WarDriving & Tethering

WiFi WarDriving

2021-10-20

No, it's not about "war games" (and also not about tanks – unless they are designed as WiFi APs). Wikipedia defines the term "Wardrive" as follows:

Wardriving is the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by a person in a moving vehicle, using a portable computer, smartphone or personal digital assistant (PDA).
Wardriving originated from wardialing, a method popularized by a character played by Matthew Broderick in the film WarGames, and named after that film. War dialing consists of dialing every phone number in a specific sequence in search of modems.

There are also indications for a backronym being involved: Wireless Access Revolution, to take away the martial touch from the term. In short: goal of the game is to collect APNs of a given area on a map.

So the goal is to show found networks on a map, or provide this data to projects like OpenCellId or Mozilla Location Service. Comparable apps for cell towers can be found in Monitoring & Mapping.

OpenWLANMini (4.7@20) 8 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2016-01-04 / OpenWLANMap (4.2@74) 11 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Wikipedia DE; Intro 5/2018
WiGLE WiFi Wardriving (4.5@4,106) Ǥ 19 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; Intro & Howto 8/2017; Tutorial 6/2020; Wikipedia EN
Opensignal - 5G, 4G, 3G Internet & WiFi Speed Test (4.2@421,909) Ǥ 12 2 Wikipedia
G-MoN (4.1@4,868) Ǥ 13 5 LastUpdate: 2020-03-28
SWardriving. Wi-Fi Wireless. (4@74) 9 4 LastUpdate: 2017-08-03
WifiMapper - Free Wifi Map (3.9@7,126) Ǥ 15 1 LastUpdate: 2018-06-12 Intro 7/2015; Kurzvorstellung 7/2015
Mozilla Stumbler (3.8@1,527) 10 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2019-04-06 Github; Howto 6/2015; Intro 8/2016; Data gathering for Mozilla Location Service
WiFi Tracker (3.8@1,421) Ǥ 12 5 LastUpdate: 2018-01-15
Wifi Collector (3.8@484) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2019-04-13
WiFi Track (3.7@111) Ǥ 10 1 LastUpdate: 2013-06-25
Wifi Location Logger (0@0) 7 2 LastUpdate: 2015-03-19
RadioBeacon (0@0) 11 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2016-09-15 Github; Wiki; Map wireless networks and cell towers for the radiocells.org database (formerly OpenBmap)

Tethering

WiFi Tethering

2021-10-20

Starting with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), this comes as a stock-feature, and no longer requires additional apps. Unless your manufacturer removed the feature …

NetShare - no-root-tethering (4.1@23,304) Ǥ 10 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Video Howto 11/2017 (Text); Anleitung 2/2019; can act as WiFi repeater
FoxFi (WiFi Tether w/o Root) (3.6@60,698) 10 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-12-18 / FoxFi Key (supports PdaNet) (3.6@14,069; ~EUR 8.50) Ǥ 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-08-31
TetherSetting | free tethering (2.7@753) 4 4 no root required

Bluetooth Tethering

2021-10-20

PdaNet+ (4.1@81,789) 13 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Review 7/2018; Howto 11/2019
FoxFi (WiFi Tether w/o Root) (3.6@60,698) 10 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-12-18 / FoxFi Key (supports PdaNet) (3.6@14,069; ~EUR 8.50) Ǥ 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-08-31
Easy Tether Lite (No root) (3.5@23,084) 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-12-06 / EasyTether Full (4.3@9,162; ~EUR 8.50) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-12-09 / EasyTether Pro (4.1@2,252; ~EUR 10.75) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-12-26

USB Tethering

2021-10-20

ClockworkMod Tether (no root) (4.3@35,747) Ǥ 15 2 LastUpdate: 2020-02-06
FoxFi (WiFi Tether w/o Root) (3.6@60,698) 10 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-12-18 / FoxFi Key (supports PdaNet) (3.6@14,069; ~EUR 8.50) Ǥ 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-08-31
USB Tethering (3.6@5,845) Ǥ 4 3 LastUpdate: 2019-10-24
Free USB Tethering (3.6@633) Ǥ 6 2 LastUpdate: 2018-09-17
Easy Tether Lite (No root) (3.5@23,084) 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-12-06 / EasyTether Full (4.3@9,162; ~EUR 8.50) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-12-09 / EasyTether Pro (4.1@2,252; ~EUR 10.75) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-12-26
Quick USB Tethering Wifi (3.3@1,052) 4 2
SimpleRT (0@0) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-03-21 Github

USB Reverse Tethering

2021-10-20

Reverse Tether [Trial] (3.1@697) 7 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2014-12-29
Reverse Tethering NoRoot Free (2.7@990) Ǥ 10 1 LastUpdate: 2019-05-25

WiFi Tether Toggler (Android 2.2+)

2021-10-20

Locale Wifi Hotspot Plug-in (3.2@761) 3 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-12-06

Further Readings:

11 Best Tethering Apps for Android (8/2021)

2021-10-22

IzzyOnDroid