Wireless access point in my front yard

[Joe2Lmaker]

My son has an iPod Touch. He found a spot in the front yard with a wireless access point.

The spot is approximately ten feet square with the best reception in a spot about 3 feet square.

He stands there every chance he gets. That spot on the lawn is compacted.

I've tried to tell him that he looks ridiculous standing there and that he had better get over his addiction, but he just shrugs.

O.k. This is were it gets interesting. I finally had enough and decided I would talk to the neighbors and see if maybe they would secure their home wireless network. They don't have one.

As far as I know, I don't have one either.

The hot spot is about ten feet from the corner of my house and ten feet from the corner of my neighbor's. My computer is in a room on that corner of the house, but I don't have a wireless network and my son doesn't get a signal from inside the house.

Where is the signal coming from?

 

[user 6393]

secret underground military bunker?

do you hear strange noises at night?

do you have this strange complusion to sit on the couch whilst wearing a home made tin foil hat?

 

[Ignacio]

Short of getting very technical and using a directional antennae...try a wider search pattern with a laptop with something like NetStumbler installed. With that app you'll likely find there are even more hotspots than you thought...and likely be more able to triangulate it.

 

[FJRGuy]

I get dozens (literally) of networks within range of my place. Albeit most probably originate in the apartment condo building across the street, some are from as far away at the coffee shop down the street and kitty-corner across a major intersection. Sometime the name (SSID) provides some clue to it's source. There are WiFi finding Apps available for the iPod Touch and iPhone that display signal strength (at a much higher detail) and can help in locating the source.

Here's an easy solution for you though... get with the times and put in your own wifi so your boy can use his touch anywhere in the house and/or yard!

BTW, Many computers, both desktops and laptops, come with built-in Wireless communication and can be used as a wireless access point if that computer is wired to the internet. Your neighbours may not realize that they are sharing thier internet connection (and potentially thier own data) with the public. Assuming it's a windows machine, suggest they check for a wireless LAN connection in the 'network connections' control panel and disable it if they are not using it.

Just a thought!

 

[C&C]

Yeah, you can get a router for under 50 bucks (it won't effect your signal on you home based computer) and you're good to go.

 

[Joe2Lmaker]

Short of getting very technical and using a directional antennae...try a wider search pattern with a laptop with something like NetStumbler installed. With that app you'll likely find there are even more hotspots than you thought...and likely be more able to triangulate it.

Thanks. That backs up what I read here: <Link> Now I need to find someone who'll lend me their laptop.

Here's an easy solution for you though... get with the times and put in your own wifi so your boy can use his touch anywhere in the house and/or yard!

Funny, that was my son's solution too.

Yeah, you can get a router for under 50 bucks (it won't effect your signal on you home based computer) and you're good to go.

I don't understand why he would rather stand in the yard than sit at the computer. :dntknw: I'm pretty sure he could text his friends from the PC. Right?

 

[Geezer]

Put down some patio blocks and a nice comfy lawn chair. At least he's not inside emptying your 'fridge.

 

[radman]

I don't understand why he would rather stand in the yard than sit at the computer. :dntknw: I'm pretty sure he could text his friends from the PC. Right?

January should cure him of that.

 

[Joe2Lmaker]

I don't understand why he would rather stand in the yard than sit at the computer. :dntknw: I'm pretty sure he could text his friends from the PC. Right?

January should cure him of that.

Nope. He was out there last winter standing on the mailman's (postal carrier) path. For you warm climate types or people farther out of town, the snow gets packed down from the mail man walking his route. It used to double as a path for the paper boy, but now we have a paper man driving the route.

Oh hell, I forgot my audience! FJR riders are all old enough to know this stuff!



Why don't kids just talk on the phone instead of pushing it's buttons anyway?

 

[Yort]

Unless someone is using a highly directional ant and not the standard omni, the access point is no more than 300 ft away. Trees (the water in them) kill the 2.4Ghz in a hurry and the 5.xGhz even faster. So this has to be something close maybe a house you can see. Good luck find them.

 

[wfooshee]

Click the pic!

 

[L2M]

I don't understand why he would rather stand in the yard than sit at the computer. :dntknw: I'm pretty sure he could text his friends from the PC. Right?

Let's see... Teenage son, iPod touch, internet connection, and won't use the PC. Here's one for you: Text messages aren't supported by the iPod touch, only the iPhone. The iPod touch has a really cool feature that allows you to save high resolution photos to the memory and has applications that allow people to lock those files out of site of prying parents so they don't show up in the pictures section. Using someone else's WiFi has the added benefit of not allowing anyone to check up on the URLs visited on that internet connection. See where I'm going with this one? I was a teenage kid in the internet age too.

 

[radman]

Let's see... Teenage son, iPod touch, internet connection, and won't use the PC. Here's one for you: Text messages aren't supported by the iPod touch, only the iPhone. The iPod touch has a really cool feature that allows you to save high resolution photos to the memory and has applications that allow people to lock those files out of site of prying parents so they don't show up in the pictures section. Using someone else's WiFi has the added benefit of not allowing anyone to check up on the URLs visited on that internet connection. See where I'm going with this one? I was a teenage kid in the internet age too.

I wasn't. He should be made to whack it to Miss January like a good red blooded American....................

 

[terrebandit]

Sounds like you need to take the young man fishing. That would be my recommendation.

 

[Texan]

Get him a lawn mower.

 

[jmdaniel]

Whatever happened to this kind of conversation?

Dad: You're not going to do that anymore.

Kid: Why not?

Dad: Because I said so.

Kid: Okay.

Of course, the plate on the back of my 'vette explains why I am asking this question, and the reason why the question is relevant these days is why I have the plate on the back of my 'vette.

<--------

Get a router and set up your own wi-fi network. Problem solved.

 

[Wee Willy]

I wasn't. He should be made to whack it to Miss January like a good red blooded American....................

Who's saying that's not what he's DL'ing? And what's with the AHIP pic a few posts back? Curious.

W2

 

[Joe2Lmaker]

Text messages aren't supported by the iPod touch, only the iPhone.

It's SMS.

Sounds like you need to take the young man fishing. That would be my recommendation.

His mother would miss him.

 

[dcarver]

Put him to work on building the new Rev 2 aux tank?