RE: Wardriving with Yagi Antennas

From: Shenk, Jerry A (jshenk@decommunications.com)
Date: Sun Oct 21 2007 - 19:57:15 EDT


Saying "NEVER" in the computer world is pretty dangerous. They've run a
few tests/contests that are absolutely insane and blow WAY past 10
miles. Now, in the arena of pen-testing....I don't think 10 miles is a
reasonable goal although, if I had a client on the side of a mountain
and I could connect to their network from another mountain 10 miles away
and penetrate their network, that would be a VERY good case for an
attack that wouldn't arouse much suspicion about "odd characters"
hanging around nearby;)

-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce@securityfocus.com [mailto:listbounce@securityfocus.com]
On Behalf Of Paul Melson
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 2:00 PM
To: Terry Cutler; pen-test@securityfocus.com
Subject: Re: Wardriving with Yagi Antennas

On 10/20/07, Terry Cutler <jedi31337@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi guys hope your weekend is good so far. Does anyone have any
> experience with teh Yagi Antenna booster ? They claim it can boost up
> to 10 miles. Just wonder if anyone has used it while wardriving. Maybe
> there's a better antenna you'd recommend ?

Yagi isn't a brand, it's a type of directional antenna. More here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagi_antenna

And as a directional antenna, it's not ideal for wardriving. An omni
(as in omnidirectional) antenna would probably work better.

With regard to the 10mi throw, I call baloney. First, it's not
possible with any antenna on the ground because of the curvature of
the Earth. Second, I've worked with DSSS RF long-range networks in
the past (both 915MHz and 2.4GHz) and the longest throw I've seen on
an unregistered towair[1] mast was 7 miles using yagis and amplifiers
on both ends. Using a similar setup, 10mi would be on the ragged edge
of reliable/usable for actual data networking.

PaulM

[1] http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/towairSearch.jsp

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