It should be written "Куда бы ни", and analogously "Что бы ни", "Кто бы ни" etc. And yes, it means "wherever" ("whatever", "whoever" etc) If you have found such a phrase with "не" in the internet, it doesn't mean that it is correct :)

It's a common pattern which is used in concessive constructions (like ''wherever'', ''whatever'' etc. in English): кто/что/где/куда/когда/как/какой/сколько/чей + бы + ни + past tense of the verb When you are talking about an actual event which took place in the past, the conditional particle бы may be omitted. Eg: Куда бы мы ни шли… -- Wherever we go... Куда мы ни шли… -- Everywhere we went...

Hello! It strongly depends on general meaning of the sentence as particles 'не' and 'ни' have different function. 1) In an affirmative sentence, 'ни' emphasizes that the fact happened or didn't happen despite circumstances (time, place and etc) expressed in the subordinate clause. For example, "Где бы он ни находился, гора всегда была видна" = 'Wherever he went, the mountain always could be seen' "Кого бы она ни спросила, никто о нём не слышал" = 'Whoever she asked, no one knew him.' 2) As you noted, 'не' particle is used for negation, but in case of 'whenever', 'wherever' and etc. it can replace 'ни' and go with them if a sentence itself is negative. In that case I'd say it's an affirmance expressed through double negation. For example, "Нет таких мест, где бы мы не побывали". = 'There's no such a place, where I haven't been (=I've been everywhere)'. "Нет никого, кто бы не слышал о Пушкине". = 'There's no one who hasn't heard about Pushkin (=Everybody knows Pushkin)'. I hope, it helped you to get a little better understanding of 'не' и 'ни'!

I know the term 'whatnot' is not the best example, but it might give you a hint on the nature of how it works. My point is, there are similar negations in many languages, including English.