Warchalking

Identifying a facility that contains unsecured, active wireless LAN access points either by physically marking the building or sidewalk with chalk or by placing its street address on a Web site of hotspots. See war driving, hotspot and 802.11.

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[play on war-driving; the first syllable has since been reinterpreted as an acronym for “wireless access revolution”] The practice of using chalk marks similar to hobo signs to indicate the nearby presence of a wireless Internet access point, a boon to strolling hackers with laptops. The concept was first floated in early 2002 and was instantly seized upon with cries of glee by hackers all over the portions of the world urbanized enough to have sidewalks and access points. The process rather recalls the explosive spread of heraldry in the medieval Europe of the 1120s. There is a site that explains the symbology;.

Warchalking symbols

Warchalking is the drawing of symbols in public places to advertise an open Wi-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.^[1][2] 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 a modem.^[3]

Having found a Wi-Fi node, the 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.

See also

• Hotspot (Wi-Fi)
• WarXing
• SSID
• Wifi analyzer
• NetStumbler
• Wardriving

References

1. ^ "Let's Warchalk" (PDF). Matt Jones. http://www.blackbeltjones.com/warchalking/warchalking0_9.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-10-09. 
2. ^ "Chalk points to wireless internet". BBC. 2002-07-22. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2144279.stm. Retrieved on 2008-10-09. 
3. ^ "Welcome to the era of drive-by hacking". BBC. 2001-11-06. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1639661.stm. Retrieved on 2008-10-09. 

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