WiFi Launcher?

[Tyler Durden]

Well, as pointed out previously it may not be necessary to authenticate. If 
you believe you'll be passing through a high WiFi density area, and that 
chances are decent at least one or two of the hotspots do not require 
authentication, then have the app toss off a bunch of the emails and try 
again at the next spot. The emails should make it through somewhere 
(particularly in places like NYC, were there must be a dozen or more public 
hotspots within a block or two of where I work).

Of course, if authentication happens to be achieved, then I guess have the 
app delete those emails it got through.

Which leads to the possibility of perhaps attempting both strategies 
simultaneously, but on different frequency bands.

-TD

>From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart at pobox.com>
>To: cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net
>Subject: Re: WiFi Launcher?
>Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 14:21:09 -0800
>
>>Thus spake Tyler Durden (camera_lumina at hotmail.com) [25/03/05 10:30]:
>>: Has anyone heard of a utility that can search for a WiFi hotspot while
>>: driving and then launch an email?
>
>It's a harder problem than you'd expect -
>Wifi doesn't have a long range, so you have to detect the hotspot,
>decide if you can handle or evade its authentication, do that,
>and then send your message before you've driven out of range.
>
>If you're in range for 100 meters at a 18kph city crawl (or bike)
>that's about 5 meters/sec so you've got 20 seconds, and it can work.
>If you're driving 90kph and catch 10 meters of the edge of a range,
>you've got 0.4 seconds to do the job, which is pretty dodgy -
>lots of mail servers take a few seconds to really sync up,
>especially if you've got to do a DNS lookup or two.
>
>Directional Antennas are unlikely to be useful -
>if you've got them aimed right, you might win,
>but you're much more likely to miss entirely
>or have only a few meters that you're in range.