people paying for service expect better service. Regardless, the owness is on the user to come up with a good way to send mail that is divorced from the access provider.
I think you hit the nail on the head with that last comment. I would take it one step further and apply this rule to ALL traffic. The way to accomplish this is via encrypted vpn, which inherently solves numerous present day problems with public wifi access. Basically, if hotspot providers - free, pay or otherwise - began a norm of only allowing vpn tunnel access rather than all raw ip traffic, I believe everyone would benefit. Here are a few of the advantages-
I agree with you in principle. Personally, I ensure that all my traffic is encrypted with the exception of some general web browsing. Still, ubiquitous VPN doesn't exist. What does the MSN or AOL user do now? He/she doesn't have control.
In this scenario, wardriving spammers, hackers, copyright violators, kiddy porn downloaders, terrorists etc. who connect wirelessly are all beyond possible identification by the last-mile provider.
Not necessarily. There are ways to enforce some kind of traceable access. Even if you offer free or almost free (really cheap) service, you can require a credit card. A valid credit card does provide a level of authorization and traceability.
This responsibility is kicked upstream to the vpn endpoint provider (VISP?). For instance, have any landline telco's been subpoenaed by the RIAA for harbouring downloaders?
Hardly.
I can only assume current ISP's will be adopting this end-point role in an attempt to retain ownership of their current user base...hmmm
Bandwidth and access are both commodities now so your point is well taken. But the ISPs don't offer a service to secure and control access.
Also, there are several decent wireless specific vpn products out in the market now based on SSL, TLS, etc. I have tested the Net Motion offering and am impressed with its ability to accommodate IP address changes on the fly without crashing applications. (Windows only unfortunately) Makes for great inter-hotspot roaming..
But it requires custom client software, right? Have you tried to support a group of nontechnical users? Just getting them to insert their 802.11b cards at the right time in the install process is a challenge. Setting the RTS/CTS value to 256 to reduce the hidden terminal problem ... hahahahahaha.
This is all virgin territory.
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Brian Lloyd 6501 Red Hook Plaza, Suite 201 [EMAIL PROTECTED] St. Thomas, VI 00802 +1.340.998.9447 - voice +1.360.838.9669 - fax GMT-4
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