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The practice of drawing a chalk symbol
on a wall to mark the presence of a wireless networking node, usually one based
on wi-fi. Anyone seeing such as symbol can fire up their laptop or pda in
the hope of connecting to the network via a standard 802.11b-compliant
network card, thus obtaining free internet access. The idea of Matt Jones, a
British technology expert, warchalking has proved controversial. Geeks love
it because it promises to help them find a fast (and free) internet
connection almost anywhere in a city they happen to be. Computer systems
administrators are alarmed by it because it potentially exposes them to
crackers.
Jones has argued that warchalking actually helps them by
drawing attention to the fact that they have a potential problem and has
devised three distinct symbols to identify open, closed and unavailable
encrypted network nodes. The symbols are accompanied by id codes which act
as passwords to the node. if the status of the node changes, the chalk
symbol can easily be modified. Warchalking iconography has been compared to
the hobo sign language that evolved in the United States in the early 20th
century; itinerants used it to mark places where free food and shelter were
available. |
