Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Motley Crew Beams No-Cost Broadband In New York

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the someone-wire-13th-st-bkln dept.

Peter Meyers points to this article in the Village Voice, one of the best I've seen on the growing guerilla-networking scene. He excerpts a bit for your pleasure: "Along with some 30 other volunteers in a group called NYCwireless, Townsend's on a crusade to set up wireless Internet access zones: small areas, often called free networks, where people can tap into high-speed connections, without cables or phone lines, at no cost. Call it a marriage of the Web and pirate radio, forged even as big telecom interests bicker over the rights to wireless-spectrum licenses."

4 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm... by Ziviyr · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Whats stopping people from making their own home-grown wild internet.

    Networking stuff is CHEAP. A few people here already have their own home networks.

    Link them, leap over the technological hurdles, create an internet where big commerce does not exist.


    Sorta like hands around the world, but with cat-5. :-)

    --

    Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
  2. Replacement for cell phones... by helzerr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wouldn't it be nice if these wireless networks became ubiquitous enough that you could use IP telephony software on a handheld as a replacement for cell phones... No roaming and 1440 anytime minutes / day ; )

  3. Hopefully... by jerw134 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No one person on the network is allowed to take up too much bandwidth. I could just picture some teen downloading 20 songs simultainiously off of Napster, while 10 other people are trying to share the bandwidth and getting dial up speeds. They should set up a QOS system, where each person gets a minimum amount of bandwidth, but is still allowed to burst to whatever they might need.

  4. AMPR.ORG by mwillems · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It's done. I do it. There's 1200 (and "high speed" 9600 bps) TCP/IP gateways all over the place. See ampr.org for more details.

    And boy, do I use it. When my cable access in Toronto goes down, and I am in Asia or at the office, I telnet to a nearby TCP/IP gateway, then telnet to my hambox node via packet!

    And all my email goes out: the gateway is also a mail gateway. Anyway, see www.mvw.net/radio

    Oh, and I connected to the ISS (Space station) for the first time recently.

    The ampr. org (44.) has plenty of IP's left. So all hurry up and get your ham radio license!

    Michael

    --

    ---
    BDOS ERR ON A:>