Not that I want to scare you away from the idea of an open free wireless meshed network (a mouthful), but something to keep in mind, although all still theoretical:
The epidemic model developed by the study’s authors – Hao Hu, Steven Myers, Vittoria Colizza and Alessandro Vespignani – suggests that several tens of thousands of routers could be infected with a worm within two weeks, most of them even within two days. To avoid the potential distribution of these so far only theoretical flying worms, users should be forced to change the default password of their router’s configuration interface and to enable WPA functionality with passwords which cannot be guessed.
Read on at Heise-Security.
Sascha Meinrath has posted a call for panels for the 2008 IS4CWN:
CALL FOR PANELS — Due March 31, 2008
International Summit for Community Wireless Networks
May 28-30, 2008, Washington, DC
Send panel proposals and questions to: summit@chambana.net
Since the first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks in 2004, hundreds of community Internet and municipal broadband initiatives have sprung up around the globe. Internet access is increasingly important to all facets of civil society, but many communities are being left out of this communications revolution. “High-speed broadband access is the electricity of the 21st century, yet many rural and poorer urban communities are being left off the grid,” says Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, a DC-based policy think-tank. “The innovators and organizers at the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks are blazing the trail to make broadband affordable and available to everyone.”
The 2008 summit will be co-hosted by the world’s largest general scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and continue its tradition of featuring wireless leaders, innovators, activists, and community networking visionaries from around the globe.
The Summit focuses on how wireless networks can better serve their target populations, the policies needed to support broader deployment of community wireless systems, and the latest technological and software innovations in the field. “Wireless networking is about far more than Internet connectivity,” states Sascha Meinrath, Summit Director. “It’s about building next-generation multi-media services for communities, fostering social and economic justice, and facilitating a vibrant arts and cultural scene.”
We invite your panel proposals and participation in this year’s International Summit for Community Wireless Networks to discuss and exchange ideas on how to make universal broadband access a reality. More information will be available soon at: www.wirelesssummit.org.
Anyone any ideas? Call for papers.
What happens when a group of gadget loving web geeks get inspired? They start a quiet revolution in their backyard. That’s what happened after Mark Pesce’s “Mob rules” keynote presentation at Web Directions South late last year, where he described people as the network, and presented the little Meraki’s, allowing you to easily share your internet connection. These $US49 ($55) wireless devices offer the ability to create wi-fi mesh networks that link Meraki to Meraki (as a repeater) until the devices find a gateway with an internet connection. That’s what sets it apart from most other wireless routers. Meraki has its roots at MIT, and are as such the commercial implementation of the MIT Roofnet mesh routing protocol. They are cheap, offer reliable performance and are easy to use. They need very little end user configuration, which is handled through a back-end management/monitoring system hosted at Meraki.
Of course you could open up any regular wireless router too, but most of them miss the user management offered by Meraki. It provides basic system statistics, connected MAC addresses and computer names, and bandwidth usage. In its Standard edition it offers bandwidth throttling and you can block any abusive users. On the Pro edition you can set different tiers with different limits.
But why open your wireless network to begin with? Didn’t we all learn to use WEP at first (which was broken pretty quickly) and now WPA2? As security guru Bruce Schneier (CTO of BT Counterpane) wrote in the January edition of Wired, it’s basic politeness, it’s the neighbourly thing to do. In his “Steal This Wi-Fi / My Open Wireless Network” article he gives his thoughts on open and secured wi-fi and explains why his wireless network is open for everyone to use, and has since generated a lot of controversy. It comes down to the fact that your own pc needs to be secure to begin with. Of course the nay-sayers have valid points too, about leaching, illegal downloads, liability, and those are probably the biggest hurdles in setting up a community driven, free wireless network. Free for people to use occasionally, paid for by me, sharing my monthly bandwidth allowance.
But Meraki offers both options, so you have an open network section, and for yourself you can use the WPA2 enabled private section. It also has a feature to block all traffic going to the local LAN, to alleviate people’s concerns about “guests” being able to connect to the people’s private LANs.
In the end, Meraki’s are a means to an end. There are other options available (Fon, Open-Mesh), which miss some of Meraki’s features or are not mature enough. Meraki’s run on Linux and are pretty hackable (“We would like to encourage you to play with this platform and add your own features to it”). You can SSH into it and add iptables rules if required. And if you’re willing to void the warranty, you can replace it’s firmware with a more secure, more open version like ROBIN.
It’s early days. You don’t change things by doing nothing.
Bruce Schneier: My Open Network
Sunday, Jan 13th, 2008
Categories: FAQ
Another fine article by NathanaelB over at FreeCanberraWireless about Merakis and security.
ZDNet Australia’s Jo Best asks herself “There’s no such thing as a free lunch, so the old adage goes — but is there such a thing as free Wi-Fi?”, comparing FON to Meraki:
Fon has a slightly different take. Like Meraki, it sells routers to encourage users to pass on their Wi-Fi, but there’s no mesh involved. Fon users — so-called Foneros — offer to make their Wi-Fi available to others. Passers-by in need of a hotspot can buy some time on Foneros’ connections much like they would in a Starbucks or an airport, albeit a bit cheaper. The Fonero and Fon itself then get to split the revenue between them.
Read on at ZDNet.com.au.
Thursday, Jan 10th, 2008
Categories: Media
Bruce Schneier, security guru, talks about his own open wifi network at home in this Wired article:
“To me, it’s basic politeness. Providing internet access to guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a hot cup of tea. But to some observers, it’s both wrong and dangerous.
…
Similarly, I appreciate an open network when I am otherwise without bandwidth. If someone were using my network to the point that it affected my own traffic or if some neighbor kid was dinking around, I might want to do something about it; but as long as we’re all polite, why should this concern me? Pay it forward, I say.
…
In my opinion, securing my wireless network isn’t worth it. And I appreciate everyone else who keeps an open wireless network. You all make the world a better place.”
He also talks about legal implications, when people would abuse your connection.
Follow the discussion on Digg and SlashDot.
Sydney Morning Herald journalist Nick Galvin peeps into the future and discusses ten things he thinks will change our future, including Mark Pesce’s Mob Rules, and Meraki:
“Put several Merakis together in a neighbourhood and they will instantly form a “mesh” network, giving internet access to anyone in the area. These ‘guerilla’ networks are beginning to spring up in cities around the world, driven by people for whom internet access is a social-equity issue.”
Another thing I’m looking forward to is a Chumby…
Read on SMH.com.au.
As the Google/Earthlink plan for a free ad-sponsored wifi network last year fell through in San Francisco, Meraki steps up its effort and is to expand its current network of 500 repeaters covering 40.000 users in a few neighborhoods, to a city-wide deployment of 15.000 devices, offering 1Mb/s speeds. As other US municipal wifi networks got canceled or postponed, San Francisco would be the showpiece for the company to use to attract business elsewhere. In the 500 days since Meraki got started, they are present in over 70 countries (including Australia of course).
Read the full article on SFGate/San Francisco:
“After a tough year for municipal wireless in which projects in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago were canceled or postponed, cities have been looking for alternatives, said wireless consultant Craig Settles of Oakland. The Meraki example in San Francisco could inspire communities to look at such a low-cost approach in lieu of larger, more expensive networks.“
Through Engadget.
And Wired.