What kinds of WiFi Networks Are People Using

This video is the result of trying to answer my own curiosity about what kinds of WiFi networks are people actually using out there in the real world?




I decided that I wanted to know what other folks in my area were doing in the wireless space.

On the train ride home from this year's SecTor Security Conference this year I did a little survey.
This is actually the second time I've done this, the first was a year ago, on my way home from the November TASK meeting. but I never posted results of that.. I started to write a blog post but then scrapped it.
Anyway, I was curious...
...so I pulled out my netbook and fired up airodump-ng for a little war-driving (war-training?).

Please note, I did not attempt to connect to any of the networks I found. This was just a listening exercise to see who was out there. I chose the program airodump-ng specifically because I know it does not attempt to communicate with the Access Point, it just logs who was sending as it sees it. I also did not use it, like Google, to capture and record any transmitted payload data. I was not interested in who was connected, or what they were doing, just how the APs were configured.

When I got home I started compiling the data that I collected into a spreadsheet so that I could make some sense of it.

Note: this wireless survey only covered a small area, the stretch along the train tracks (and major highway) between downtown Toronto's Union Station, and the Whitby station to the east, about a 1 hour train ride.