Wireless Freenets

i8u writes ""It's hard to tell whether these things are a threat or an opportunity for ISPs. I'm talking about community wireless networks using inexpensive 802.11b radios and antennas operating in the 2.4 GHz spectrum band, and possibly other license-free bands." "

Comments

Re:legal liabilities

[PapaZit]

I've been thinking about this myself. Basically, we have a system where someone has to be responsible for each node on the internet. By providing public access, you are responsible for the traffic that flows through your node. So, you want to minimize harmful traffic. I see two ways to do this:

1) Proxied free access to port 80 outbound only. This way, you get rid of the spammers and slow down the script kiddies. Eventually, someone will end up using it for fraud of some sort, so it'd be good to use a proxy to at least prove that it wasn't you. Your ISP will boot you, but good logs might keep you out of jail.

2) Quasi-free access. A setup like the above that redirects any HTML request to a web page that asks people to sign up. Use the standard list management routine of "give me an email address. I'll send mail with a code. You return that code to me." Link that to a hardware address. Then, give registered hardware addresses access to anywhere. Again, through the proxy to save your butt if they do something bad. That way, you can at least hand the police an email address.

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Not necessarily insecure

[zobo]

The folks at http://nocat.net/ are working on the security issue with some GPL'd software (http://nocat.net/download/NoCatAuth-0.20.tar.gz) that authenticates in a reasonably secure fashion, without having to trust the local gateway, and assigns three classes of service: Node Owner, Community Member (other node owner), and Guest. Bandwidth allocations and firewall proxies are set based on the class of service.

Fidonet?

[don_carnage]

Could this be like the old days of Fidonet where we were able to transmit email without having to pay access fees?

If we establish local 802.11b networks that connect to each other in every neighborhood, then we won't need ISPs. Of course, someone will have to pay for the bandwidth to the internet backbone eventually, right?

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Re:legal liabilities

[sulli]

You may be violating your ISP's TOS if you only have one IP address and are NATing it out to Joe User on the street. If you have multiple IP addresses and let random people use them, I don't see the problem.

Now if someone starts spamming or DOSing from your account, and you get booted off your service, that will also be your problem. You are responsible for whatever goes down that wire.

(Full disclosure: I work for an ISP offering DSL service; our TOS behave this way, and I'm sure your ISP's do as well.)

legal liabilities

[jchristopher]

Okay, so I've got some spare bandwidth on my DSL line. If I throw down $300 for a wireless base station, what are my legal liabilities if I provide free access to anyone who wants to use it?

The Brakes on Freenets

[standards]

The problem is going to be corporate-sponsored litigation against freenets.

The argument has been made that these freenets should operate with the same purpose as the telephone infrastructure, and as such, such a freenet must abide by the quality of service regulations that are imposed on a local telco. Of course, such freenets aren't yet designed to take over the local telephone company, but they do take away from their profits.

The FCC, which is in bed with the local telcos, has a solution. Limit the capabilities of consumer-grade wireless networking equipment, and where not possible, ensure that the spectrum isn't adequate for true public use.

Just you wait, this is going to get a lot of Washington lobbys all fired up. It's already begun.

5ghz wireless

[robiewp]

Don't forget that 5ghz wireless is being released later this summer, and it's suposidly going to be cheap. It's capable of 70 something mbs, even if they do limit it to only 50 something. This will make 2.4ghz wireless even more economical by driving the prices down, not to mention if you wanted to you could spike up to 5ghz and do larger relay networks with higher capacity.