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Sell Your Wireless Bandwidth

Posted by pudge on from the mmmmm-oney dept.

BilSabab writes "Yahoo! News is reporting on the release of LinSpot 1.0 for Mac OS X. Linspot enables users to sell access to their wireless network to anyone who enters the hot zone." The software is free, but LinSpot takes a cut of the action.

6 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Even better by max+born · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why buy when you can hack for free ....

    wireless

  2. Mistaken identity? by GoRK · · Score: 4, Interesting
    First, the software is commercial and proprietary (LinSpot takes a cut off of your bandwidth sales), yet seems to tie itself dubiously to OSS. Although I have not actually looked at the application myself, I suspect that there are likely untold amounts of license violations in LinSpot. Read these two faq entries while keeping in mind the way the software is advertised and used:

    From the LinSpot FAQ:
    1.6 WHAT'S UP WITH THE PENGUIN?
    First of all, we LOVE penguins! Secondly, it is the logo of the GNU/Linux operating system. The 'Tux' penguin logo is originally created by Larry Ewing using The GIMP as a drawing tool. With it, we want to honour the OpenSource projects who are at the basis of LinSpot: the Apache Web Server, the ISC DHCP server, the ISC BIND Nameserver, the SQUID Web Proxy Cache and lots of other things created by motivated programmers across the globe.
    The penguin puts the end-users into the spotlight!

    4.3 WHY THE NAME LINSPOT?
    Inside LinSpot there's a lot of OpenSource software: the following OpenSource projects are packaged with LinSpot: Apache Web Server, ISC DHCP server, ISC Bind Nameserver, Squid Proxy server and several other smaller ones. With the first 3 letters we want to bring tribute to Linux and the OpenSource community, as they form the basis of the current Internet and it's popularity. Linux is the best known icon reflecting this FLOSS community!
    Also, LinSpot is free and wants to spread rapidly, just like Linux.

    The other information in the FAQ is very telling, including the telltale "Investment Opportunity" section that is present in the websites of so many dubious businesses.

    I would caution any user against attempting to use this application. There are several good alternatives that are not difficult to set up including using NoCatAuth with a micropayment system. Since LinSpot happily handles the billing of the users for you and then sends you your 'share' later, you'll really have to decide whether or not you trust them to do the right thing, since they do not seem to be forthright in their other business practices.\

    At any rate, this software hardly deserves a "1.0" release or attention on slashdot. It could likely be a scam, though I have no evidence to beleive that it is anything more than a really dubious, hacky, misguided implementation of someone else's good idea.
  3. I'd consider it, except... by dbirchall · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...there are a few things that'd make it difficult for me to do this successfully.

    1. My ISP wants my bandwidth usage to stay within "reasonable" limits (under, say, 40 gigs one direction or the other) each month.
    2. There are good odds my ISP's policies don't allow me to re-sell my bandwidth.
    3. The local kine working-poor, little old Japanese ladies and feral chickens that make up most of the population of the neighborhood probably wouldn't take advantage of it anyway.
    Maybe if I lived on a big street near a center of commerce or something... but I don't think folks are gonna sit around with their laptops at the fishing tackle store a few doors down and surf the web.

  4. Hmm by .com+b4+.storm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And just what sort of trouble will this get the (many) people in who have connections like Comcast, where you're not even supposed to share within your house without paying for extra IPs (yeah right), much less with neighbors and passers-by?

    --
    "Wow, you're like some kind of superhero able to ward off happiness and success at every turn."
    -- Ryan Stiles
  5. Re:A quick note by Jesrad · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In my country the ISP loses its right to enforce reselling conditions on the access service (or any service or product, for that matter) the moment I buy it. It's called "first sale exception", I think. It allows people to resell whatever they have however they see fit, even electric power.

    On the other hand, a lawyer might argue that I'd have to resell the entire service and not use it ever after...

    --
    Maybe we deserve this world ?
  6. Some remarks after testing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Hi there,

    Some remarks that needed comments after I tested this:
    - Auto-updating is a feature that Mac people like, but you can turn it off...
    - Inside the LinSpot application directory is a directory structure which looks like a mini *nix distro, this contains Apache and the other mentioned applications, but also others such as wget...

    It differs from NoCatAuth in the following way:
    - roaming between all LinSpots (I guess that's also the reason why they have to fix the prices - but as they state, they want the prices to go down and charge $2.5 for 2 hours till $25 for one month). Didn't test it between different countries though... yet ;-)
    - users gaining access on the network get immediately the registration page when the browser tries to access their homepage (I guess that's why they use the DNS and proxy). After the first page selection, there's immediately the PayPal screen - a quick process!

    And they paid my tests within a day (only bought 2 hours).