[CWN-Summit] Slurpr, Michigan Arrest, and the impact on community wireless

[David Young]

On Wed, Jun 06, 2007 at 01:26:54PM -0400, Harold Feld wrote:
> http://www.wetmachine.com/totsf/item/816
> 
> Briefly, I argue that the recent arrest in Michigan of a man who used 
> an open access point associated with a coffee shop from his car on 
> the sidewalk is contrary to general principles of law and bad 
> policy.  I also discuss how the advent of Slurpr and the increase in 
> wifi enabled phones make it critical we get this right -- and soon.

Harold,

This brings to mind two of my frustrations with WiFi access points.

First, the access controls are not as fine-grained as they could be.
I would be pleased to provide Internet access to my neighbors if I could
prioritize my own use---I am, after all, the one who pays for it---and
protect my LAN.  I have heard that there is a Belkin wireless router that
provides two virtual wireless networks.  The first network has privacy and
authentication; it lets the owner access his home LAN and the Internet.
The second network is public.  It lets the neighbors access to the
Internet, only.  I wish that the feature was more widespread.

Second, I believe that even if I do not want to share my LAN or
my Internet connection, I should be able to share the AP's built-in
"radio relay" capability with the neighbors.  (Why, maybe my AP should
be required to offer that service, if it transmits over a certain power
level?)  It will be a boon for community wireless if all of the neighbor's
APs are relays, because it becomes possible to extend the reach of any
station on a community mesh using a technique such as Matt Westervelt's
"OPN".

Dave

-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
dyoung at ojctech.com      Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933 ext 24