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Wrath Of The Roadrunner

I know you all enjoy wardriving stories. And lately I haven't really had any for you. This past Thursday I had to drive to the forest, as I do every Tuesday and Thursday. I had a couple of hours to waste, so I pulled into the McDonalds parking lot. I really wasn't up for trying to position my laptop just right in the car seat so that I could get my 3 or 4 in signal strength.

I headed down the street into town, and found an open access point belonging to a homeowner. Since it's off the main road, I could park right on the the street with my cantenna aimed into the owners living room window. We are talking 20+ in signal strength. The speed was much higher than what I had been putting up with. I just couldn't hide as well here as I leeched. I also found that there was something else on this network pulling down some bandwidth. The house looked dark, and I saw no signs of life inside. There were no cars parked in the back (I had cased the alley earlier). So ... I did a little packet sniffing, and then promptly put an end to the culprit by assuming his IP address. It was just Kazaa downloads. I probably interrupted a movie download. Whatever.

After about an hour I looked up and noticed the blinds were pulled up pretty high in the window of this house. Had they been that high before? I was having a long arguement with my wife at the time through my messenger, and I hadn't paid much attention. I had also been sitting there for well over an hour. Maybe I should leave. Nah! I had a couple of downloads going and I was comfortable.

20 minutes passed by, and suddenly a Time Warner van pulls off the road and onto the parking lane ahead of me. Then starts backing up, and doesn't stop until he is directly in front of me. Time Warner had been called. I noticed that the DNS servers I was using that were loaned from the access point are Roadrunner IP's (Time Warners service). So I politely messaged everyone I was speaking with and let them know "I've been caught! Moving on!". :-)

Woops. So maybe someone was home, and stopping their downloads was not a good idea. Next time I walk onto someones network, I should probably share the bandwidth. And I also burned my bridges no a strong signal and god bandwidth. Oh well.

I need to get moving. I am going to my sisters house today for the 'football party', and so the kids can hang out and play. I hate football. I think I will play with the kids instead.