It is an interesting discussion. You may think I am a Santa Clause watching
the forums to assist unwary and lost travelers on the way to late Christmas.
Not at all. It is the best way to learn as far as my personality goes. Every
time I help someone I improve my own understanding of how this complicated
system works. So it is entirely selfish, I must admit.
Answering you question about the physical address, that is definitely "No."
Do you mean the Yellow Pages physical address or GPS coordinates? I doubt
you meant that. there is a thing in routers and modems called "physical
address," a hex number used for purposes of identifying devices on local
Networks. You most likely meant that. I am pretty certain it is OBTAINABLE
but not with pinging. You have to use more sophisticated APIs or special
equipment (hardware) sold by some electronic manufacturers. They will also
give you a lot of information you do not need.
I just reread your post and realized that you did mean the exact physical
address. Why do you need it? Who cares? If you want to do that you, of
course, should use Chucks "triangulation." I am rather curious how his
essentially flat world idea will work in a three-dimensional expanse of you
skyscrapers and high-rises. Also, you have already noticed something
important: the signal around you seems to be tied in nodes. it is because of
concrete interfering with the electromagnetic radiation. If gives it
reflections and damping and sometimes creates areas of amplification
relative to other spots. This even the triangulation most likely won't work
in a neighborhood like yours. It is for very flat areas.
2.Could I just put this laptop on
the passenger seat of jeep and drive down my street watching for an
increase
(Location of router) the same way I get an increase in my home. Without
wearing a Green Gazo helmet of course, i.e., Homeland Security.
That is fairly safe, a lot of guys do everything in their Jeeps, talk on
cell phones (myself included), punch their keyboards. No you won't arise any
suspicion. People from Rockwell won't begin interviewing you the next day,
that's for sure.
Of course you can do it. I would do it if I were obsessed with something
like this without hesitation. My hunch is this it won't give you any useful
information for many reasons: interference from many buildings,
3-dimensional nature of the neighborhood, etc. It is a very non-linear
environment geometrically and many things are unpredictable.
What you may try to do is to take your laptop in you Jeep and drive around
in a few directions and measure audibly how the sound declines. It will give
you a very rough estimate of the power of the source. If it a geeks cafe
that is providing free access to everyone as an attraction the source may be
more powerful than if it belongs to the beautiful blond living in a condo
right over your head on the 23rd floor. Incidentally, if it is a cafe then
it is likely that the source will have a so called static IP address which
is leased from ISP. if it is the blond (although you can always expect
unexpected from a blond) there is a chance she does not have a static IP,
she gets a dynamic IP address every time she turns her computer on. In this
case even pinging will be useless for you because after you found her IP
address she will turn her laptop off and the next time the ISP will give her
a different one. Thus if you try to catch your music at that IP you may find
that the very same IP address is now in the machine of the guy who lives
under you on 21st floor and you will listen to something you did not even
want to hear.
When James Clark Maxwell invented his equations that help you listen to your
music 150 years ago he did not give a thought to the consequences.
Dan, I want to understand, why you take it all so seriously? I am just
curious. That sniping you are afraid of... How could it be done in case if
it is a private source? Even in case of a hotel people will need a rather
sophisticated equipment costing perhaps thousand dollars and a trained
expert to do the analysis. I do not think they can simply ping an unknown
consumer. Your IP address is most likely dynamic, right?
They can analyze the traffic going thru their router (did you say it is a
linksys? - how do you know that?) but only with some special equipment and
this is not simple.
Now. if you are sure that your source is a linksys, although I have no idea
how you came to this conclusion, then this is absolutely, positively the
blond on the 23rd floor. Linksys is a Netzero of hardware world. Paris
Hilton can afford something better even without your $20 a month.
Good luck.
