024-08-07. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  27. ^ "Tools and Downloads". Archived from the original on 2017-10-10. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
  28. ^ "WiGLE - EULA". Archived from the original on 2024-08-07. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  29. ^ "WiGLE: Wireless Network Mapping". Archived from the original on 2010-06-11. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  30. ^ "Wigle-wifi-wardriving". GitHub. 19 November 2021. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
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