How many APs have been found in different locations?

arizonajon · Post by **arizonajon** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 7:58 pm

This afternoon I noticed an AP here in Scottsdale which was first reported 5 years ago by one of Phil's drives.

MAC 02:22:01:02:03:06
SSID Pronto Network 2

Was in MA, now in AZ. I went back to the neighborhood just now to see if I could successfully capture it to AZ, but wasn't able get close enough to it to get the SNR greater than -64 dB, and Phil captured it at -55 dBm, so it will have to stay in MA for now

There must be other APs which move around a bit. Obviously, there's plenty of cellular wireless hotspots (see those all the time on the road), but was wondering more about fixed APs which is probably what this one is, especially since it's 5 years old.

Cheers - Jon

Post by **ACalcutt** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 8:59 pm

We have seen a few APs that have moved locations that seem to be legitimate moves. I'm sure eventually we should separate out access points that haven't been updated in a while, like making a kml for each year. It may also be worth adding some filtering by date in the wifidb frontend (like search maybe)

Deciding what you want to chose for the be position is hard. If you want to prefer newer dates then you may not always have the best location (you may pick up a weak signal AP and have it mapped at that location because its a newer date). You can prefer signal strength (like we are doing now), but if the AP moves like the one you mentioned then it is stuck mapped at the wrong location until the a better signal comes along.

arizonajon · Post by **arizonajon** » Sun Jan 10, 2016 10:17 am

Hey Andrew -

I think that the history of location might be as interesting as anything else. Some APs may migrate a lot, especially the mobile ones. Is there a way to show in a single view on GE all positions where the AP has been recorded? And is there a way to attempt to flag in the database if an AP has moved so that the AP becomes "interesting"?

Cheers - Jon

pferland · Post by **pferland** » Sun Jan 10, 2016 1:01 pm

That is something we have been pondering over for a little while now. I'm thinking it would have to be an extra export separate from the User Lists one.

As far as flagging the AP, that could be possible, we could just look for a large difference in the GPS history vs the new GPS points.

Its going to take some thinking on how to lay it all out.

Post by **ACalcutt** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 6:32 pm

I was messing with the "Signal Maps" as one way to show all the history.

Phil had created some functions a long time ago to try to create a signal map inside the wifidb that never got implemented (or lost). Recently when I was creating the dynamic kmz files I tried to put it back, but its only partially working.

Right now I only put the signal map into the signal history kmz export. For example if you go to this access point you imported and use the "KMZ" download next to "Signal History (2016-01-12: 02:24:22 - 02:24:34)", you would see something like the attached image

arizonajon · Post by **arizonajon** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:16 pm

In honor of this feature, I just went out and drove around my neighborhood and tried to keep my rooftop AP "crypticwide" active. Was able to detect it as far as about 0.5 mi away...

Post by **ACalcutt** » Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:04 pm

I made some fixes to the wifidb signal map, so it should now connect points less than 5 seconds apart like vistumbler does (which didn't seem to be working)

I also added full signal history into the single access point export, so if you click the blue globe at the top of the AP page (Or KMZ next to Export:) you will get all the signal history for that access point.

arizonajon · Post by **arizonajon** » Wed Jan 13, 2016 12:40 pm

Ok, now it's getting pretty cool. Check out my "crypticwide" AP atop the house.

1501683-crypticWIDE.kmz: (131.8 KiB) Downloaded 155 times

Post by **ACalcutt** » Wed Jan 13, 2016 6:45 pm

The maps are pretty neat when you have lots of history. I like the distance you have with yours.

I really need to find I way to get rid of the gps outliers though...they really clutter them map by making long lines. I'm guessing these are gps errors or inacurate gps results.

arizonajon · Post by **arizonajon** » Wed Jan 13, 2016 9:51 pm

I would think your "5 second" rule would prevent the long lines.

I can attest to the distance that I can get with my setup. The house roof AP is a UBNT Bullet 2HP with 28 dBm output directly into an 8 dBi antenna. Adds up to +36 dBm, the legal limit for part 15. The vehicle is the AmpWireless dongle with a 5 dBi rooftop antenna, and only 5' of LMR 240 between the antenna and the dongle. It's probably pretty sensitive. I know that in the past using some more directional antennas and the same general setup, but without intervening foliage, I've gotten 30 km... It's the foliage that kills.

Anyway, it's great to see this detail!

Cheers - Jon