Wireless Network Statistics for Chicago, IL, May 2005

This collection of statistics was originally released in May, 2005. I chose to republish them as a reference for those wanting a reference point in wifi density studies and security research.

The statistics presented here were collected while on a bus, driving down the highway in an area rich with large business buildings. A laptop running Slackware 10.1 with Kismet was used to collect the data (using a 7dBi antenna). Sorting and analysis of the data was done using Ethereal and and gratuitous use of the grep command.

Number of..

APs: 1612
APs running WEP: 841
Ad-hoc wireless signals: 29
infrastructure signals: 1464
probe signals: 114
APs with SSID broadcasting off: 253
APs with SSID "linksys" or "linksys-g": 184
APs with SSID "default": 47
APs with SSID "belkin54g": 13
APs with SSID "NETGEAR": 53
APs with SSID "wireless": 7
APs with SSID "MSHOME": 6
APs w/ SSID "orange": 29
APs w/ Apple Network XXXXXX SSID: 9
APs / SSID "CPSWIRELESS": 12
APs w/ SSID "hpsetup": 5
APs w/ SSID "WLAN": 10
APs w/ SSID "ALLYOURBASEAREBELONGTOUS": 1
SBC/Yahoo DSL routers: 208
APs running on Channel 6: 826
802.11g configured routers: 330
802.11b dual routers: 248
802.11b configured routers: 794

Time Started: 22:50:44
Time Ended: 23:44:06