- Warchalking
Warchalking is the drawing of
symbol s inpublic place s to advertise an openWi-Fi wireless network .Inspired by hobo symbols, the warchalking marks were conceived by a group of friends in
June 2002 and publicised by Matt Jones who designed the set of icons and produced a downloadable document containing them. [cite web | url=http://www.blackbeltjones.com/warchalking/warchalking0_9.pdf | format=PDF | accessdate=2008-10-09 | title=Let's Warchalk | publisher= Matt Jones] [cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2144279.stm | title=Chalk points to wireless internet | accessdate=2008-10-09 | date=2002-07-22 | publisher=BBC ] Within days of Jones publishing a blog entry about warchalking, articles appeared in dozens of publications and stories appeared on several major television news programs around the world.The word is formed by analogy to "
wardriving ", the practice of driving around an area in a car to detect open Wi-Fi nodes. That term in turn is based on "wardialing ", the practice of dialing many phone numbers hoping to find amodem . [ cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1639661.stm| title=Welcome to the era of drive-by hacking | publisher=BBC | accessdate=2008-10-09 | date=2001-11-06]Having found a Wi-Fi node, the theoretical warchalker draws a special symbol on a nearby object, such as a wall, the pavement, or a lamp post. Those offering Wi-Fi service might also draw such a symbol to advertise the availability of their Wi-Fi location, whether commercial or personal.Nobody ever warchalked, despite its widespread coverage. Instead, the symbols were almost immediately adopted by commercial enterprises interested in or offering Wi-Fi, such as [http://jiwire.com/ JiWire] (a Wi-Fi hotspot directory and how-to site).
See also
*
Hotspot (Wi-Fi)
*WarXing
*SSID
*Wifi analyzer
*NetStumbler References
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