Mega Public WAN In Sydney

Chris Meder writes: "As posted on CFGN - The Nation , gibed by the recent unreasonable price hikes in Broadband connectivity in Australia, which come already after a strained relationship between Broadband users and the major telco/ISP Telstra BigPond Internet, a group of people in the largest Australian metropolitan city of Sydney have decided to form a city wide amateur wireless network. The team behind this clever idea have also put up a detailed graphical database of people interested and are still looking for more numbers to get this off the ground." This last part reminds me of the Global Access Wireless Database, as featured here. Update: 01/23 18:53 GMT by T : Reader Peter Mann wrote to point out that "there's a mailing list for a similar wireless project in Sydney at http://sydney.air.net.au."

Comments

"Open-source" networking

[Scooby Snacks]

I commend them for their efforts. This is so much like the spirit of Free software -- if you don't like the way it's being done, then do something about it.

Great idea, really -- only one person has to get really big files across the wire and then they all share them.

I predict we'll see a lot more of this if the price of bandwidth doesn't come down soon...

Ack!

[webword]

Sounds like an excellent opportunity for an unscrupulous individual. Sounds like a security cesspool to me.

Maybe I am too jaded. Maybe there is hope!

The post .com bandwidth era.

[wildcard023]

None of this 'we can't make any money on broadband' comes as too much of a shock to me. I mean, we've all known all along how little (if not negative) any given broadband connection pays.

Say I go home to my cable modem and suck down 2 gigabytes of data on my unmetered line. This isn't so unreasonable technologically. Maybe it'll take me a while to do, but hey, it's not that much of an issue for me. On the other hand, my ISP is now not making any money on me this month. ISPs depend on people getting broadband and looking at a few web pages just like all-you-can-eat sushi places depend on people ordering a few pieces and maybe some maki and going home.

As downloadable media becomes larger and more proliferic, we're likely to see more and more ISP's either closing down, raising prices, or capping/metering transfers to survive.

Default route

[AntipodesTroll]

Being able to network with all your neighbors is nice, but it wont replace broarband for downloading the latest game patches, mods, mp3s, divx's, etc.

They could do a deal with an ISP or maybe hook up with something like APANA, but who would pay, and how would fees be collected? As soon as you start involving money, it gets messy. And not many people would be willing to donate their seperate Internet connections bandwidth for other people's default routes.

Internet

[redback]

As many people have assumed, it its typically not the purpose of these networks to share internet access, its just a big lan, and everyone has their own pipe, the idea is that you can share files, mabey play some games, all without any bandwith charges, and save your internet connection for things you cant get over the WAN

Great Idea

[Tyreth]

Projects like this are in the spirit of open source, but even more in the spirit of anarchy. It makes people feel that they have the power to live their lives, and be a partner in a great project rather than a pawn of someone else's project (as is seen in the business world).

It also encourages co-operation, sharing (in the positive ways the internet does), and community spirit.

If we could see more projects like this, perhaps internet (or the controls that ISP's and government have over it) will become redundant, and return to the loose connection of computers around the world that it once was.

Re:Question on posibility of advanced networking

[AntipodesTroll]

BGP might help, but BGP requires routers (well, A router, but it has to be able to hold a big subset of the global routing table) and registered addresses on routable networks.

Unfortunatly, that kind of cost just cant be borne by enthusiasts, without forming an entity that really would become just another ISP. Wireless ethernet cards are one thing. Routers and billing and ISP costs and infrastructure, are something else.

Looking At The Future

[ryanisflyboy]

This is absolutly the future of networking. Wireless topology can be constructed so quickly that the types of networks described in the story will flourish. Already several cities around the world have this type of grass roots movment happening in them. The best part about it is that large corporations really can't do anything to stop them. Hopefully it won't be too long before a central repository for information regarding these growing networks springs to life. The speed at which these networks can grow is truly the most important asspect. I suspect in five years or less these types of systems will be so common that one could visit nearly any city with a population over 50,000 and connect to a network.

Re:WAN Security

[Catbeller]

I have to agree with your last point. Despite all the panic, hackers really aren't doing all that much damage. There aren't enough of them, I think, of the proper idiotic mindset.

The internet existed for years as a network of trusted participants, exposed to attack, but somehow it never was inconvenienced much by such things.

Let's try building the Alternet, and see what happens. As you say, nothing much so far.