[HN Gopher] Checking for audio or video devices in rental property
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Checking for audio or video devices in rental property
        
       Does anyone have any reasonable methods of checking for recording
       devices when staying and working at a rental property? I've always
       done a sweep of hotel rooms, mostly for sanitary reasons. But
       rental properties can be bigger and filled with more stuff. Also,
       it's 2022! There are smaller devices than ever for both video and
       audio. Any reliable ways to sniff them out?
        
       Author : cyberlurker
       Score  : 13 points
       Date   : 2022-01-01 20:37 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
       | treesknees wrote:
       | One thing I do is use an app like WiFiman, or a laptop with nmap,
       | to scan and find any existing network devices and determine what
       | they are.
       | 
       | Network scanning won't work for most commercial/guest WiFi
       | systems like you'd see in a hotel, because they use client
       | isolation which prevents your device from communicating with
       | anything but the default gateway and maybe a DNS server. But it
       | should work on most standard networks like what you'd find at a
       | typical Airbnb rental.
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | > One thing I do is use an app like WiFiman, or a laptop with
         | nmap, to scan and find any existing network devices and
         | determine what they are.
         | 
         | doesn't that only work if the spying devices are on the same
         | network? to detect all wireless devices you need something like
         | wireshark + wireless adapter than can be put into monitor mode.
        
       | jstx1 wrote:
       | I don't have an answer, I just wanted to share how foreign the
       | idea seems to me. Not that it's necessarily unreasonable but it
       | has never occurred to me to do this.
        
         | treesknees wrote:
         | It's actually why I'm reluctant to stay in an Airbnb. Fake
         | smoke detectors and alarm clocks, for example, can house a
         | small camera and oftentimes there's unmonitored residential
         | WiFi where the camera can freely upload 24/7.
         | 
         | https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airbnb-...
        
           | zikohh wrote:
           | This article deserves a post for itself.
        
           | jstx1 wrote:
           | Oh sure, I was thinking in the context of renting property
           | long term. I've never used Airbnb because hotels seem a lot
           | more straightforward and hassle-free.
        
       | jeffdubin wrote:
       | When troubleshooting wiring issues, a common tool used to find a
       | specific wire pair in a bundle is the tone and probe set. The
       | tone tool injects tones ('deedle deedle deedle') at one end of
       | the specific wire pair you're trying to trace, then you wave the
       | probe (also called an inductive amplifier) around the far end of
       | the bundle of wires and listen for the tones. As you get closer
       | to the wire you're tracing, the tones become louder.
       | 
       | This inductive amplifier also converts all sorts of other EM
       | fields generated by most electronic equipment into audible
       | noises. CPUs, logic circuits, etc. will be heard as 'tick tick
       | buzzzzz tick buzzz' or similar clicks and squeals. One big caveat
       | is that the range of most EM fields picked-up is only maybe a
       | foot or so. But if you were to run a probe up and down a wall or
       | around objects you suspect might contain a recording device,
       | you'd likely hear it.
       | 
       | This isn't the only tool I'd use, but it's a quick and easy way
       | to get a basic idea of what might be hiding.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-01-01 23:02 UTC)