Jeff Duntemann's Wardriving FAQ

Part VI: Mapping Sites and Software

FAQ:  | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII |

There are several different ways to plot stumbled stations on a map. The systems I have used myself are WiGLE, WiFiMaps and Stumbverter. For any of these systems, you must have used a GPS receiver to add geographical coordinate data to your stumbling log files. The coordinates provided by GPS are what locate the stations on a map. The caution, of course, is that your GPS receiver reports your position as you received a station's beacon, not the position of the station itself! (This should be obvious but it's easy to forget.) Multiple readings on the same station allow some utilities to triangulate an approximation of the station's position and range, but how accurate such approximations are is a little unclear. WiGLE seems to do the best job on that score, but even then, if you only sense stations from one direction, the triangulated position will be skewed in one direction.

WiGLE (Wireless Geographic Logging Engine) is a complete system for mapping stumbled APs, and includes a Web database and several mapping clients. As best I know, it's the oldest such system in existence, and has been in operation since September 2001. Here's how it works, from a height: Users upload log files containing records of stumbled APs, which are processed and added to a database. "Map pack" data files may be downloaded by county (US only) and plotted on-screen using one of the WiGLE clients.

Like WiFiMaps (see below) WiGLE performs triangulation calculations on multiple readings of each stumbled station, in order to more precisely determine the actual physical location of the station. (Remember that the GPS coordinates recorded for a station during a wardriving run are your location when your Wi-Fi client adapter hears the station, not the coordinates of the station itself!) Each station is plotted as a point on a map, and you can pan and zoom to get the full picture of any given county.

The WiGLE system includes several different clients:

• JiGLE is the oldest, and is written in Java. It should run anywhere Java will run.
• DiGGLER is a native-code Windows client written in Delphi. It does basically what JiGLE does, but does not require the Java VM. It's small, fast, and doesn't mess with your registry. (Can you tell I'm a Delphi fan?) It is, however, limited to running under 32-bit Windows.
• PRInGLE is a client for Palm OS, which is not yet released but should be soon.

The clients come with sample maps, but in actual use, you must request a WiGLE map pack for download. These are free, and are available for any county in the US. (You must register with the WiGLE system to download map packs.) On the backend, WiGLE map packs are generated by RiGLE, the using public domain TIGER geographic databases distributed by the Federal Government. The generated maps are thus not encumbered by anyone else's copyrights.

Wardrivers may upload log files in any of several formats, including NetStumbler and MiniStumbler (export as text); DStumbler text, and the Kismet CWGD, CSV, XML, and GPS formats. Uploads are handled through a page on the WiGLE Web site. Uploaded stations are immediately available for downloading in a map pack. You can upload the results of a wardriving run, and then immediately download an updated map pack reflecting the results of that run. There are currently over 260,000 stations present in the WiGLE database. (April 2003.)

WiFiMaps.com is a Web site operated by zhrodague.net, which allows wardrivers to upload NetStumbler's exported text-format log files, and then plots those uploaded logs on street maps. You can then look up the maps for a given city or town and then pan around to see where all the access points are located. For access points that have multiple readings in the database, the software triangulates a coverage region, which is shown as a shaded circle of a suitable diameter. (If an AP has only one reading, or for some reason not enough readings to allow the triangulation to work, it's indicated as a small triangle and its SSID.)

All wardrivers are invited to upload their exported text-format log files from NetStumbler and Kismet to the WiFiMaps.com database. Supported upload formats are NetStumbler's text export (full) and Kismet CSV.

StumbVerter is a free utility from Sonar Security that converts NetStumbler export logs into Microsoft MapPoint maps. StumbVerter uses the MapPoint server and puts a MapPoint map in a window, showing any imported stations as small icons.

The downside to StumbVerter is that it requires the use of MapPoint, which is fairly expensive as commercial software goes. (StumbVerter itself is free.) On the other hand, MapPoint is extremely useful for travelers, and generates nicely rendered maps for the entire US. (Maps are available for some areas overseas, but I've not tried those.)

FAQ:  | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII |

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