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Community Wireless Networks in the UK
Some random reader points us to this story about community wireless networking in the UK. Not really any new news, but maybe the publicity will get more people involved. As usual, if you want to set up your own node, you can start at Nocat or PersonalTelco.
is at wirelessanarchy.com
I envision a future in which the entire world is wirelessly connected, one in which you can walk anywhere on Earth (with the possible exception of the oceans), and still surf the 'net (or whatever has replaced it by then) with your wireless equipped laptop or handheld.
Of course, we have a long way to go before we get there. As the article mentions, the 2.4 GHz band is slowly being used for more and more transmissions. Unless we regulate usage in some way, the wireless world will become impossible to achieve, as the noise would be too great.
Another problem is that of price. In order to have a fully connected network, you would have to have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of nodes placed throughout the world. The unfortunate truth is that SOMEONE would have to pay for that, whether it is a private company or government(s).
Once you DO have such a network, however, control becomes an issue. If the network is privately controlled, someone could be making a bundle off of everyone's usage. If the government controlled it, it could be used for propaganda. If I had to chooose one over the other, I would choose a group of nations (the UN?) to control it, and it could become another sanction they could place.
Can anyone else see this happeneing?
As the link says check out NoCat. It provides a captive portal system that can implement both access control _and_ bandwidth limiting on the Linux 2.4 kernel. Additionaly there are some people interested in developing micropayment systems.
Then you have groups like SeattleWireless that aren't focusing on internet access but instead on local access to a MAN with the ability for internet gateways for those that do want out, or you simply connect back to your private node and use your own internet gateway.
What about RADIUS authentication?
P.S. You spelled tolerance wrong in your signature... I'm assuming it's a joke?
--Bennett Prescott
Former Lord Of Packets
Joltage is also tring to build out a wifi network.. Check it out.. http://www.joltage.com
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Er.. I mean attacked by /.ers
ZA Spot Restaurant
371 11th St. (between Harrison & Folsom)
SF, CA 94103
USA
(Formerly the Red Roaster Room at another location in San Francisco)
...customers can always pay a few dollars just to sit down on sofa with laptop and warm the knees.
Whatever, wireless will be THE largest industry this planet has ever known 3-4 years from now. Bigger than cocain and the auto industry put together. (Unless of course it is proven beyond a doubt that we're all having our DNA scrambled by anything from Bluetooth to Ultra Wide Band and everything in between.) Now that would be a major bummer!
O'WONDERWe're working on it.
What is with it with slashdot and wireless? I mean, they're as obsessed about it as all those tech/business magazines...
EXACTLLY... this isn't any real news, and that alone i could care less about. My problem is i'm just jealous of these people more and more with every story that comes out!
200GBps wireless community LAN... in my city? never. ugh.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
well, my website uses about 15 gigabytes a day in transfers... 450GB a month, yet i only pay $39.99 for DSL........... this SORTA proves that on average, you can deal with a couple hogs and still turn a profit. everyone in the neighborhood could just pay fixed fee (cost / number of users) and they would probably all be happy.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
Well, sort of. If the point is to "extend" the Internet, hell yeah someone has to pay for that bandwidth.
But if the point is to build a "parallel network" that's distributed, free from the telco monopolies, and in the hands of the people -- a network that's free-as-in-freedom -- then you can't truthfully say it's unworkable, because we're making it work as we speak.
http://awip.truffula.neti reless.nete tt tp://www.houstonwireless.orgn et
http://austinwireless.net
http://www.milehighw
http://free2air.org
http://consume.n
http://bcwireless.net
http://www.bawug.org
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http://nycwireless.
-------
"don't smoke, don't drink, don't fuck
at least i can fucking think"
Minor Threat
This tooth is made of metal
fine wire and ShoeGoo
One of these days this tooth is gonna browse through all Yahoo!
A lot of groups have set up their own networks, without the help of Consume. We're trying to do similar at http://www.glasgownet.com along with our http://www.backnet.org.uk friends in Edinburgh
"A wireless access point is a one-time investment, and is relatively inexpensive, however bandwidth is not free."
Like hell it's not. If I plug in the WAP and start transmitting, I'm creating bandwidth for free, aren't I? Now, Internet bandwidth, that's another story -- it's not free, neither as-in-beer, nor as-in-freedom, thanks to the telco/cable monopolies that are, for most people, the only way of getting bits out the door.
Being able to surf the web from the cafe while sipping a latte is not particularly interesting. What's interesting is how communities are coming together to build MANs and other networks that are free-as-in-freedom -- networks that are distributed, in the hands of the people, and free from corporate or government interference. The real revolution is happening outside the coffee shop, where we're building these networks, node by node, as we speak.
So what purpose will these community networks serve? Who knows! Remember, the Internet was designed to keep US government networks alive through a nuclear war -- who could have envisioned Slashdot, Amazon, Napster, et al. emerging from that? We believe that if we build it, they will come. (And so what if they don't -- I'll still be able to trade files with and make phone calls to my neighbors.)
Hi atrowe,
Whether public WLAN succeeds or not depends on your perspective.
I would say that grassrots wireless networking alreeady has suceeded. Of ourse there will probably never be a coverage compared to the coverage of GMS or future UMTS, but people are beginning to share their bandwith already.
Yes, WLAN has some inherent security-risks, and yes, WLAN providers will not be compensated for there service but if you have a look at the web there is a lot of good stuff that is provided by people with absolutely no compensation.
From my personal point of view the WLAN-movement already has succeeded: People are alread sharing their bandwith and start building up their own networks.
So don't expect too much by the WLAN-"movement" - people started sharing their bandwith with wired LANs some years ago. It' didn't kill the TelCos, but it quite common, now and kind of a success.
On the contrary, the wireless node can be 100% secure (VPN software to get onto the internet + firewall that you have to log in via), so they have to log on; and you can put on traffic shaping.
Besides, bandwidth is rapidly getting cheaper and cheaper. The cost halves ever few years as the fiber optic backbones deliver lower cost per bit; DWDM, greater range and so forth; and there's a long way to go yet on that front I'd bet.
$1 to $2 per gigabyte is still pretty cheap; it's about as cheap as a CD-R. At 576k it would take me hours to download that much even maxing out the link. Even a $5 a day bill for an internet cafe does not seem outrageous if it pulls in a few more punters; it would atleast break even, and that's pretty worst case I would think.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"I'm not sure why you think there needs to be a government mandated control of such a network. The whole point of the ISM band is that it's unregulated - but I'm pretty sure that the powers that be didn't expect 802.11 technology to be quite so sucessful. 802.11 is designed to be highly tolerant of noise, and I suspect the density can get quite high, either as it is now, or with a derivative technology.
How about another model? One were everyone, or a larger percentage of the community all get a commodity wireless access point and join up in a management framework, basically managed chaos, like the Sydney Wireless. I have a couple links on my community wireless page, too. With enough network overlap, you'd have pretty good coverage - maybe better than standard cell links. The bandwidth on these technologies is quite high, and 11mbit may only be the starting point.
But oh, what a world it might be if control of the communications medium - or, perhaps better phrased, control of A communications medium - went truely into the hands of the masses. I already know of two college campuses where students are running their own dorm networks to combat draconian policies on file sharing and gaming using 802.11. What if that ramped up to city wide? What if people start setting up their own WANs, and leasing their own fiber backbones? Or hell, even running their own fiber backbones, like has been done in Sweden?
Remeber BBSes? There was no tradegy of the commons there, and those formed pretty sophisticated networks towards the end. And no doubt caused a few LEOs to have kittens then..
..don't panic
check out seattle's adhoc network.
The NoCatAuth Nightly (bottom of the page) supports both RADIUS and LDAP authentication. This is fresh code, please report problems and/or send a patch :)
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
Also you may be interested in the Edinburgh Wireless network --- Backnet which is a little more established than Glasgow. Both projects are generating a lot of interest but we need as many people as possible so if you are interested then check out the Consume.net Node Database to find out who's near you.
The GlasgowNet page also has some news, reviews and articles that may be of use to people interested in Wireless networks. Both Backnet and GlasgowNet have IRC channels so feel free to come on and have a chat. The Backnet channel is #backnet on irc.backnet.org.uk and GlasgowNet is #glasgownet on the same server. If you don't have an IRC client then GlasgowNet is testing a Java applet IRC interface that you may want to try.
Steven Murdoch.
web: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/sjm217/