Ricochet Modems == Wireless LAN?

dpease writes: "Metricom, purveyor of Ricochet wireless networking, died today. I understand that, sans infrastructure, a Ricochet wireless modem can call another Ricochet modem, and that modem-to-modem range is nearly a mile. Is the hardware this company leaves behind a viable solution for a really cool, really cheap wireless LAN?"

Comments

Re:Yes

[Nater]

You're entirely wrong when you say there is no difference between physical and wireless networks.

And you're entirely wrong trying to tell me that my personal experience is wrong. I said that I do not consider any wired network to which I have ever connected secure, therefore it's no different for me to switch to wireless.

I understand that most people think of their network connection as being sort of like a phone line for computers, and think of a connection between computers over a network as sort of like a phone call between computers. Private, isolated, secure. They're wrong, of course, and personally, I don't consider a network medium secure unless I personally control access to the premises or can see all of the wires and equipment without wandering around or turning my head. I don't even take for granted the security of my Apartment Area Network. Why? I have a roommate and a landlord.

A simple plan...

[Scoria]

So we all want an open and free network...

The next time a large network like this shuts down and auctions their network off (unfortunately, we can't do this with Ricochet because they've already registered the bidders), let's all pitch in and bid on it.

Sure, there are a lot of inherent problems in purchasing this. For example, who would maintain the hardware?

It's still a decent idea, and if we all pitch in a little, it just might happen...

Re:So, are the modems paperweights now, or not?

[Mentat21]

It seems to me after reading the article you refernce that the only way P2P is going to work is if no one buys the network and they shut it off. Then the whole problem of the nameserver goes away.

Re:growing momentum of a collapsing economy

[GigsVT]

I'm not looking forward to my eventual lowering of salary due to there being more and more techies available

Ah, supply and demand. This is all natural and necessary of course though. We were in a period of rapid and unfounded growth in many areas, such as Metricom's attempt at building an infrastructure that not enough people really wanted or needed.

In all, to 95% of the people out there, the Internet is just a suppliment, like a glorified fax machine. Sure the potential is there, but the only killer app I have seen so far (from a business standpoint) is really email.

I think if metricom had started like most businesses, real business, and started small, in limited market(s), then reinvested those profits, and grown slowly, we might not be seeing them falling on their face right now. A lot of this venture capital feeding frenzy created this idea "if you build it, they will come", and that is rarely true.

So a message to all of the people out there that have to fend in this new-new economy, start small, work the bugs out, and don't try to do everything at once.

Re:Yes

[Nater]

But incredibly insecure?

What difference does it make whether the network media is secure? I have been connected at one point or another to a variety of different wired networks and I have not considered any of them secure. Therefore wireless is no different from a security standpoint than Ethernet. As a result I use secure applications (ssh, https, etc). Is there any compelling reason why someone should not use secure applications on every network whether it's a secure one or not?

Re:Yes

[meta-monkey]

I have to disagree there. All you have to do is put the card in promiscuous mode and you can sniff every packet going by. You can do the same thing on an ethernet LAN, but there you have to be hooked up to the physical network and have root access on the box. If the "physical LAN" is open air, anybody nearby is on, and you probably have root on your own box. Grab every telnet packet that goes by and hey, you've got their passwords! (which is why you should use ssh).