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Anyone else do this with thier DS?

K

KINGMOKU

Member
This may sound strange, but I have become obbssed with checking for hot-spots with my DS.

I do alot of traveling, and I take my DS along with Mario-Kart, not so much to play it, but to do a quick check for interent access. I don't know what it is, but it's fast as hell, and it even gives you addresses sometimes, and i'm in constant search of the most listings in a certain area.

I know it sounds strange, but I'll pull off the side of the road, and check connections, just to see how many, or how far away from civilization I can get a connection with. It's almost like searching for hidden treasure, and becuase it's so lightwieght, unlike a laptop, it's easy to do.

I got a connection on a dirt-road with the damn thing once, out in the middle of no-where and I felt like I found the ark of the covenant.


Someone please tell me they've done this so I don't feel like a damn wierdo.

Something strange/awesome about playing a game of Mario-Kart in the middle of BFE, with a complete stranger.
 
You're not strange, and you're not the only one doing it.

It's called War-driving/walking, some people go out with better equipped wifi devices(such as laptops) in search of Wireless networks around a neighborhood that aren't encrypted. CNN did did a feature on it once. People usually do it to raise awareness of wireless internet encryption. Heck 4 of my neighbors have connections that aren't encrypted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_driving
 
I was travelling the other day, did a check for wifi connections and found 4 hotspots... it sure felt nice to play mario kart online at the airport :D

btw you should get a PDA, a gsm addon, some wifi apps and take a ride..
 
neptunes said:
You're not strange, and you're not the only one doing it.

It's called War-driving/walking, some people go out with better equipped wifi devices(such as laptops) in search of Wireless networks around a neighborhood that aren't encrypted. CNN did did a feature on it once. People usually do it to raise awareness of wireless internet encryption. Heck 4 of my neighbors have connections that aren't encrypted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_driving
Click to expand...
:lol FANTASTIC!!!
 
a homebrew scanner would be really cool, I actually did that stuff a few time; finding random network is fun. No need to break in and do crappy things, just something that lists the available network in am ore coherent matters than mario kart, with stats and stuff
 
After a pretty weak Thanksgiving Dinner, on a lengthy car trip back where I was passenger, I did keep checking for WiFi out of curiousity. Found a heck of a lot of open points, too.

Which really makes me feel terrible, because all of these people out in various parts of BFE can get broadband, yet no such luck for my home. Bah.
 
I just wanted to temporaily derail this thread by saying: Calidor, even though I've seen a few folks on different boards use it, I think your avatar is one of the cutest I've seen in a while.

Carry on.
 
jamesearl jones.gif
 
Kulock said:
After a pretty weak Thanksgiving Dinner, on a lengthy car trip back where I was passenger, I did keep checking for WiFi out of curiousity. Found a heck of a lot of open points, too.

Which really makes me feel terrible, because all of these people out in various parts of BFE can get broadband, yet no such luck for my home. Bah.
Click to expand...
It does amaze me just how MANY spots there are, and you can find them in the craziest of places. It's like one of those things where it's all around us, but no one ever takes any notice, Like the air we breath.
 
Haha, you don't even play, just see if you can connect? That's fucking weird if you pull off the road just for that reason. Mario Kart kicks ass.
 
ShowDog said:
Haha, you don't even play, just see if you can connect? That's fucking weird if you pull off the road just for that reason. Mario Kart kicks ass.
Click to expand...
I'll play sometimes, but yeah, most of the time it's just to see if I can connect to something.


Digging for treasure man.
 
This just shows of how far internet connections have come. In two years I think internet is going to be everywhere almos for free. I dont see how companies like comcast will be able to stop this. I read that google was planning to put internet all over the world, starting from the most popular cities.
 
moku said:
This may sound strange, but I have become obbssed with checking for hot-spots with my DS.

I do alot of traveling, and I take my DS along with Mario-Kart, not so much to play it, but to do a quick check for interent access. I don't know what it is, but it's fast as hell, and it even gives you addresses sometimes, and i'm in constant search of the most listings in a certain area.

I know it sounds strange, but I'll pull off the side of the road, and check connections, just to see how many, or how far away from civilization I can get a connection with. It's almost like searching for hidden treasure, and becuase it's so lightwieght, unlike a laptop, it's easy to do.

I got a connection on a dirt-road with the damn thing once, out in the middle of no-where and I felt like I found the ark of the covenant.


Someone please tell me they've done this so I don't feel like a damn wierdo.

Something strange/awesome about playing a game of Mario-Kart in the middle of BFE, with a complete stranger.
Click to expand...

Yep I do it all the time, most of the time while other people are driving so I dont get to play but I know there is a hotspot there.
 
moku said:
It does amaze me just how MANY spots there are, and you can find them in the craziest of places. It's like one of those things where it's all around us, but no one ever takes any notice, Like the air we breath.
Click to expand...

ifeelit7yo.jpg


I feel it! I feel the network!
 
Is the DS even good for this? Yes it's much lighter and easier to bring along than a laptop but I'm pretty sure a laptop picks up connections that are out of reach for the DS. When I set up my sis' laptop to our wireless network I found some four other connections in the area. My DS, however, only seems to pick up the closest one: the one right here at home.

If so, I think you've missed out on a lot of other interesting wireless connections on your trips that the DS' limited hardware can't pick up.
 
I can't really do anything with my DS until I fix the sticky dpad. Pop or something was spilled on it and now it's like it's sitting in a bed of molasses. :(
 
When Mario Kart came out, there was a 11 day period when I was net-less. This prompted a war-drive (or war-walk to be precise) where I went around my local neighborhood scanning every few feet... I eventually found an open network to play on but I was pleasantly just how many networks I couldn't gain access too, it seems that most of my neighbors are pretty clued up about security.

(of-course it could just be the DS's poor support of many wifi-router brands)
 
Heh. Back in December, my girlfriend and I were driving around (she was driving) and we both had our DSes and Mario Karts. She insisted on having me try and find a hotspot, so she would drive really fucking slowly down a couple streets while I tried to find one.

At the end of the last street, she stopped in the cul-de-sac and we watched about 5 minutes of SpongeBob Squarepants through someone's living room window.

Is that creepy?
 
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