This chapter outlines several types of exciting access point games and details on how to play them. These games come in many forms, such as a “fox and hounds” game, capture the flag, or a treasure hunt. However, they are all based on the nature of an access point to “give itself away”—that is, broadcast the configured SSID to all willing listeners.

In order to truly enjoy playing access point games, you must first remember a few key details about access points and their functionality. An access point is a radio transmitter and receiver.When a laptop client requests basic information from an access point, such as SSID, manufacturer, channel number,WEP status, and other networking information, the access point will respond with that information. This broadcast/request pattern is the key to playing AP games.

Playing access point games implies that the access point should be “discoverable.” That is, SSID broadcasting is enabled. When discoverable, regular wireless clients and war driving tools would be able to discover the access point. Of course, hard-core AP gamers could bump up the difficulty by turning off SSID broadcast

Items you will need include:

Although this is simply a “bare-bones” list of what you need to get started with the games outlined

in this chapter, there are several optional items which could significantly increase the

impact of your game.

Some optional equipment includes:

Some of the basic items are shown in Figure 11-1.

Always play AP games with at least one passenger (the more the merrier). The task of driving safely while managing the computer in an AP game may well be impossible. As the driver, it’s your job to assign the task of detection and navigation to the passenger(s) and stay safe.

Triangulation may well be the oldest radio-wave positioning method known.Triangulation is a method of taking a directional sample of a radio source, moving some distance and taking another directional sample. If all went well, the two directions you sampled should end up pointing to a single third location, making a triangle.

Figure 11-3 shows a triangulation pattern using a directional antenna. Directional antennas are the easiest way to detect an access point by triangulation. The cantenna, a panel antenna, or a Yagi antenna is usually sufficiently directional to aid in pinning down an access point.

When you’re discovering access points by triangulation, you can get a misreading due to the nature of wireless reflections and the concept of multipath signals. It’s possible to receive a stronger signal bouncing off of, say, a building than when you point directly at the access point.

Keep this in mind and perhaps add more points to your “triangle.”

Foxhunt is a challenging and exciting access point game that requires the setup of a remote access point (The Fox) in a location unknown to the participants of the game. After general boundaries are set, the participants set out with the objective of pinpointing the exact location of the hidden access point. The first participant or group to pinpoint the access point wins. This AP game is quite simple, and probably the easiest to coordinate and start playing.

The heart of this game is based around an access point, The Fox, and the components that enable its operation. Although the placement and setup of The Fox is ultimately your choice, a modular setup is preferable. Being able to place it in a variety of locations will enhance gaming immensely.

Figure 11-4 shows a simple “Fox” setup. Notice careful attention paid to the organization of the access point, battery pack, and power inverter, as well as the cleanly run wiring. This attention to detail helps prevent unforeseen outages during the game.

This game does not necessarily employ a special SSID. But a unique, pre-determined SSID will help the hunters easily identify the target.

An SSID of “Fox” is too simple and you may easily come across it in the wild. Try an SSID of “LAFoxHunt- Aug2004” or some sort of named and date-stamped SSID. You may find it amusing to later discover The Fox listed on an online war driving database!

A standard modular access point setup includes (see Figure 11-5):

is the key to the modularity of The Fox.

A tip about batteries: A 7.0 ampere-hour (Ah) battery will run for one hour at 7 A, or 7 hours at 1 A. In tests, a broadcasting access point connected to an inverter while running on battery power was pulling 900 mA or 0.9 A, and ran for over 9 hours on a single 7.0-Ah battery. This came out to about 8.1 Ah, somewhat better than the 7.0 Ah rating.

Although the general game play and rules are the same throughout, there are a few variations of an AP games Foxhunt:

The standard variation of the game is usually played with two to six players. Standard Foxhunt requires that the participants of the game track The Fox solely on foot. A smaller set of boundaries is usually required, typically a few hundred yards square, as it would be no fun to have to search an overly large area on foot. A mid-sized park is optimal, as The Fox may be hidden in many places, such as small brush.

The Mobile Foxhunt is a variation of Foxhunt in which two to six teams comprised of two to four participants each track The Fox using automobiles. A larger set of boundaries is required for Mobile Foxhunt, as the use of automobiles permits a much greater relative scale. A good set of boundaries is 20 to 40 blocks square. The Fox is typically placed in a host automobile and parked in a remote location.

Room Service Foxhunt is a great variation of Foxhunt intended for fun on vacation, but can be played anytime and can host a number of participants ranging from 2 to 40. Room Service Foxhunt is best played in a hotel setting. It is a good general rule of thumb when playing this variation of Foxhunt to have a maximum of two to four times the number of participants as there are floors in the hotel. The boundaries can range from inside the hotel itself to the entire area of the hotel depending on the size of the group, courtesy to other hotel guests, and tolerance of hotel management. The Fox is typically hidden in a room or a common area.

A GPS and mapping software may prove to be invaluable in quickly pinpointing The Fox while playing variations of Foxhunt with a larger set of boundaries such as Mobile Foxhunt.

Set up rules ahead of time. Determine the boundaries and timeframe for success. As the game coordinator, stay in contact with The Fox either by cell phone or radio. Also, ensure you have all of the participants’ contact information in case the game has a problem and must be aborted. As a player, there’s nothing more annoying than looking for an access point that isn’t there.

Determine the winner. Perhaps the winner is the person or team that finds The Fox in the least amount of time. Or perhaps the first team to return with a digital picture of The Fox is the winner. Are GPS coordinates enough or does the team need an address? Or perhaps a visual description is more suitable (for example, “Building 4 in the bushes near the South Entrance”)?

There is probably an unlimited number of variations on this AP game. The foxhunt is an old tradition which has carried over into HAM radio, CB radio, and now wireless access points. Uphold the tradition and host a foxhunt this weekend!