Buy Broadband From Your Neighbor

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Buy Broadband From Your Neighbor

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday February 13, 2003 @07:24AM from the at-once-separate-and-the-same dept.

infractor writes "Wired has an article about a wireless project delivering free broadband to a rural community. Using Linux based devices called meshboxes from Locustworld, they've created a local mesh network. More detail in this article. With Wi-Fi friendly ISPs talking about micro-ISP deals for wireless sharers this could be the accelerator UK broadband has been waiting for." Last year we mentioned the MeshAP-05, a bootable CD which "turns a single board computer or laptop into a mesh node and access point," since updated to MeshAP-06. Update: 02/13 19:52 GMT by T : I see from comments that -08 is actually the current version of MeshAP, with -09 soon. Thanks.

16 of 206 comments (clear)

Fools! by saihung · 2003-02-13 07:31 · Score: 4, Funny

Don't you know that distributing wireless access to your neighbors supports terrorism!
1. Re:Fools! by NivenHuH · 2003-02-13 07:46 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Yea.. and with patriot part 2, if you're using WEP you get 5 years for it! =)
  
  --
  Just when you make it idiotproof, some idiot builds a better idiot.
2. Re:Fools! by SquadBoy · 2003-02-13 08:01 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  using WEP thats a paddlin.
  
  --
  
  Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
"Free" WiFi access is everywhere. by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-13 07:31 · Score: 2, Funny

Just get your neighbor to buy a WiFi router to hook up to his/her cable modem and your in business!
Re:Groovy. by grub · 2003-02-13 07:33 · Score: 2, Funny

Shared WAP will be illegal soon, John Ashcroft will see to it.

--
Trolling is a art,
Great idea by 2names · 2003-02-13 07:33 · Score: 5, Funny

"Welcome to [town name]! Here is your fruit basket, your laundry detergent, your book of coupons, and your block of IP addresses."

--
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
Truthfully.. by grub · 2003-02-13 07:35 · Score: 3, Funny

.. I'm disgusted with all these new fangled additions to networking and the internet. I think it would only be courteous to ask the father of the Internet, Al Gore, for his opinion before running ahead haphazardly.

--
Trolling is a art,
Re:Groovy. by caluml · 2003-02-13 07:36 · Score: 1, Funny

I'd pay my next-door neighbor to let me connect through his WAP

Connect through WAP? Surely you won't see much on that mobile phone screen...

--
Get your own free personal location tracker
I sell broadband to my neighbor by t0qer · 2003-02-13 07:53 · Score: 5, Funny

But I use cat5, and after 2 years of doing it...

I've had to patch the cable 5 times because the dog got it. The last time she got it there were so many patches on the cable it would no longer work.

His son loves downloading stuff on kazaa, since we're on the same subnet, all his little kazza worms have no problems finding machines on my network to harass.

The worst part is, if anything goes wrong with any of their computers, it's MY FAULT. They forgot where they saved something? Ask toqer. The machine slows to a crawl because they used a newscraper to d/l pr0n until it ate up all their availiable space, ask toqer. Dog is scraping it's butt on the ground, ask toqer.

I urge anyone out there even considering sharing their broadband to reconsider unless it's with another geek.
1. Re:I sell broadband to my neighbor by Chocolate+Teapot · 2003-02-13 08:35 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Dog is scraping it's butt on the ground, ask toqer.
  If your staple diet was Cat5 Ethernet cable, you'd be scraping your butt on the ground too. Just curious, how did you troubleshoot that one? Never mind. I'd rather not know.
  
  --
  Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
THoughts by sickboy_macosX · 2003-02-13 07:56 · Score: 2, Funny

I dont see how this is going to work if you live in the woods of Bum Fuck Idaho. I mean what are you going to do, take a wole bunch of 56k lines. I think people should focus on giving geeks who live in Bum Fuck, Idaho broadband connectivity. then worry about how to let people buy broadband.
As cool as this technology is, people need to be able to download porn faster before they can use it!

--
--- /* In Soviet Russia, the Mac OS X kernel panics you! */
Quite ironic really by Salsaman · 2003-02-13 07:57 · Score: 4, Funny

According to this report, the CEO of Juniper networks just labelled broadband users as "communists".
Over a modem... Sounds Fantastic! by Pii · 2003-02-13 08:19 · Score: 2, Funny

Until one (or more likely, all) of your neighbors clicks on the magical "Windows Update Notification" icon that appeared in each of their system trays, and starts downloading 64 Megabytes worth of IE updates, and freshly secured DLL files (that they probably don't even use).
You'll rue the day you hooked the AP up to your modem...
We're talking total rue-age.

--
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Re:Groovy. by medscaper · 2003-02-13 08:35 · Score: 2, Funny

Too bad AT&T doesn't allow that sort of thing.
They don't?
Oops.
click

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Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
Re:Over a modem... Sounds Fantastic! by Pii · 2003-02-13 08:45 · Score: 3, Funny

Absolutely... Can be done, but I'd like to paraphrase Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurrasic Park:
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but John, if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.

Oh, wait... That's not right. Here, try this one...
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your [bandwidth sharers] were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

Ahhh... Much better.

--
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Re:telco's by bughunter · 2003-02-13 08:46 · Score: 2, Funny

Then clusters of those get linked up with longer range networking techniques (Do I need to mention Pringles can antenas)
At which point the network becomes self-aware.
Fortunately for us humans, its self-image will be that of a benevolent Englishman with a monocle and waxed moustache.
Either that or a finite series of savory hyperbolic surface segments. In which case we're screwed.

--
I can see the fnords!