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MIT Roofnet
prostoalex writes "MIT Technology Review runs a story about MIT Computer science students building their own mesh network for Internet access:
'A few weeks ago, MIT graduate student Shan Sinha canceled his broadband Internet service. Now his Net connection comes through the chimney. From a computer in the living room of his Cambridge, MA, apartment, a few blocks from the MIT campus, a cable goes into the fireplace up to the roof, where it is attached to an antenna. From there, data packets hop to another roof-mounted antenna at a nearby student's apartment. That way, from roof to roof in multiple hops, Sinha's data packets finally reach a gateway--a computer connected to the fixed Internet--at MIT's computer science building.'"
Sadly, Vancouver, BC does not show up on their connectivity map.
If you're at a university in Canada then you are likely running through CA*net4 anyhow. Think of "Internet2" in the US but fully optical with OC-192 speeds (10 Gb/sec) across most of Canada. (NB: We connect to it through work at Canada's National Research Council
Trolling is a art,
But I am concerned as to the Santa friendliness of this chimney internet access. Will I still be able to get my presents if I access the internet this way.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
just by tossing a handful of bread crumbs at the MIT gateway's roof antenna?
The bold print giveth, and the fine print taketh away
How could the RIAA figure out who is who, and from what computer?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
...and yet I get internet access through an antenna directed at a local school, which in turn hops back to my father's office.
I guess I'm just not cool enough...
Treehugger? Treehugger... Treehugger!
A similar system could be used to extend the range of cellphone services. You wouldn't have to be near an actual tower, just near a wireless node that is near a tower. In fact, cellphones themselves could possibly be used as nodes in a computer system, communicating to the computers via bluetooth or a similar wireless standard.
10 Bits= $.25
100 Bits= $.50
110 Bits= $.75
1000 Bits= 1 byte
Reminds me of a story from about 9 months back or so. A local University noticed strange power usage from one of their lines, and after tracing it down for awhile noticed that a house next to campus had somehow hooked up to the university power grid.... basically "free" power for the last twenty years or so. The beauty of it was that they denied knowing about as the house had changed owners and attributed not seeing a power bill to some strange reason... And along those same lines, my wife's grandparents live right next to a gold course and one of their neighbors got busted a few years back for tapping into their water lines and using them for their lawn. Can you really blame them on this one? one lawn is a drop in the bucket compared to a full golf course.... Internet, power, water... it is all good
So waht happens when the parents light a nice warm fire? Hehe, it's fiewire then.
puts ("Python r0cks\n");
The weather forecast for the area [ http://ma.weather-forecast.ws/cambridge ] predicts thunderstorms. I guess wireing the chimneys will make this project serve as a physics lesson as well as a Internet connection.
Zap!
Just in case anyone's wondering, yes, the professor Robert Morris mentioned in the article is in fact the same Robert Morris who wrote the 1988 Internet Worm.
The only thing I'd worry about here is whether or not you'd be opening yourself up to man in the middle attacks. I mean, WEP isn't THAT secure, and if you could get yourself between the last antenna and the computer center, you could conceivably get your hands on a lot of data....