Wandering AP Tracking Feature Request

[arizonajon]

As there are more and more mobile or portable Wi-Fi APs, it would be a nice feature to be able to identify these. A potential method could be to start with what WiFiDB does today which is to establish an initial position based upon the GPS lat/lon recorded in the Vistumbler logfile on the computer. If a future logfile finds the same AP but in a significantly different position (say, 100m, 1000m, or some perhaps settable parameter), a simple flag for that AP would indicate a "Wandering AP" status. It may also be practical to compute the new mean position from the new logfile, and store that as a second found position for the AP. Subsequent "finds" of the same AP but in yet new locations (always some distance from any of the previous mean positions would add to the score of the wandering AP and this score could also be searchable, i.e., "Find all APs with a wandering score of 3".

[pferland]

My thought process on this, so far, is the following.

Each AP in the wifi_pointers table will get a new column named "WanderScore". This will be based off the following calculation. If the imported AP is found in the DB and the Center Point is more than 2000m (could change after code being written and testing) a new row will be inserted into a table named "wadering_aps", the WanderScore would also increment at this time.

My thinking for 2000m is because APs have been seen to get stuck in NetSH and still be active even when they truly are not within range. I have not written any code yet, so this range is more than likely to change. The WanderScore would start at 0 since the APs would start with no wandering.

For the front end, I am thinking that the All AP list should have a new column also that is sort-able like the others. Also thinking about doing a specialized export for All wandering APs and their location history laid out and also an individual AP location history export.

Going to think it over a little more, but let me know what you think.

[arizonajon]

Hi Phil -

This sounds interesting. I look forward to experimenting with it. I also
look forward to seeing how often I'm in range of someone which I've been
in range of before.

I hear you on the 2000 m thing and APs getting stuck, I have that happen
with CoxWiFi here regularly. It shows "dead" on the Vistumbler display,
but the PC remains connected with limited connectivity (i.e., none). I
have started experimenting with netsh to see if I can write a script
that will kick CoxWiFi/CableWiFi loose, then allow the WiFi to
reacquire. So far, it's not behaving very well %^(

Cheers - Jon

On 4/24/2016 6:50 PM, Phillip Ferland wrote:

My thought process on this, so far, is the following.

Each AP in the wifi_pointers table will get a new column named
"WanderScore". This will be based off the following calculation. If
the imported AP is found in the DB and the Center Point is more than
2000m (could change after code being written and testing) a new row
will be inserted into a table named "wadering_aps", the WanderScore
would also increment at this time.

My thinking for 2000m is because APs have been seen to get stuck in
NetSH and still be active even when they truly are not within range. I
have not written any code yet, so this range is more than likely to
change. The WanderScore would start at 0 since the APs would start
with no wandering.

For the front end, I am thinking that the All AP list should have a
new column also that is sort-able like the others. Also thinking about
doing a specialized export for All wandering APs and their location
history laid out and also an individual AP location history export.

Going to think it over a little more, but let me know what you think.

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73 - Jon N7UV
Secretary
SARBA, Inc.
[email protected]