Slashdot Mirror

Berlin OLSR Wireless Mesh Testbed

"This is especially true here in the UK where free dial up internet access appeared, then promptly disappeared. Now a similar thing seems to be happening to broadband. Rather than becoming more accessible to the average man in the street, companies seem to be raising prices and limiting signups right, left and centre. "

I thought broadband prices are coming down in the UK? With the recent introduction of the "wires-only" ADSL service, and the lower wholesale charge for this service, compared to the initial engineer-comes-to-visit deal, there are some good deals coming out.

Indeed, Pipex has just announced a sub-£30 (inc VAT) home service. For a little bit extra, there are better deals out there for the geekier potential broadband customer...

The Daily Telegraph is also reporting that BT will announce, later this week, that the wholesale cost of ADSL will be cut by 50% as ADSL take-up rates in the UK are well below other areas of Europe.

There are a bunch of other projects like this. Including my own Ashland's Wireless Internet Project (AWIP) http://awip.truffula.net

Also there's....
http://personaltelco.net
http://seattlewireless.net
http://bawug.org
http://free2air.org
http://consume.net

a lot of these have been mentioned on slashdot before....

They're cool though :) (hence why i started another one...)

Pseudo example:
802.11b Network Scanning In London And Amsterdam
Posted by timothy on Sat Sep 15, '01 11:21 AM
from the brief-window-of-opportunity dept.
jbrw writes: "Beware of cat skulls in sombreros! Bicycle + laptop + gps unit + 80I.11 magic = WarPeddlaz, currently scanning London. Replacing the bike with a canal boat, and you have the WarFloataz in Amsterdam. Pics, info and raw scan data available at free2air.org slashcached." Some amusingly altered photos in here, too. Now that I have an 802.11 card working, this is getting even more interesting.

We're running a similar thing at newsfilter, although from a slightly more UK perspective.

Next thing you know MS is gonna start having Hailstorm exclusivity contracts where realtors can't do business with non-hailstorm customers. Then they can try to force the non-hailstorm realtors out of the market.

And that's the fear associated with Hailstorm - that they'll impose a "tax" on internet usage. Even if it's indirect (ie, passed on to the web site you're trying to access via your Passport account), do you really want Microsoft squeezing money out of you at every turn.

And Microsoft's recent track record of abrupt about-turns isn't great (AOL and XP, for example).

As i've said elsewhere, good for Microsoft from trying to make money whereever they can - it doesn't mean I have to be part of it, though.

There's also the worrying theory put forward by certain people that MS is waiting for the right turn to screw open source projects based on possible patent infrigements.

Do you trust them to not try to screw competing technologies over as soon as it is safe for them to do so?

...j

Next thing you know MS is gonna start having Hailstorm exclusivity contracts where realtors can't do business with non-hailstorm customers. Then they can try to force the non-hailstorm realtors out of the market.

And that's the fear associated with Hailstorm - that they'll impose a "tax" on internet usage. Even if it's indirect (ie, passed on to the web site you're trying to access via your Passport account), do you really want Microsoft squeezing money out of you at every turn.

And Microsoft's recent track record of abrupt about-turns isn't great (AOL and XP, for example).

As i've said elsewhere, good for Microsoft from trying to make money whereever they can - it doesn't mean I have to be part of it, though.

There's also the worrying theory put forward by certain people that MS is waiting for the right turn to screw open source projects based on possible patent infrigements.

Do you trust them to not try to screw competing technologies over as soon as it is safe for them to do so?

...j

(Bah. If /. is going to mangle my submission, at least spell my name right).

I think Linus is way off the mark by not being concerned by .NET and Hailstorm. In this thing I wrote I show some recent examples of Microsoft moving the goal posts when things didn't go their way.

This earlier thing is along similar lines. It talks about concerns raised by Bruce Perens that Microsoft is currently building of warchest of software patents to start hassling open source projects once the heat has cooled down from the Justice Department.

Just thinking about it now, has Microsoft ever passed on an opportunity to screw money out of people? (Having said that, good for them. They are a business after all. Doesn't mean we as users of technology have to support them in that though).

...j

(Bah. If /. is going to mangle my submission, at least spell my name right).

I think Linus is way off the mark by not being concerned by .NET and Hailstorm. In this thing I wrote I show some recent examples of Microsoft moving the goal posts when things didn't go their way.

This earlier thing is along similar lines. It talks about concerns raised by Bruce Perens that Microsoft is currently building of warchest of software patents to start hassling open source projects once the heat has cooled down from the Justice Department.

Just thinking about it now, has Microsoft ever passed on an opportunity to screw money out of people? (Having said that, good for them. They are a business after all. Doesn't mean we as users of technology have to support them in that though).

...j

mrtg fed by some little perl scripts we hacked together to suck the data from iwconfig. Go and ask on free2air.org and i'm sure we can make them generic enough to release in to the wild.

...j

Oh, and if you're feeling like being geeky about 802.11b and related things, make sure to look at www.free2air.org for some good detailed stuff about wireless security. Airsnort, war driving, and all that other stuff you kids seem to love.

The guy who does the site is in Amsterdam this weekend doing some wireless stuff. Wait 'til you see pictures of his latest project. But i'll let him explain that when he's ready...

...j

There's a story (very light on details) with some pictures of my node sitting 450 meters away from it's wireless uplink.

You'll notice the use of an empty cider can to mount the Lucent Range Extender on. This was actually vitally important. Between the two sites was a kebab shop (seriously) that was just breaking line of site, and with the various combinations of wireless kit, we were right at the end limits of getting a signal. We messed around for a few days trying various things, and, eventually, over a can of Strongbow I realised raising the antenna those 5 or 6 inches higher might work. And the rest is history.

That site has moved now, and is much closer to the primary site,so the feat is not nearly as impressive. But you geeks can, uh, geek out at knowing that the website below comes to you [spooky voice]through the air[/spooky voice].

...j

Now, if I could only go and write a well thought-out piece with something to say, that would be even better.

...j

ntl (UK) has just announced a trial of a wireless (10Ghz) broadband offering in London.

Detail over yonder.

It's a major upgrade - you probably want to upgrade (or, get ready to upgrade when 2.2.1 inevitably comes out in a couple of weeks).

The release notes are worth reading over.

...j
(jackass has been cancelled. eep!)

Get in touch, add your node as "speculative" to their database. You may well find some other people in your area who have been thinking similar thoughts.

Some (relatively) long haul connections are about to come online in London. The extended range people are starting to get/offer may be of use to you.

...j
(they cancelled Jackass? Eeep!)

free2air has a long article on this, with lots of links, technical information, source code, and other good stuff.

And the fact that they've found 150 open hosts in London's Docklands.

And for you 802.11b geeks, you may be vaguely interested to know that newsfilter.co.uk (below) is served wirelessly. Yehaw!

...j