KisMAC, I could Kis you.
Today, I had to go out to New Westminster (about 40 minutes outside Vancouver). On my way out, I passed by a pizza place (Viva Sue Pizza) from which we used to order when I worked at BCTel (now Telus). Given that I was hungry, and expected I would continue to be unless addressed, I had the idea of ordering some when I left New West, so that I could pick it up on the way back. I punched 4-1-1 into my phone, but did not press Talk. "There's got to be an open, wireless network around here," I thought to myself...I woke my computer up, and loaded KisMAC. For those who are unfamiliar, KisMAC is a very powerful utility that scans for wireless networks, and reports all the attributes. I drove around the block, and about six or seven networks showed up. I pulled over to the side of the road, and decided that Ruths_Home_Network looked like a nice place to visit. Within seconds, I was online and surfing from my car. (Thanks Ruth!) A quick visit to the online business listing, and I had the number to Viva Sue. Twenty-five minutes later (traffic was bad) I had two pizzas in my hands.
Thank you, KisMAC: you saved me a dollar (or maybe more) that I would have had to otherwise pay to a service that should be free. Just for fun, I left my computer on for most of the way home. Several open networks showed up, included a whole whack in my east-side neighbourhood, or "the hood" for short.
I feel I should mention that if you don't want to drive the streets looking for open networks, you should check out FatPort. A very cool, Vancouver-based company, FatPort is hitting the cafés, beaches, bars, etc. by storm!
