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Buy Broadband From Your Neighbor
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.
Now if only we could get this sort of thing in the US. I'd pay my next-door neighbor to let me connect through his WAP. Too bad AT&T doesn't allow that sort of thing.
Despite millions of years of evolution, human beings, taken as a group, are still stupid, panicky animals.
In case of slashdotting.
A networking tool designed to let soldiers maintain constant communication on the battlefield is being redeployed for a non-military purpose: providing free broadband connections.
Speaking of tools, it has come to the attention of some members of the slashdot community that the editors of this sight are just that: Tools. Sometimes, the ban moderators that are trying to spread the word. See the signature of this post for more info.
The devices, known as MeshBoxes, allow for hundreds of Internet users to share a single broadband connection.
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With just five MeshBoxes, the tiny municipality of Kingsbridge, Devon, in western England, was able to provide broadband access to the citizens who live in the center of town. A group of enthusiasts eventually wants to provide all 5,000 of the town's residents with wireless broadband.
Frustrated with British Telecommunications' slow progress in wiring the town with DSL, two members of the Kingsbridge Link project took charge. They purchased the MeshBoxes for around $2,400, and strategically placed them in the center of town.
The boxes piggyback off a single broadband pipeline owned by one of the local businesses and distribute bandwidth to the residents who tap into the network.
Users can download and swap information, share printers and even bandwidth -- for free. To partake in the network, they need only a PC card for their laptops ($80) or a Wi-Fi radio adapter for desktop computers that could be purchased off the shelf for about $160.
The eventual goal for the MeshBoxes is to get enough of them out on the street so that almost anyone could get Internet access from anywhere, said Jon Anderson, co-founder of LocustWorld, the company that sells the MeshBoxes.
According to Anderson, LocustWorld has sold about 270 MeshBoxes to date. He hopes the technology will eventually be used throughout Europe, such that anyone traveling outside their homes would be able to pop open their laptops and surf the Web wherever they go.
"The long-term plan for this is to build absolutely gigantic networks," he said. "It's evolving into such a total reality."
Industry analysts have doubts as to whether this plan could be implemented on a larger scale.
Seamus McAteer, an analyst with Zelos Group, said such a scenario requires the cooperation of individual users, who would have to agree to share the same phone line. Similarly, DSL providers, who own the pipelines, would have to back the idea.
However, the concept relies on two technologies that are already readily available: Wi-Fi and mesh networks.
Wi-Fi, the most popular form of wireless Internet access, is practically ubiquitous in coffee shops, airports, offices and homes in the United States. The technology was slow to catch on in Europe, but that appears to be changing.
The number of so-called hot spots in Europe -- places where people can receive Wi-Fi access -- has jumped from 269 at the end of 2001 to 1,150 at the end of last year, a gain of 327 percent, according to market research firm IDC.
Both a drastic decline in price for Wi-Fi gear and easing of federal restrictions surrounding the build-out of hot spots contributed to a surge in Wi-Fi use, IDC said in a recent report.
Even though the concept of tapping into Wi-Fi networks for Internet access is fairly new in the region, some European communities are already looking at ways to connect these hot spots for wide-area seamless coverage. That's where mesh networks come into play.
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Soldiers in remote areas and emergency rescue workers already use mesh networks to communicate directly with one another rather than rely on an on-site base station, or in the case of Kingsbridge, an Ethernet connection in every single home.
Generally, when someone makes a cell-phone call, the phone's signal travels to a cell tower and then to another person's handset. A mesh network decreases dependence on cell towers by allowing the signals of one phone to jump directly to another handset.
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* See also
* Wireless Is Star Again at CES
* Feds Label Wi-Fi a Terrorist Tool
* Wireless Bill: Too Much Too Soon?
* Future of Wi-Fi: Fast, Fast, Fast
* Unwired News: The Next Generation
* Discover more Net Culture
* You know IT/IS Important
* Give Yourself Some Business News
* Today's Top 5 Stories
* U.S. Tries E-Mail to Charm Iraqis
* Study: Couples Love Kissing Right
* Mesh Less Cost of Wireless
* More Fallout Over Greek Game Ban
* Data Flood Feeds Need for Speed
Peter Stanforth, chief technology officer for peer-to-peer wireless provider Mesh Networks, said the advantage of a mesh network is that individuals can communicate with one another without having to build expensive infrastructure like cell-phone towers or additional broadband pipelines. The signal from one device like a cell phone or a desktop computer could jump from one handset to another until it reaches its final destination.
Such a system could reduce the amount of dropped calls and spotty coverage, which can arise when the cell tower is overwhelmed with calls. It would be easier and cheaper to install a mesh network and more affordable for customers to use, Stanforth said.
The one disadvantage of this relay system is a slight latency -- usually lasting milliseconds.
"We felt that this was the way wireless should be done in the future," Stanforth said. "The ability to use a lower-powered radio to help with the whole cost of scalability -- that's really what it's all about it."
A couple of groups that won't view this technology as a convenience are the phone companies and cable service providers.
Considering that they installed the broadband pipelines to begin with, they don't like the idea of residents selling the bandwidth or giving it away for free, McAteer said.
Even if the more open-minded telcos were to allow it -- Anderson said he's been approached by an Internet service provider open to bandwidth sharing -- this doesn't mean that the residents will go for it.
"First of all you would have to have an agreed upon protocol to authenticate users and give access across a host of networks, cooperating access-point providers and getting everyone to agree to share," McAteer said. "I think it's a stretch."
Slashdot 's editors are dickheads
The current version available for download is actually v8, with a major release in v9 imminent.
The newer builds are so far only for read-write media such as a hard drive or (as in the case of the hardware MeshBox) a CompactFlash card.
There is a lot of activity on the mailing list, and I recommend anyone interested in participating to subscribe.
/ David H
The Reg covered this story back in December - its cool technology alright! http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/28972.html
Gavinsblog.com
This is a noble goal, but one whose story has been posted several times here on Slashdot. So.. what do you do if your area has NO broadband in the first place? You can't hook up your wireless network point to a 56k modem and share that about.
:)
:)
Yes you can.
Several years ago, I had one win95 box with a 28.8 modem share access with the whole shop, 12 clients, including thru a quasi-wan that linked two buildings that were 500 feet apart. I COULD have added a wi-fi hub and share that access wirelessly, had they existed/affordable then. It used winproxy, stayed connected 9-6, and an ISP that issued permanant IP addresses ($30 mo.), so i could telnet and ftp into the winbox (thx Fictional Daemon).
It was slow and would suck more used wirelessly thus I conceed to your point, but I can promise you, it CAN be done
Your other option is to purchase a T1 and hook it up to the wireless network, if you could get a "coop" of local users to defer costs. IF its available.
Another choice is to use a direcpc satalite link (in the US), although that is against their TOS. but it works, albeit with mediocre latency. I used to do that, and never got caught.
Maybe these wont work well or at all in your situation, but there are a few options for many people, even those who live in the sticks, like me.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
It is very cool that more HW and SW are becoming available to do this sort of thing. You still probably want a service provider that does the support, or a community based organization to fill this role (as in one of the links in the story). I'm going to keep watching this and looking for an opportunity to jump in.
I did this with some friends once in uni where we all had 19.2k serial connections - and pooled them to one fat t1 level connection. Of course it helped that as a CS student I had access to the 'ISP' end of it to handle the back side of the modem pooling.
I did something like for some other friends in an apt building, 4 of them on the same floor, all with cablemodem. Without being able to do anything at the ISP level, they were limited to just routing new connections to different lines. Being able to split up ftp and http dl's across the 4 lines was cool, but it also f'd the hell out of SSL connections and others.
Anyways, they got found out and all lost their connections permanantly for 'bandwidth abuse'.
Informative rating: 0
Funny rating: +5
ffs ...
The statement is technically correct, but misleading. WiFi _is_ available _in_ almost every Starbucks in America (via T-Mobile), almost all the Delta, Northwest, and AA airport lounges, and becoming very common _in_ offices and homes. The portion of broadband users who have installed WiFi for in-home distribution is soaring (~20% of AT&T Broadband modem signups last quarter bought a WiFi kit directly from AT&T). What's _not_ common is WiFi _to_ offices and homes. That's the hard part, about which I think you're complaining.
Stanford had a guest lecture a couple of weeks ago from a group setting up a wireless network in Laos.
It's intended to connect about 5 villages with a town (the town has telephone lines to the rest of the world) on the other side of a hill/mountain. It allows them video conferencing with the rest of the world as they are using a verbal only language - so keyboards aren't much use. The gear is all battery powered, recharged using a modified exercise bike. They installed it a couple of weeks ago and are getting a couple of miles with it.
I seem to remember a couple of articles a few months ago about some academics managing to get about 20-50 miles with wireless over water - this of course is an idealised example as there are few areas that flat on land. And of course rain can screw up your signals a lot.
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.
Then toqer's response should be:
"That's not an internet issue, that's a client system issue. I'll be glad to come over and look at it for $80/hr., with a minimum charge of 1.5 hours."
If you aren't charging them out the butt for your consulting services, then of course they are going to abuse you.
And you should then cut off their access until they buy and install Norton Antivirus WITH the annual subscription.
Stranger things have happened? Do you include a free bong with that installation or do they have to roll their own?
Hint, burry the cable in a 6" deep slit just wide enough to fit it where it crosses the yard and use enough water pipe where it comes up the wall to shield it from dog attack. That's what the cable guy did, only he called the water pipe a "conduit".
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
One problem that most wireless ISP's or wireless projects have is the ability to charge users, and authenticate them.
passym wireless routers has a great device that allows people to authenticate when they connect to your wireless network via their browser.
They do charge a fee per month per router, but so far it's worked great for me.
I deleted my sig years ago.
The thing is if we're all on kazaa, then the p2p network begins to kick ass because we have more bandwidth to our neighbor than the kazaa node a few hundred miles away. So not only would the bandwidth increase, more content would be available. If you're into that sort of thing.
But general net bandwidth might get a slight impact from the additional network usage. Its unlikely it would be very noticable, and the widespread adoption of broadband would fund new technologies to provide the infrastructure all those new connected users are going to want. Its good for the economy.
I would have done this with a neighbouring company, but all the interested parties left both companies :)
We wanted to each set up a squid cache so we could exchange cached objects between the caches. That way you don't have to be concerned about routing issues, or get pissy at the guys next door for using your bandwidth and theirs downloading binaries from usenet.
If we had tech-savvy neighbours where we are now, I'd still consider it.