Warchalking

The art of marking the location of a wireless access point on the sidewalk so others could locate it and connect.

 

WiBo's Warchalking

WiBo

The term WiBo came into play shortly after the Wardriving / Warchalking craze. It was a play on Hobo meaning WiFi-Bo... it was short lived.

The kids in the above photo are wearing WiBo shirts.

WiBo logo

WiBo Logo from Warkchalking.org

Warchalking Symbols

Once the warchalking symbols were published on the Internet the craze was on. Bloggers all over the world were writing about it and it made several major news agencies over the course of time as well.

Warchalk Card

Some Warchalking Symbols

The top of the symbol indicates the SSID of the access point being advertised.

The Symbol indicates an open network and the b indicates it's 802.11b

The bottom number indicates the expected speed of the network. (2Mb)

Warchalk Symbol

Warplugging was another term to come out of the time.

Wired Jargon Watch

 

War Plugging
Using a service set identifier (SSID) a tag of up to 32 characters to advertise a wireless network to anyone who comes across it. Examples: Mars network, open for all and please_bring_pizza. It's the latest twist on wardriving, or cruising a city in search of open wireless access points.

– Gareth Branwyn (Wired Jargon Watch)

Newer Symbols for the WiFi age

There have been efforts to update and include more symbols for the ever changing WiFi landscape.

Warchaling V2
 

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