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Open Park Project Gives Free Wi-Fi to Capitol Hill
mindless4210 writes "The Open Park Project has made free Wi-Fi internet access available to anyone around the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and Capitol Visitor's Center. "It's a hotspot for democracy," said Greg Staple, Open Park's co-founder. The non-profit organization has also received a significant donation of Wi-Fi equipment from Tropos Networks, which it plans to use to establish a mesh of free hotspots across the National Mall."
#1 Capitol Hill -- How's that for Free Speech!
What kind of bandwidth can you get on the WiFi, measured by Libraries of Congress?
First correct reply gets a cookie.
now I can receive SPAM while I am around Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and Capitol Visitor's Center.
On the positive side, I can go in the supreme court sue the spammer.
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
Than the democrats judiciary server :P
...it's being monitored by the gummint? ;)
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
What a soundbite!
Starbucks is going to lose some business.
Hordes of geeky types hanging around the Mall with their laptops trying to hack into Senator's and each other's PCs.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Now I can anonymously hack into the government while sitting right in front of a government building!
Now all we need is extended battery life, or add some more outdoor outlets so not to drain on my battery :-0
"free Wi-Fi internet access available to anyone around the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and Capitol Visitor's Center."
That's all we need: A flock of music pirates, child porographers, warez people, movie pirates, huge doom or quake mulitplayers all in one area...
Hmmm actually, it sounds like a party, lets go!
How exactly is it a hotspot for democracy?
Time to get the nice 10db 802.11 antenna up on the jeep, park nearby and soak up the packets!
1.) Park Car/hangout with laptop, with linux->kismet->dsniff
2.) Soak up logins/passwords, web surfing (pr0n), instant messaging habits of congressmen, aids, lobbyists etc
3.) PROFIT!
Sounds like a prime location for some internal investigating...Maybe the FBI has a wireless varient of the "Carnivore" blackbox.
Creative Demolition
Bad speller.. Who cares... maybe that is why no one cares about my hot spot.
how much money does it cost to use?
Get paid to read spam
So give us details, man! Address, SSID, encryption key. I'll submit the story myself.
One of the arguments for government censorship of broadcast television and radio is 'pervasiveness'. That is, since radio and television broadcast signals can come into the home 'uninvited' and received into the eyes and ears of children, the government must provide a filter. As free Wi-Fi access points like this become more ubiquitous, giving internet access a similar pervasiveness, it will be interesting to see if internet censorship gains more support.
Hotspot number 5,000,001 opens in Anytown, USA.
Imagine all the unecrypted government secrets floating around.
It's time to wardrive for fun and secrets!
They've been pretty dangerous with LANs, I don't want to think about open/poorly encrypted WiFi.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Just some interesting points from their AUP:
"Open Park supports the free flow of information and ideas over the Internet." but conversely
"THE USE OF THE SERVICE FOR THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES IS PROHIBITED:"
* "Obscene or Indecent Speech or Materials"
* "Defamatory or Abusive Language" (we aren't allowed to swear?)
* "Forging of Headers" does this mean I can't change my User Agent ID to pretend to be M$IE?
* "Hacking" - I can't program?!? oh wait they mean cracking: "Accessing illegally or without authorization computers, accounts, equipment or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another system." but for some reason it doesn't allow alot of network diagnostic tools to be used: "This includes any activity...including, but not limited to, port scans, stealthscans, or other information gathering activity."
---
It seems to be the following would be more appropriate: You are not to use our network to do anything illegal or take "actions that may lead to liability for Open Park".
Why can't they just say that instead of all this legalese mumbo jumbo?
groklaw, wired and slashdot. The holy trinity of work based time wasting.
Lots of folks besides the USG will have their ears perked right up. Israel, China, and the Soviets come to mind.
Like the terrorists and our other enemies won't be sifting through that network data looking for gold.
Sorry, maybe I read too much bad sci-fi. It just seems to me that this free stuff, while it might be a wonderful thing, could be used against someone pretty easily.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Congresspeople and their staffs aren't going to be using this for Internet access, people. It's for tourists and such. Capitol Hill and most of non-residential northwest DC are pretty rife with hotspots already, anyways.
Mad props to the first person who warchalks the reflecting pool when it's drained...
All's true that is mistrusted
This is good, but I can't wait until WiFi coverage is as ubiquitous as, say, cell phone coverage. I wouldn't mind paying a per-packet fee for near universal wireless access. Who will fund this project? My guess would be wireless providers, they already have their foot in the door.
;-P
That said, some issues must be solved first. WiFi security is still too lax, and uneducated users only make it worse. We need a truly idiot-proof security protocol - the problem is that idiots are so ingenious
Head downtown! Stick your hand in the jar! Tasty! Jailed! Arrowed!
Senators got needs too!
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
WiFi hotspots downtown were virtually non-existent for a long time. I don't really think these are going to get used by anyone for business, though. Probably more geared for tourists, like everything in DC.
...it'll be Chinese tourists and their Pringles cans.
I noticed after I clicked on the link "free Wi-Fi internet access available" my Norton AV said it quarantined the Trojan Virus Trojan.Mitglieder.I located in my IE Temp folder.
So clicked back twice to get my default webpage, I cleared my cached internet files, clicked on my Slashdot fav link, and then on the link in the story again. Immediately again, Norton pops up and says it quarantined that Trojan.
Is anyone else having this happen from this Dailywireless.com webpage?
"If it's got a switch... it's my bitch!!"
Skip this whole wireless internet thing. I want to donate money to a literacy fund to help the Supreme Court Justices read the Constitution they are supposed to be protecting. Maybe if that's successful we can raise money for Congress and the President too!
Leave no politician behind!
SetupWeasel
www.setupweasel.com
Hey, maybe we could go over there and hook up to the wifi connection and share some songs via P2P. That way the RIAA will try to sue the government, and the government will realize just how stupid the RIAA is acting.
You know, this open parks idea is such a stupid waste of resources. (hold on that flame bate just a sec please)...
There are so many reasons why this is as romantic and ill advised as a manned mission to Mars. While it seems like a geeks dream to have the best of both worlds: being outside yet still completely immersed in your own anti-social world, here are some reasons why this is soooo misguided.
1. People generally go to parks to get out. This means generally doing something they cant get from being indoors. Other than cruzing the internet for a restaurant location, browsing is not high on the parks use list.
2. When people go the park it is generally sunny. Until my laptop/pda has a dual "digital ink"/lcd monitor I cant see a thing on my computer in the sun.
3. Sometimes it rains in the park. Nuf said.
4. Wireless networks are more useful in the office and home where you want ot be able to set up a computer with network service ad hoc without the hastle of having to run 20 feet of wire to the nearest router.
5. FREE Wireless could be most useful in helping break the rediculous monopolies on broadband access that the cable and dsl companies hold.
Thanks for holding, and sorry about the spelling issues.
I'd like to know how I'm supposed to access free WiFi if I don't have a laptop. Some of us poor college students can only afford an old K6-2 500 MHz machine that only has an ethernet card because someone gave it to me (it's not actually that bad, but close). I think that they should worry about getting people the technology first, and then worry about utilizing it to the fullest. I really think that projects like this as weel as the government should be more worried about suppling something like free dialup or discounted computers to people who can't afford it.
that the politicians will only be using this as a way to get online, not actually use it for networking for private documents.
...the testing grounds for "Carnivore II".
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
It is also the weaker of the arguments. While some radio waves come into you house uninvited, they are not recieved by your eyes unless you deliberately invite the signal to be displayed on your television. Really what this argument is saying is that it is okay to sell whatever you want but should be restricted from giving certain things away, which is rubbish.
The stronger argument is that the broadcast frequencies are limited resource owned collectively by the people and thus regulated according to the will of the people.
With broadcast television, only one person can broadcast on a single frequency, and thus the number of broadcasters is limited. Therfore, content is also limited and thus suitable to be regulated by the will of the people.
However, this is not the case with the WiFi. While the airwaves it is using are a limited resource, the content is not. Therefore regulating the proper use of the airwaves is justified, but regulating the content is not.
Furthermore, the very fact that there are a limited number of broadcast TV, and an unlimited number of websites makes it possible to censor broadcast TV and makes completely impossible to censor the web. So not only is the argument flawed, any attempts to do so will have no real effect (except for creating more unevenly applied laws).
If anyone living near the capital, let bittorent via wifi
Yeah - uh, I mean that some focus should be given to creating a public wireless network that reaches homes and offices. I'm a little bias since I am in NYC, but at least in dense urban areas there would be a high return on investment. I would be happy to give my $600 a year in cable fees to a public wireless project that reaches residences. While its FREE in the parks its not going to be widely used.
...ok...now I am putting myself to sleep.
I do stand corrected - slightly. I forgot about the great use of having a wireless network for rapid assembly/ group mobilization. Protests using wireless to dynamically adjust to changing security/ police opression conditions would be interesting. If you had the coordination.
now our congress-aliens can sit in the park, with 10 security agents of course and work remotely, that is if they can in fact operate a computer. What is gonna be even more fun is when the RIAA sue's someone using one of those IP's for music pirating :) That might be the ONLY to get congress out of the RIAA's back-pocket, have them bite the hand that is force feeding them like barn raised veal...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Try loitering in this neighborhood in a parked car, with some funny/suspicious looking dohicky on the roof, while staring intently at an unseen gizmo in your lap, and you'll get a visit from some armed friends in less time than it takes you to yell "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"
And you should see what they do to the poor saps that accidentally come into the neighborhood in a rented moving van. Hoo boy!
A bunch of geeks with laptops in a park? Never mind the hacking - this sounds like a hotspot to get yourself mugged.
Now we can get webcams set up by the various protest groups, whining and moaning about this or that. I live around DC, and the phrase that comes to mind is: If they call it tourist season, how come you cant shoot them?
I'd like to have a setup where you have an AP with 2 antennas: an 11b for providing access to clients, and an 11a for talking to other mesh nodes (for eventual connection to the rest of the world). Preferably, have automatic setup, path discovery, encryption between the nodes (to prevent spoofing), etc.
i see what you mean...i misunderstood your post!
Do they sell Doritoes on the Mall?
Websense: "www.openpark.org" is blocked due to adult content
Thanks, Websense, for saving me from finding out about free wi-fi access! Whew, that was CLOSE...
--RJ
I can see it now, people sitting there typing away on their laptops and some Kite comes crashing down on them.
Yup, won't see that one coming. LOL
Plus w/ the Washington Monument closed off for a while, kinda limits you to just the Mall. Great there goes my commute. LOL
Oooo! WiFi on the National Mall! Big deal!? What about pulling down those damn fences so people can actually use the National Mall around the Washington Monument?!
Parent has never been to the DC mall.. this is our capital! There are police officers everywhere. And lots of people. Mugging is for lonely spots.