# Way to keep a secret, guys! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 19, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277 "2013-11-19T18:28:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/61 "2013-11-21T03:58:06Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > How about TVLicenseVan? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/62 "2013-11-21T04:41:58Z")
My phone hotspot SSID is “Malware Alert- Virus Detected”. It’s rarely on, so I doubt anyone has ever seen it. My home SSID is “ruddy duck” simply because you can’t say ‘ruddy duck’ without smiling just a little bit. It’s fun to say out loud, sort of like the word ‘beagle’. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/63 "2013-11-22T08:10:37Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > I live in a historic district. The houses are close together, but not _that_ close. Nevertheless I can pick up 15 or so wi-fi signals with perfect clarity. At least 11 of them are 5 character mixes of numbers and letters. What piece of gear has this, no idea. Why there are 11 installations in a small neighborhood with the same kind of variation. Makes no sense. It makes perfect sense: they are the unchanged default IDs of the cable modem/routers supplied by your local ISP. If I had to guess, I’d say it was Verizon FIOS, which used IDs like 79RTD when I was a customer. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/64 "2013-11-23T13:26:07Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > How about TVLicenseVan? I live with an American; it was her suggestion. I was amused enough to take it on; TVLicenseVan is also excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/65 "2013-11-28T17:43:29Z")
When I was setting up the WiFi for my sister/parents I had it all done and told my sister to log on. She was this odd combination of terrified and horrified when she saw that I set the SSID to “IWatchYouWhileYouSleep”. Mostly because she was worried that someone would figure out it was her (and do what, exactly?). I did change it, but challenged her to pick one of the other SSIDs that pop up and attempt to figure out which house it was coming from. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/66 "2013-11-28T18:33:52Z")
The FBI Responds > [@](#): > > Hi Czarcasm, > > Actually, we have had a few of these reports and it’s just a joke…just people being funny and naming their wi-fi as an FBI surveillance van! I think this has been showing up in every state now! No worries, it’s not one of ours :-). > > Thank you, > > Portland FBI That’s more smilies and exclamation points than I would have expected from an FBI response. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/67 "2013-11-28T18:40:28Z")
That’s what they \*want \*you to think. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/68 "2013-11-28T19:15:49Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > The FBI Responds > > That’s more smilies and exclamation points than I would have expected from an FBI response. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/69 "2013-11-28T20:49:56Z")
Some of these are a howl! One of our neighbors has named their network ‘pooperbutt.’ We’re dying to know who it is. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/70 "2014-01-06T19:23:12Z")
It’s not actually that hard to figure out who owns which network. There are programs you can download (such as iStumbler for the mac, and there’s one I’ve used on android whose name escapes me at the moment) that will show you the signal strength for all the wifi networks around you, updating as you walk around. Watch the signal level on pooperbutt as you walk around the block and it’ll be pretty obvious which neighbor loves toilet humor. Incidentally, my wifi network is name is currently a euphemism for pooping (it’s the ridiculous name of a particular air freshener we once had in our bathroom). Also incidentally, if your wifi network name is fairly unique, you probably shouldn’t mention it in threads like this unless you want someone to eventually be able to locate you. There are big databases that companies like Google use for location services, which they’ve amassed by literally having wifi loggers drive around and note the coordinates of all the wifi networks they see. In order to look one up, you would generally need the 6-byte BSSID of the network, but they’re almost certainly logging the name as well, and I wouldn’t doubt that eventually you’ll be able to look them up by name (mozilla is compiling a public database of this info, which isn’t yet complete). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/71 "2014-01-06T20:27:48Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > Why there are 11 installations in a small neighborhood with the same kind of variation. Makes no sense. Same provider. I can tell which of my neighbors are with which of the local providers from the wifi IDs. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/72 "2014-01-06T20:34:23Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > The FBI Responds > > That’s more smilies and exclamation points than I would have expected from an FBI response. Only a FBI guy would add the nose hyphen to a smilie face. That’s how you can tell it’s genuine. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/73 "2014-01-06T22:22:29Z")
> [@spinky](#): > > Also incidentally, if your wifi network name is fairly unique, you probably shouldn’t mention it in threads like this unless you want someone to eventually be able to locate you. There are big databases that companies like Google use for location services, which they’ve amassed by literally having wifi loggers drive around and note the coordinates of all the wifi networks they see. In order to look one up, you would generally need the 6-byte BSSID of the network, but they’re almost certainly logging the name as well, and I wouldn’t doubt that eventually you’ll be able to look them up by name (mozilla is compiling a public database of this info, which isn’t yet complete). I not too worried about it. The last time I took a shuttle bus from LAX my phone tried to log into 2 Skynets and 1 FBI network. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277/74 "2014-01-06T23:55:57Z")
Hmm. The possibilities, the possibilities… I’ve heard that in dense locations like NYC, you can pick up dozens of networks with bizarre names. One that made me laugh was (approximation from memory) FatGuyOnThirdFloorStayOutOfMyNetWork. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-to-keep-a-secret-guys/674277.md?page=3)