Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents - Third Edition

Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents - Third Edition

Overview of this book

This book is for all mischievous Raspberry Pi owners who’d like to see their computer transform into a neat spy gadget to be used in a series of practical pranks and projects. No previous skills are required to follow along, and if you’re completely new to Linux, you’ll pick up much of the basics for free. We’ll help you set up your Raspberry Pi Zero, Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 and guide you through a number of pranks and secret agent techniques that are so inconspicuous yet high on mischief. You’ll learn how to configure your operating system for maximum mischief and start exploring audio, video, or Wi-Fi techniques. We’ll show you how to record, listen, or talk to people from a distance and how to set up your own phone network. Then, you’ll plug in your webcam and set up a motion detector with an alarm and find out what the other computers on your Wi-Fi network are up to. Once you’ve mastered the techniques, we’ll combine them with a battery pack and GPS for the ultimate off-road spy kit.
Table of Contents (7 chapters)

Connecting the Pi to the mobile Internet


If you're out in the field and need an Internet connection, then you could connect a USB 3G or 4G modem dongle to your Pi to obtain Internet access over the cellular data network. There are millions of dongles out there, but there are two main ways they are seen by the Pi-either as a serial modem device or as a virtual network interface.

The easiest ones to work with are those that present themselves as virtual network interfaces, since they require less configuration to get going, and that's the type we will use for this project.

Note

Serial modem types, while working very well—and to an extent having greater flexibility, such as supporting the AT command set—need the addition of a point-to-point protocol (ppp) daemon and dialler software such as wvdial in order to make a connection to the Internet.

Huawei brand modems are readily available, and some older models can be bought cheaply on eBay and Amazon. Their HiLink range are the ones to look out for...