WiFi Mapping with a smartphone

posted Aug 26th 2009 12:00pm by
filed under: cellphones hacks, iphone hacks, wireless hacks

map

Not so long ago, mapping WiFi required a laptop, GPS, a big antenna and Kismet/NetStumbler. Today’s smartphones have replaced even this task. For those of us running a GPS and WiFi equipped Windows Mobile phone, WiFiFoFum is an excellent and simple solution, as well as a great companion for installing an AP. Start up WiFiFoFum, put your phone on the dash and let it collect the locations of the APs you find while driving around. You can then save the file in several formats: XML, txt, Wi-scan, POI Database, MemoryMap, Netstumbler, and even as a KML File for Google Earth/Google Maps. We have also found it to be a really handy tool for setting up WiFi in a large area, to help find the best home for the router which provides the best coverage. WiFiFoFum is also available for the iPhone via the App Store.



16 Responses to WiFi Mapping with a smartphone

  • Zach says:
    August 26, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    Just a few issues with the iPhone application. (These issues are a restriction of the hardware or software)

    -This will only find access points that have broadcast ENABLED.
    -Only filters for WEP and AD HOC networks, they excluding WPA.

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  • Andrew Calcutt says:
    August 26, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    Looks cool :-)

    Looks like it should also be compatible with my Vistumbler application (http://www.vistumbler.net) since Vistumbler supports loading from text(wi-scan) netstumbler files

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  • daryl says:
    August 26, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    The project looks a little old. Support stopped at WinMo 5 (though I doubt it would have issues running on WinMo 6 or 6.5). Couldn’t find any up to date info on their site about any new development efforts.

    Am I missing something? I’m curious if updates are planned or if perhaps an android version will be released at some point.

    Reply Report comment
  • Brett Haddock says:
    August 26, 2009 at 1:25 pm

    they seem to be focused on the iPhone app, but it works without a hitch on my HTC Touch Pro. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

    Reply Report comment
  • TheSteed says:
    August 26, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    On my Nokia E71 I have used Barbelo and GPSd to do the same thing, it outputs in…er Kismet format I think. I never bothered with converting it or mapping it in Google Maps tho but I think it’s easy enough using some perl script online!

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  • markyb86 says:
    August 26, 2009 at 2:12 pm

    I wish this was on symbian :-(

    Reply Report comment
  • Paco says:
    August 26, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Do you know a program to laptop to mapping wifi??
    (in windows or linux)
    Thanks

    Reply Report comment
  • Paco says:
    August 26, 2009 at 2:52 pm

    Sorry, I forget that I use winXP (not vista or 7 )

    Reply Report comment
  • Beny says:
    August 26, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    WiFi Hopper is good on Windows but does not do passive detection like kismet on linux.

    Reply Report comment
  • Juan says:
    August 26, 2009 at 7:10 pm

    Wow. Is that really where you guys are located. I work right by there. The new Lowe’s!!

    Reply Report comment
  • Phil says:
    August 27, 2009 at 5:30 am

    There’s ‘WifiTracker’ on the android platform, it integrates with a realtime googlemap display and even lets you upload realtime to your own webserver – pretty good

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  • eman says:
    August 27, 2009 at 7:15 am

    have been using this for well over a year on my HTC polaris, normally save in xml, be sure to turn off suspend other wise the wifi is switched off. once done, i save the xml, next time i open it carries on from where it left off. when i get home, i save as kml and ns1(netstumbler) i upload to wigle.net, managed to map most of central north london, south london between london bridge and m23, the west end (soho and picadilly). funnily enough after doing this my itouch was more accurate at mapping my location. is apple/ skyhook using wigle data?

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  • Pete M. says:
    August 27, 2009 at 10:00 am

    There’s another Windows Mobile application that does a good job mapping. It’s called: AiroMap

    It exists as an executable, and does not come as a .cab file. It does a decent job at mapping in Google Earth using opacity as a relative signal strength indicator.

    Now, who out there wants to mod your smartphone’s WiFi antenna to achieve better signal reception??? That’s an article I could digg. ;)

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  • kacyp says:
    September 2, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    http://pynetmony.googlepages.com/

    for all you symbian users ;)

    Reply Report comment
  • alves says:
    October 22, 2009 at 6:45 pm

    Which N series or E series can I use with kismet in my notebook as gps to get the coordinates of an AP?

    Reply Report comment
  • leo11 says:
    February 16, 2010 at 9:00 pm

    hola kisiera saber si funciona con un blackberry 8900, oh si hay algun programa para hackear red wifi con el blackberry, gracias

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