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Warchalking is the drawing of 
Having found a Wi-Fi node, the warchalker draws a special symbol on a nearby object, such as a wall, the pavement, or a lamp post. Those offering Wi-Fi service might also draw such a symbol to advertise the availability of their Wi-Fi location, whether commercial or personal.
Warchalking is the drawing of symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
s in public places to advertise an open Wi-Fi network.
Inspired by hobo symbols, the warchalking marks were conceived by a group of friends in June 2002 and publicised by Matt Jones who designed the set of icons and produced a downloadable document containing them. Within days of Jones publishing a blog entry about warchalking, articles appeared in dozens of publications and stories appeared on several major television news programs around the world.
The word is formed by analogy to '' wardriving'', the practice of driving around an area in a car to detect open Wi-Fi nodes
In general, a node is a localized swelling (a "knot") or a point of intersection (a Vertex (graph theory), vertex).
Node may refer to:
In mathematics
*Vertex (graph theory), a vertex in a mathematical graph
*Vertex (geometry), a point where two ...
. That term in turn is based on ''wardialing
Wardialing (or war dialing) is a technique to automatically scan a list of telephone numbers, usually dialing every number in a local area code to search for modems, computers, bulletin board systems (computer servers) and fax machines. Hacker ...
'', the practice of dialing many phone numbers hoping to find a modem.
Having found a Wi-Fi node, the warchalker draws a special symbol on a nearby object, such as a wall, the pavement, or a lamp post. Those offering Wi-Fi service might also draw such a symbol to advertise the availability of their Wi-Fi location, whether commercial or personal.
See also
* Hotspot (Wi-Fi) *Mesh networking
A mesh network is a local area network topology in which the infrastructure nodes (i.e. bridges, switches, and other infrastructure devices) connect directly, dynamically and non-hierarchically to as many other nodes as possible and cooperate wit ...
* SSID
* Wifi analyzer
A packet analyzer, also known as packet sniffer, protocol analyzer, or network analyzer, is a computer program or computer hardware such as a packet capture appliance, that can intercept and log traffic that passes over a computer network or ...
* NetStumbler
NetStumbler (also known as Network Stumbler) was a tool for Windows that facilitates detection of Wireless LANs using the 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g WLAN standards. It runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems from Windows 2000 to Windows XP ...
* Wardriving
* Hobo code
References
External links
* {{cite news , last1=Langley , first1=Nick , title=The demise of the warchalkers , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222220520/http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/The-demise-of-the-warchalkers , access-date=10 May 2017 , work=ComputerWeekly , date=23 June 2003 Computer security exploits Wi-Fi Graffiti and unauthorised signage