I think we could gain a lot by studying EDUROAM, the system by which academics share their network connections. As far as I can tell, it is the largest "grass root" Wi-Fi sharing network in production today.
EDUROAM uses 802.1x authentication over 802.11, and uses backend interconnections between the universities authentication servers to ensure that a researcher visiting a campus can connect to the local network using their "home" credentials. This means users have an identity for the network, which definitely mitigates the "swat team in the morning" issue. The presence of the interconnection also means that the visitor gets some assurance of connecting to a legitimate network, not an "evil twin." Of course, EDUROAM solve a slightly different problem than open wireless. University campuses have staffs of network operators, maintain servers, etc. But I wonder whether we could devise something similar using only software in the "open wireless" access points, and maybe a light weight backend service that would check registration of the access points in the open wireless system. -- Christian Huitema _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list [email protected] https://srv1.openwireless.org/mailman/listinfo/tech
