[MLB-WIRELESS] What about?? Was.. RE: Free access to Uni networks?

[KevinL]

I like this idea.  I can see a few potential problems:

1) We'd need a checklist of items for securing a network, so people knew
what to do - for instance, I'd have no idea how to secure a Mac with an
airport, beyond switching WEP on (which, for all it's faults, does at
least mean people have to make a small effort to connect to your
network).  Are we talking MAC address restrictions?  We'd have to teach
them how to manage them for new machines etc.

2) Whoever does it would have to be platform-agnostic - no going in and
saying "of course, a linux box would be much better than that windoze
thing you've got" - even if it's true ;)  People string together
networks with what they've got, and you'd have to respect that.  Unless
they asked, of course... ;)

3) Potential liability - you'd want to be clear this is a
person-to-person helping hand, no liability accepted kind of thing, in
case it all goes horribly wrong and someone tries to sue for badly setup
security or something.

Otherwise, yeah, I'd say just knock on people's doors and say "I noticed
you had a wireless access point, I belong to a community group looking
to connect wireless access points around melbourne, would you be
interested in chatting about how you can better secure your own network
and maybe connect to others doing the same thing?"  Or thereabouts.

KevinL

On Fri, 2002-09-06 at 09:54, Matt wrote:
> I've noticed a lot more networks popping up in my area recently. A lot of 
> them have WEP enabled on them (but I really don't see the point of that).
> 
> Maybe we could try promoting a standard? We could offer our services to 
> small companies / people wanting to set up a wireless lan. Show them how to 
> secure the network sensibly (ie not WEP). In return we ask them to route to 
> the wireless network, set up standard essid's etc.
> 
> I have a feeling that in a few years (or less) the noise level is going to 
> knock out a lot of the medium to long distance links (at least where I 
> live) unless we start to cooperate with other users of the frequency.
> 
> But how do you approach the locals? Knock on someones door and say "I 
> noticed you are running a wireless network....."
> 
> Oh, hey, if the Myretsu guy in Fitzroy is still on the mailing list, send 
> me an email.
> 
> Matt
> 
> 
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