Don't be too sure about this. No one knows for sure what Google's rules are at this point. Google changed the rules about linking only a few months ago. I'm an SEO professional, and I think this strategy would be worth a try. Research J C Penny and their SEO efforts. They got slammed about a year ago for spammy links and everything was pretty well documented in the media. Just do what they did and point the links to the negative site.

Rather than go the 'official' route, I'd recommend doing a community thing.

You can get relatively inexpensive, outdoor rated WiFi repeaters like the Wirie. It has a 1 watt transmitter and a 0.5 watt local transmitter. Run the high speed fiber to your house, sprinkle these around the neighborhood, and you're good to go.Change the WEP password once a month and email it out to all the 'paying' customers, to block people not willing to pay. Make the purchase of the equipment (which has to do with signal quality) the obligation of the end customer. Just put the first one high up on a pole near your house and let all your neighbors know you're open for business.

I've been working on the Free Charge Controller project for the last three years. A charge controller is a black box that sits between a solar panel (or wind turbine) and a load (like a battery) and makes sure the two 'play nice' together.

The project is still very much in it's infancy, but we've been working with Jameco, and electronics part supplier, to create kits. The kit will be launching in the next day or two.

See FreeChargeController.org for more information if any Slashdoters are interested in participating.

I am an electrical engineer, and my guess would be heat. The chip antennas used today in really cheap routers as well as many other electrical components wear out primarily due to heat. Electrical engineers (like me) are notorious for not considering long term heat effects to electronics in their designs.

It's generally a good idea to look at see what others have done before setting off. I also live on my boat, though I stay in inland waters. Here is a cross-section of boaters who are technology savvy and have extensive experience traveling in a boat:

http://nomadness.com/

http://sailingsimplicity.com/

http://sanjuansufficiency.com/ Cheers!

I've had a couple businesses where I incorporated right off the bat. Ultimately, it was expensive and the overhead hurt my business. Like you, I am in a consulting business at the moment. Three months into it, I still have not registered the business.

I don't need the overhead, I don't need the liability protection, and I don't need to waste time right now filling out forms and keeping the State happy. I need to focus on keeping my customers happy and making money. If I manage to net $10K or more this year on this side business, then I'll register. Otherwise I would just be making a lot of extra work for myself.

Make sure that your business is going to succeed - because unregistering a corporation is expensive and usually even more time consuming that registering it in the first place.

I've used Yahoo Groups for the Free Charge Controller open source project for the last two years, and I've had nothing but good experiences with it. Granted, my user base is much smaller and 'active' is a strong word to use for the group.