Wireless Freenets As The Parasitic Grid

Lester67 writes: "Infoworld has a pretty cool article on the "the Parasitic Grid," which is basically people (mainly in large cities) opening up their high-speed access through 802.11b to anyone that wants to use it, and how it may threaten telecom profits. One guy has a pretty interesting use for a Pringles(tm) can too (but only after you've removed your hand)." This article ties together several of the recent stories on free-for-all community networking, and fits in nicely with the recent post on bridging networks with 802.11b.

a nice perk

[caseydk]

Imagine if apartment complexes began offering this as a simple perk to residence... Yes, we'll let you pay an additional 10/month to rent this card that will allow your computer to have wireless internet access...

Then you need a few techies to be willing to help set up the system... i know that i would be willing to accept a modest rent decrease in order to help supply some of the basic setup... for the long term, another solution would be required, but it's a nice way to start...

Bad idea

[eyrich]

So what happens when one of the parasites starts uploading child porn? Who do you think the FBI will arrest first?

Re:a nice perk

[Luminous]

I recently moved into an apartment building that has never had any broadband access (no one has installed DSL and the cable isn't digital). As I was setting up the DSL service, I realized at a slight extra cost, I could provide wireless access to all the residents.

I'm actually going to present this to my management company and see if this is a perquisite they are willing to offer or if they would mind my going door-to-door and charging a small fee to run an apartment network.

If I were a landlord, I'd be all over this. No cables being pulled through my walls (okay, some wiring may be necessary for quality of service issues) and a selling point only upscale building have.

So how does one go about organizing?

[Anonymous Coward]

I just set up an "open" WLAN access point. So how does one go about organising this "parasite" network?

There is a database at http://www.shmoo.com/gawd/ [shmoo.com] but it doesn't seem to be well frequented. I live in Germany. There are only 3 entries :-(. I know that just about every Technical University in the country has lans, as well as tons of companys that don't have any security at all.

We need:
1) a quasi standard setup
2) a database with a map an geo data for organising everything
3) publicity

what do you think?

Liability

[Bronz]

I have one major concern on these wireless freenets... what happens when the freak who lives in a van down by the river pulls up outside of my pad, taps into my wireless access point, and starts threatening the big Dubbaya, or maybe arranges for some kiddie porn or something. Isn't there a fear of being the last identifiable link in the chain, and assuming liability for letting people use your connection?

Washington Square Park/NYCWIRELESS.NET

[toupsie]

Just last night I took my TiPB [apple.com] (Apple Titanium Powerbook) to Washington Square Park (NYU Campus [nyu.edu]) and hooked into the NYCWireless free 802.11b network (link [nycwireless.net]) at the northeast end of the park using my AirPort card [apple.com]. This was the first time I tried out one of these "Parasitic Grids". I was quite impressed. Sitting out on the grass (ignoring the guys selling grass [marijuana.com]), I was surfing Slashdot, downloading updates to Fink [sourceforge.net] and chattin' with my friends on IRC. I was quite impressed with the speed of my connection (about 36kps) and my ability to roam from spot to spot in the grass in order to hear the guy playing violin better. Being able to take my computer into the great outdoors, tuning into a free wireless network and getting work/fun done to me has to be one of the best advancements in computers yet. Now the computer does not dictate the environment it works in, I do.

On a side note, any coffee shop that wants to kick Starbuck's ass ought to buy a cheap DSL line/Cable modem and hang a 802.11b base station and give away free bandwidth for the cost of a $4.95 mocha carmel frappa latte skim half-caf double-decaf cappachino.

Many problems; few solutions: a flaiming rant.

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's inject a little reality into this pipe dream before it get's completely out of hand.

First, you can't put more than three 802.11b access points within signaling range before they start stepping on eachother, reduceing througput to nil. That has the effect of not allowing you to adequatly plan a "grid" in the first place. Do you think anyone who buys 802.11b technology is going to opt-in for more gear that uses another frequency range (which would be required to successfuly build a grid assuming that the proper signal usage/propagation studies had been professionally done in the first place)? No, they're not, because they're going to be pissed off after three of their neighbors decided to do the same thing they're doing. I wouldn't be suprised if 802.11b ends up having the range of bluetooth after 5 years.

Second, telecos aren't going to wait for "law makers to do something about it... they'll just deploy 802.11b themselves and shit on everyone's day (far cheaper than lobbing). Don't believe me? Check this (from the NZNOG (high clue factor) mailing list):

> From: "Neil"
> Subject: CLEAR Net Tempest
> To:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Has anyone else had any problems with Clear's 802.11 wireless
> internet service (http://www.clear.net.nz/services/tempest.html) as
> a source of interference? They have just done a rollout in Rotorua
> and totally stoped 3 separate wireless networks that had been running
> together nicely for the past year or two.
>
> [...]

So there you have it... NZ is not exactly the world's most densely populated piece of land. So, if this trend has *started* in NZ, you can count on it having already happened where *you* live. Go spend some time on the wireless ISP mailing lists. If you started monitoring the number of "Help, I'm being stepped on by a freenet AP with a 500mw amp attached to an 18db antenna", you'd begin to understand just how unviable (for freenets *or* ISPs) this technology is.

Third (it's a technical nit, but an important one), I'm getting sick and tired of "technology reporters" refering to 802.11b as five times faster than this or that and refering to 802.11b as "wireless ethernet". Anyone who's used it knows you'll be lucky to see 400kbs... and it degrades quickly when more users are added (any wonder why the low end APs are limited to ~15 stations?)

Finally, anyone who puts up a freenet or even a private use access point without WEP/SSID broadcast en/disabled deserves to have the feds kick their door in when some shit-stain manages to get into .smil through some misconfigured .mil network using *your* wireless gateway.

Also, why bother doing anything organized. Anyone with a modest clue can look at GAWD, or any of the other misconfigured accesspoint documentation projects, and realize that the key is not in being organized, but disorganized and completely clueless. If freenets want to succeed (and fail at the same time), they'll hand out, like candy, access points to the most clueless mofos they can find.

Folks, 802.11b has *serious* scalablity problems. Anyone planning to "build a grid" using 802.11b is doomed to failure. It was designed to solve the "ugly wires in the house" problem, not the "last mile" problem. Oh, sure, there are a few free nets operating out there and I really do wish them luck with their growth, but their eventual destination is cobled together network that preforms poorly under the best conditions. I espically get a kick out of those who are talking about "roaming across the grid".

Basically anything above 900mhz that's non-FHSS sucks so increadibly badly that those who opt-in on this technology are going to end up pissed off... eventually.