Rose Parade War Driving
Mapping 802.11b Access Points along the Rose Parade Route.
Frank Keeney, Pasadena Networks, LLC
The Rose Parade has been held
in Pasadena for over a hundred years. The parade brings in people from everywhere.
The event turns many people into street people (
Photo 1
Photo 2
) as they line
the streets with their blankets and sleeping bags arriving one or two days
early to get the best spaces on the sidewalk. Campers and motorhomes line
Colorado Blvd. three or four days before the event. The whole street becomes
a big party. Each year I notice more and more of the motorhomes have satellite
dishes. I wonder how many have Internet access via satellite?
Anyway, if you have any WLAN gear on board your sure to detect many open
WLANS. So far I only know of one public access point on the whole parade
route at the Ecuator
coffee house. It's SSID is "public". It's located in the heart of Old Pasadena,
a few hundred feet from Colorado Blvd. in an alley.
Click on image
for larger map of mapped access points on the parade route. Red dots are 802.11b WLAN Access Points:
I have not been to the parade for years. I just watch it on TV like most
everyone else. I know of one Webcam
(Archive from Webcam:
Photo 1
Photo 2
). Traffic is very bad and the parade makes it nearly impossible
for us to go anywhere most of New years day. You should see the mess all
the slobs (
Photo 1
Photo 2
) leave on the city streets after the parade (Note: The city of Pasadena does and excellent job of post parade clean up).
Every blimp in town
comes out of the clouds. During the parade we normally get a fly-by from
a stealth bomber or some other very loud exotic airplanes. They're probably
busy bombing UBL this year. We'll see.
Security appears to be tightened. See this at
NBC.
Like most everywhere else, most 802.11b WLAN access points do not have encryption
enabled. It continues to appear as if no one cares about the security of
their WLAN. Most users just plug in the equipment and forget about it. Of
course, that does not give you an open invitation to illegally use someone's
WLAN.
Happy New Year!
Frank Keeney
Pasadena Networks, LLC
See other articles:
Vacation War Driving.
War Driving in Southern
California. Almost 1,500 Access Points mapped from Los Angeles to San Diego.
802.11b WLAN Resources.
Supercharging your Linksys, SMC or Netgear Access Point.
Want to know when I write more articles about wireless networking?
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