Good starting point is http://www.freenetworks.org/ I know consume.net in the UK are still trying to answer some of these questions, especially the legal bits (everything else can be cobbled together from open source software quite easily). For a while it looked like they would need to have a full Telecommunications License, which is mega-big bucks. However, I think I'm just outside their coverage at the moment, so I've stopped listening ... :-)
Can you share it - yes, enable IP routing on your machine. Can I track it - yes, especially with ipfw counters Can I restrict it - yes, with ipfw dummynet Act as an ISP? - yes, use a radius authentication server, hooked to some interesting db of clients (ldap recommended :-) Is it legal? - that I don't know. The "ether" is free, at least in some bandwidths. However, nothing stops other people transmitting on the same spectrum, which could reduce your effective bandwidth down to zero. In a dense office environment, no-one gets 11Mbps from their wireless lan, because of all the other wireless lans in the area "overlapping". Simple authentication keeps freeloaders off your network, but nothing stops them from using up your "signal space". -jim, wired and happy ... but occasionally trippy ... and not from caffeine! I'd probably wireless my home, but I'd need to see what the local 802.11b environment was like first. Ho hum. On Fri, Mar 21, 2003 at 03:31:30PM +1200, Brad Beveridge wrote: > I'm not sure really... In terms of the community that is starting based around the > port hills antenna, I get the impression that it is simply a WLAN - ie access only > to what people on the net want to share from their PC's harddrives - so there is no > bandwidth that needs to be paid for really. > However, I don't see why somebody on the WLAN network couldn't expose their box as a > gateway & allow their internet connection to be shared. > This brings up an interesting point - lets say I have joined this network & have > some broadband connection I am willing to share, here are a few questions to the > list: > - Can I share it? I'll assume yes, because my PC is just acting as a > gateway/router. > - Can I track internet usage from the WLAN? > - Can I restrict the volume from the WLAN going through the net? > - Is there linux software that essentially allows me to act as an ISP? > - Is this legal (ISP terms & conditions I guess) > > Anyhow, if I can get a connection to this WLAN from my place, I will be trying to do > all of the above. > Comments/suggestions? > > Cheers > Brad > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Paul [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Saturday, 22 March 2003 3:20 a.m. > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: Re: Wireless networks > > > > > > How does the wireless net thing work? Do people just let > > others have free > > bandwidth? can anybody connect? > > > > -Paul > > > >
