Wi-Fi Positioning

Ever wondered if your Wi-Fi Access Point at home is already in Google's Wifi location database? If so, have a look at this web page where you can type in the BSSID/MAC address of your access point. If present in the database, the location will then be shown on a map. With most Android devices collecting location information on the go, I wonder how long it takes until a new Wi-Fi access point shows up in the database!? Hm, an interesting experiment…

Note: The MAC address to be typed in here is usually not the MAC address that you see in Wireshark if you communicate with the web front end of your access point but a separate ID that you either have to find in the configuration menu of the router or if by using Wireshark in Wi-Fi sniffing mode. This exposes the real Wi-Fi MAC header that contains the source, destination and the BSSID MAC addresses instead of only source and destination.