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Anyone attending should keep in mind also that Portland is one of the most un-wired cities. Check out Personal Telco for access points around town. Including several bars. I highly recommend the Rose and Raindrop on the east side of the willamette river on grand ave.

J

I just took apart my Mac LC & LCII. The both had AMD chips in them, not the processor, but some other chip was labeled with an AMD logo on it.

Also, for more WiFi info, these are some good links...

http://melbourne.wireless.org.au/wiki/?Apple

http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/WirelessLin ks

http://www.gulker.com/2002/10/10.html

I believe that most wireless access points are just PCMCIA wireless cards with some extra software and hardware controlling it, that's why prices of these are coming down so much.

They claim Portland is the the most un-wired city in the USA.

Those wishing to start up a Community Wireless Network, or find one should seriousley consult FreeNetworks.org, or Email Adam Shand for more information.

Ever hear of the Personal Telco Project?

Knowledge, and wisdom, are the needed fuel of a democracy. Groups that enable the accent toward enlightenment are worthy of praise. By limiting what, unclassified-knowledge, citizens may seek, we stunt our growth, we limit our potential, and we soak in apathy.

---
Never stop dreaming.

PureFiction writes "Peer networks are gaining some attention these days given advances in much more decentralized search architectures and swarming distribution networks. Research has indicated that these decentralized networks are resistant to legal and technological attacks. The continued proliferation of broadband and wireless networking will ensure pervasive deployment of distributed peer networking infrastructure that will drive significant innovations in personal and community digital communications services."

AND FOR THOSE OF YOU IN A HURRY... A- R- T- I- C- L-
E-. -- S-
U- M- M-
A- R-
Y-

One thing Cringley hints at is a coming boom in popularity and capability of truly decentralized peer networks. It is the fully and highly decentralized network architectures that the Microsoft group credits most with resilience against any kind of legal, technological or political attacks.

We are starting to see some of these technologies emerge, awaiting integration into flexible infrastructure that allows fast, easy and efficient distribution of data, content or otherwise, between peers on a local and global scale.

The end result will be a combination of a number of technologies seamlessly interoperating like:

- distributed hash tables

- decentralized search

- swarming distribution

- wireless networks ... and many others.

It is nice to see the word get out: You cannot control the flow of digitial information in decentralized peer networks!

A similar project for the Portland, OR Metro Area is located here.

My personal node (via nodedb) is here.

Join us.

Give me a f*ing break, coward.

My AP is wide open for use with the Personal Telco Project. My point is that people who *want* to hack into people's WiFi networks will now be able to do so from a LONG distance, rather than needing to be within a few hundred yards.

Didja also note the WEP reference? If there was better encryption for wireless communication, there wouldn't be an issue.

Before we work on extending the range of 802.11b, why don't we see about making it more SECURE?!?

Next time, let's uncheck that nice little 'Post Anonymously' button, hmmm? Luser.

Well, slash is good and I am a slashdot addict. But I prefer wikis to build something together.

In "The Wiki Way: Collaboration and Sharing on the Internet", Bo Leuf and Ward Cunningham (c2.com) describe two ways of interacting in a wiki : content pages (as found on wikipedia) and discussion threads (there are many of them on MeatballWiki).

Most wireless communities use wikis. And it is fun! :-)

But, I agree, ...it is another book. ;-)

Here, check these guys out:

http://www.personaltelco.net

They (we) are setting up a free, wireless community in the Portland, Oregon Metro area. No banner ads, just a simple web-based authenticator (NoCatAuth) and a phat pipe.

Head down to Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland. Set your ESSID to 'www.personaltelco.net' and enjoy!

This is a great example of how pervasive, open wireless hotspots can empower individual communication in unexpected ways.

It will not be long before this kind of saturation is common in all the metropolitan areas (previous studies have placed wireless growth at double the current deployment by 2005)

The biggest potential uses and applications are centered around peer network integration that support the style of personal, interactive communication people crave.

There are a few projects working towards this goal like the Janus Wireless Project . This will provide not just increased internet access reliability and throughput (using multiple AP's and simultaneous associations) but also tight integration with common peer network services, like file sharing, music broadcasting using a broadcast FEC transport and playlists, even Voice over IP.

This kind of infrastructure has to be built by philantropist coders, as the business model is lacking, however, this makes it all the more tuned to what users will want, and the resulting networks in full control of those who generously provide the hardware and network connectivity (such as the Personal Telco Project .

I can only begin to imagine the possible applications of a robust, open wireless network coupled with integrated peer network services and good internet connectivity. This will be one of the most interesting and innovative areas of growth in the near future.

My vote is that it's a PR stunt by Softroad. Not a great one, because their WWW site is not even ready yet. The Whois on softroad.com lists an Antione Neron. He posted here about his intentions to start Softroad. Back in 1999 he was also involved in some Y2K group. (Google is such a great resource.) No connection that I can see to LivePerson.

Since I keep getting all my submissions rejected, maybe I should submit some lame PR thing. Maybe that will get posted!

See my comment from the other day here on this topic.

An analogy I used, which is still applicable here, is: "If I walk by your house in the middle of the night and knock on your door and you, sleep-muddled and confused, let me in, then I'll assume I can walk around, sleep on the couch, etc." It should be noted that simply being invited into the house/network does not give you permission to steal physical objects/intellectual property/etc. Using bandwidth isn't stealing in this analogy because it's what a WLAN/Wifi is. Access.

Note that "sleep-muddled and confused" may be used in some legal wrangling in some court, but that isn't the point here. The point is that someone asked for something (dhcp assigned IP) and got what they asked for.

I also noted that a local group here, Personal Telco operates several free and un-restricted nodes in the Portland area. To that, someone replied with: and how is a novice user supposed to know when they've roamed (e.g. the user is walking around) from this 100% open and public node to a private node? Especially when the private node happily gave you the IP you requested?

It's not as b&w as some "Wardriving is theft, plain and simple." would have you think.

Whether wardriving is illegal is up to the courts. I'm not a judge, nor am I a lawyer. But I have a bit of common sense and know that if I set up this magical wireless internet access that works even from my back porch, then I'll also assume the neighbors can get access through me, too. If I leave a "EVERYONE is WELCOME!" sign on my wide-open door, I'll expect people to come in side and wander around. Closing the door and removing the sign is easy. If someone is too damn novice to figure out how, they need to shut down their wireless setup until they figure out or pay someone to figure out how.

Thank-you for putting this in terms other than "I am too lazy to setup IP addresses". What you describe could have interesting consequences for something like FreeNet running on a community wireless network.

I'll summarize:

Personal Telco doesn't own anything. They are a (soon-to-be) nonprofit organization that is a clearinghouse for publiclly shared connections. Connections are shared by individuals (like myself, over my broadband internet connection,) or companies (like WebCriteria, who is providing the connection referred to in this story.) Personal Telco isn't paying for any of the bandwidth, the provider is. If you're within a block of my house, you'll think you're on a Personal Telco connection, but in reality, you're sharing my $37.95/month broadband connection, through my Linksys WiFi router. If you're in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square, you may think you're on a Personal Telco connection, but it's really being provided by WebCriteria, Inc, who has a T1 dedicated to two Linksys routers with high gain antennas pointed down at the square from their offices. (They also have two more T1s for use by their employees, as well as a couple Apple AirPort base stations with MAC-filtered, encrypted, and VPNed connections, to cover their floors, for employee use.) So you really have WebCriteria to thank for the free T1 in the square. Other businesses provide similar free connections in other areas of town, as do individuals with DSL/Cable connections. (Yes, most DSL/Cable contracts prohibit this, but at least one DSL ISP in town promotes it.)

Hell, I used to work for the company that provides the free access (the donor company, WebCriteria, not Personal Telco) and I used to 'work' from that Starbucks all the time. (Computer with WiFi NIC, work phone forwarded to my cell phone, ah, what a life.) I know that a couple Starbucks employees knew I was using that connection, becuase I was asked about it by one of them!

One thing to remember is that it is NOT Starbucks that is doing this. It is T-Mobile. Starbucks has a contract with T-Mobile to provide this service. The Starbucks employees do not have any access whatsoever to the WiFi equipment. Don't blame Starbucks, blame T-Mobile. (Disclaimer: My aunt works for Starbucks, but I personally don't like them. I like small local coffee shops more.)

Here is a stream discussing the issue on the local Portland news. KGW
The Personal Telco Project - PTP Homepage and the PTP mailing list Archive

Here is a stream discussing the issue on the local Portland news. KGW
The Personal Telco Project - PTP Homepage and the PTP mailing list Archive

strangely Their web page has no mention of any conflict. Just a "hooray, we made the paper" announcement.

No no no. you've got it all wrong. The reason people should be warchalking is to mark OPEN nodes. Nodes that belong to groups like Personal Telco Project in Portland, OR, or Seattle Wireless, or Austin Wireless. These nodes are MEANT to be used for FREE by the PUBLIC. Thats why people should warchalk. Thats why there are two separate symbols, a closed circle for closed networks (meaning stay away) and an 'open circle' for open networks, saying go ahead and use it.

I'd have to say people like Adam Shand, Nigel Ballard and the other core members at PTP have stayed fairly involved. Involved enough to be filing for non-profit status for PTP. With a fair chunk of the Portland metro are covered, for free. Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square (city center) is covered, for free.
essid: www.personaltelco.net

At the same time the Starbucks in the same block is charging $$ for wireless access.

TBQH, I think the article is correct in saying that commercial WiFi hotspots are unlikely to stick around for the long haul. A few specialist "captive audience" spots might work out, and in the short term the novelty factor might support coffee-shop spots for a while; but long term they're screwed when 3G rolls out. Right now though, WiFi is still at the top of my shopping list...

WiFi itself will carry on. The fast roll-out for corporate networking, the convenience for home networking, and the opportunities for community networks all count for a lot with me. Much more so than (yuk) Bluetooth. I think 802.11a/b formats have a rich future ahead of them.

Me, I want to play with 802.15.4 aka ZigBee. Sure, it doesn't have the ethernet-sized bandwidth but it's really cheap, low-power, and thinking about the possibilities of swarms of tiny ZigBee-enabled devices makes by brain hum. In a good way. :}

Corporations do use 802.11b, but because of the free access in Portland WEP is enabled when it should be. Oxley Airport, HealthPlans, HeRzOgMeIeR, randallgroup2001 are private, encrypted networks. In my experience about 58% (30 of 51) of all Portland networks have encryption off. Not a bad ratio I'd say, the public's awareness of secure wireless networks was no doubt raised by open networks such as PDXNet and Personaltelco.

Of course, there are loads of wireless community groups out there, with varying methods of deployment/philosophies/etc. You might look here and start browsing the different groups to see how they run things.

NoVAWireless might be a place to look at -- they seem to be involved with organization of clusters of small, neighborhood-based WISPs.

Of course, there are loads of wireless community groups out there, with varying methods of deployment/philosophies/etc. You might look here and start browsing the different groups to see how they run things.

NoVAWireless might be a place to look at -- they seem to be involved with organization of clusters of small, neighborhood-based WISPs.

Of course, there are loads of wireless community groups out there, with varying methods of deployment/philosophies/etc. You might look here and start browsing the different groups to see how they run things.

NoVAWireless might be a place to look at -- they seem to be involved with organization of clusters of small, neighborhood-based WISPs.

I would actually recommend this book to anyone who has more than a passing interest in wireless networks -- sure, there's a lot of nitty gritty details, but that's better than being short on information, right?

Anyhow, for those of you who are interested in setting up a public node, I definitely recommend you check out the NoCat project. It's an authentication/monitoring system for admins interested in having a little control over who accesses their wireless networks.

Another fun resource is the Personal Telco Project. There's lots of smart folks involved who can tell you everything you need to know about setting up wireless nodes with old abandoned computers and home built antennas. Yes. Wireless can be done cheaply.

Enjoy!

Rolling out a community network is a great idea and probably any network geek's dream. But DSL, oh my! Many wireless community networks have proved 802.11b is the perfect technology for this. These guys in Seattle are trying to cover the whole city and IMHO they're very likely to succeed.

So you want to roll out a network in a small city ? UseNoCat Auth for authentication, connect everything to the net, and already you'll be able to read slashdot while sitting in the middle of the street.

http://maps.personaltelco.net/

Not true, NocatAuth doesn't care in the slightest what you are using for network connectivity. It just acts as a gateway between two or more networks.

Personal Telco has many NoCat nodes setup and only a couple of them are using a Linux Access Point.

Adam.

Similar grassroots Wi-Fi networks exist in Hawaii and in Portland, OR.

You can find what appears to be the original fwd'd (anonymized) copy of the mail from the guy who first checked this out at this location.

Thanks for the tip. I googled for Community Wireless and a few of the cities I visit. I did found a good list of community wireless groups here, but most of them look like they are running wide open (no incentive for users to actually join rather than leach) and I didn't find much info to help members of these local groups hook up with other groups while they are traveling (other than boingo).

I would suggest the Orinoco RG-1000. It has dialup, ethernet, NAT, is hackable, can be flashed with the latest Airport Firmware, and if you know the right People, can be had for $50 or so.

I've got one, and I love it.

The terrorist doesn't have to set up an adhoc 802.11 network. They're already being set up all over the place. Personal Telco is already seeing to that in the Northwest metro areas. Freely available 802.11 nets will be popping up all over the place. All you need is some protocol to exchange IP addresses with devices nearby in the net. Kind of a reverse DHCP or something like that: "Here's my current IP and capabilties."

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...)

Here is a baseline image that should work on most notebooks:

http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/FujitsuStyl istic1000

I've used this on two old notebooks, and it's work. It works great on the Stylistics, but it's not really required.

Keep in mind that you can only use prism2 based cards if you want to run true BSS (infa) Mode. But other cards will support iBSS mode (adhoc).

Actually, the Airport and the Rg-1000 are all the same hardware, infact the Ap-500 and Ap1000 are also compatible hardware. The Comunity Wireless groups have already experimented with swaping the firmware on these devices. All the devices use a Lucent/Orinoco wavelan card internally (Rg100 and Airport use silvers) Checkout PersonalTelco's FirmwareSwapping page for details. The reason you see better range in the Rg1000 is probably the orientation, the radiation patern of the integrated antennas are better suited for verticial operation. I can't quote the source but I had read a site on 802.11 antenna design and what a sorry design the client adapters used.

I'm very involved in one of the many community wireless networks which are sprouting up around the world. We are basically trying to build a common property network infrastructure (ie. a network which is open to, and maintained by, the pubic).

It seems to me that our ideals fairly directly represent a lot of what you talk about. So my question is ... are you aware of us, and if so what advice do you have for us on how we should shape our goals and seek resources to make this network endure?

My PDX dsl choice is Easystreet.

Excellent support, and they're server-friendly.

Their policies are friendly to the local wireless group.

Here are some URLs you might find interesting: HPWREN (featured here recently) have a 45mb backbone using western multiplex tsunami kit, and 802.11b access points. They use solar power and batteries to power some backbone nodes.

Some other people using mostly 802.11b kit who will have some information you can use: BAWUG PersonalTelco.net NoCat.net Freenetworks.org

Using 802.11b or similar tech, you should expect each wireless hop to add about 5ms of latency, maybe a little more depending on distance. You can quite easily build a repeater by connecting two bridges together by a X-over cable. You could probably do this with Linksys WAP11 or similar, but over this type of distance you will find it much easier to use something like the high-spec version of Cisco Aironet 350 bridges (the 100mW versions will push the signal a lot further - 25 miles with 24dBi antennas - you can use Cisco's own, alternatives include Superpass (based in Waterloo), HyperLinkTech and others.

Aironet bridges let you set the distance of the link which modifies timing parameters (a slight problem with standard 802.11b over long distances), and their security is better than WEP.

There's plenty of homebrew opportunities for antennas and other related kit, although I guess they're probably of more use to people who don't have a budget to play with (: There's a collection of links on this page with a particular focus on homebrew kit.

See Personal Telco. Its got tons of stuff on FCC regs, example hardware, existing communities, and a really good mailing list.

To answer your question, your neighbors would need to buy or build a Directional Antenna to point at your omni antenna. The FCC says you can't exceed certain output levels, but other than that, it is "unregulated".

SeattleWireless and PersonalTelco are already doing it. Go read. :)

Somebody turned me onto this page that talks about how a group of guys are making a mission out of setting up localized, free wireless access to the Internet, with the ultimate goal being able to fire up your laptop anywhere within your city and get on the net for free. All it takes is a couple hundred dollars (which isnt much when shared between 20 people who pitch in, initially) and a guy who controls anything as meager as a DSL line willing to "donate" some of his bandwidth to the antenna.

If anything, stuff like this will kill Bluetooth from a purely VHS vs. Beta sort of way. When it comes down to a fight between popular acceptance versus quality of technology, popular acceptance always wins.

Cheers,

* As far as violating the terms of service, most of the internet connections we are using we are ok, since we are not reselling the service, only sharing it to the our immediate friends and neighbors. Providers may choose to change there terms of services though. We are paying for this service, and choosing to let people use bandwidth we have already bought.

* As far as the network getting used by to many users and becoming useless. Most of the access points have Linux or FreeBSD machines as gateways. If this becomes an issue we will just install traffic shaping software on the gateway. The goal is not to provide you with a superfast connection that will make you give up your home cable modem and DSL line to sit in the park (though that would be nice). The goal is to provide a public free open wireless network for anyone to use. Even if the network gets saturated and we are only providing each person with 10kBytes/sec, that is still double the speed of dialup and adequate for web browsing and email. I watch the bandwidth usage very carefully, and people have been very good about using the free network.

* Wireless is not a replacement for a wired network, and free networks are not a replacement for commercial networks. That being said we are never going to replace commercial wired networks. We can provide an alternative for you to use though.

If your interested in starting a project in your area, do it.

1. Put up a simple web page on geocities or something.

2. Start a mailing list on Yahoo Groups

3. Post links to your website on the Seattle Wireless and Personal Telco web pages. -That is how NYCwireless (originally RooftopsNYC) got started.

-Maybe there is a group in your area, check: Personal Telco Wireless Communties List

If your in New York City, your welcome to use my node at 84th Street and Lexington Ave. Relax at the corner, or have a coffee at the coffee shop.

www.nycwireless.net

* As far as violating the terms of service, most of the internet connections we are using we are ok, since we are not reselling the service, only sharing it to the our immediate friends and neighbors. Providers may choose to change there terms of services though. We are paying for this service, and choosing to let people use bandwidth we have already bought.

* As far as the network getting used by to many users and becoming useless. Most of the access points have Linux or FreeBSD machines as gateways. If this becomes an issue we will just install traffic shaping software on the gateway. The goal is not to provide you with a superfast connection that will make you give up your home cable modem and DSL line to sit in the park (though that would be nice). The goal is to provide a public free open wireless network for anyone to use. Even if the network gets saturated and we are only providing each person with 10kBytes/sec, that is still double the speed of dialup and adequate for web browsing and email. I watch the bandwidth usage very carefully, and people have been very good about using the free network.

* Wireless is not a replacement for a wired network, and free networks are not a replacement for commercial networks. That being said we are never going to replace commercial wired networks. We can provide an alternative for you to use though.

If your interested in starting a project in your area, do it.

1. Put up a simple web page on geocities or something.

2. Start a mailing list on Yahoo Groups

3. Post links to your website on the Seattle Wireless and Personal Telco web pages. -That is how NYCwireless (originally RooftopsNYC) got started.

-Maybe there is a group in your area, check: Personal Telco Wireless Communties List

If your in New York City, your welcome to use my node at 84th Street and Lexington Ave. Relax at the corner, or have a coffee at the coffee shop.

www.nycwireless.net

The folks at personal telco are also doing wireless work in Portland. Maybe efforts could be combined?
(1) Technical sounding language,
(2) Credibility by association, and