In my last post I mentioned wardriving, and being a big fan, I figured I’d do a little comparison of the free wardriving apps available on the android marketplace.  Having issues with wardrive (the app) as alot of other’s seem to be for now I’m going to leave it out and only going to do a one on one comparison for now as I’ve only had a few days to play with them, as until now I’ve been happy with my netbook and kismet.

I’ve been looking for uses for my old samsung moment that I bought when I was unhappily with sprint. So I’ve installed both G-MoN which has recieved high praise and seems to be the defacto app people recommend for wardriving. Wigle on the other hand seems to be a lesser known app but is gaining popularity and for good reasons I’ll get into in a bit. First let’s show some screenshots to keep the random stumblers attention for a bit so I actually might get a few hits on this lonely site.

Alright. G-MoN. The app is simple enough, and I have to say I like the layout of the stat’s and map better then the layout on wigle but the output file alone kills this app for me. It ran fine, saw gps quickly and did a good job of collecting the “access points” (AP herein) in a nice layout, and if your a person that loves stat’s, this app has a ton of them! Numbers and lists galore! But back to that darn kml output file. The info just isn’t in the G-MoN output. Here’s an example of G-MoN’s kml file in google earth.

G-MoN info in Google Earth

And here’s a screenshot of what it looks like on the map.

Not a whole lot going on. (Although I do like the smaller icon, especially when you have over 5000 on one map at a time…)

So I fired up wigle wifi. First thing it does is TALK TO ME! Sweet! In the settings you can also control what it says, and how often it says it. Both very nice features, keeping you up to date without having the need or want to check your screen (you wouldn’t do that while driving anyways right?!!!) Next it tells me to optimze the scanning abilities to turn off notifications of new AP. Well heck! that’s just a great idea! So I do and start scanning and after my short test drive, I open the results again in Google Earth and wow what a difference!

wigle wifi info in Google Earth

And then again a screenshot of it in the map.

This is the same street and I already notice several more points meaning that the gps is most likely more accurate or scan’s more frequently (probably the case) then in G-MoN. But again the info included is what get’s me going. Much more to work with.

So if exporting your data to the kml file to import into Google Earth or similar apps I’d deffinatly say go with wigle. Plus they have more of a use for the data as they offer you the ability to import your data from apps like wardrive (the app), kismet, G-Mon, and many other formats to add to their database as well as the ability to upload your data right from your phone.

So all around I am already very pleased with the results you get from wigle wifi wardrive app. And it’s free. Shucks what’s not to like!

Oh Yea, and you can post a badge showing off your AP count ;)